Fluxmeister

This is far from a professional review, but I figure it's always interesting for people to read opinions and thoughts on a game... There may be some errors and unprofessional writing techniques... what fun would it be without these?

I wrote this for my new board which is completely empty... in an attempt to add content...

Still Life Review

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Still Life is an adventure game that appears to use the exact same engine as Syberia I & II. (considering they are all by Microids... that makes sense)

Game Play
Still Life is a basic point and click adventure game with very limited character interaction. The dialog options are not options at all. To fake you out, they have a mouse on the screen where both left or right mouse buttons are enabled. You end up going through all the potential lines anyway... so it's just a distraction/interaction to keep the player involved. The interface is very basic as the mouse changes to different icons as you move it around over the background.

The new concept of the interface is the location interactivity indicators that appear in the top left/right of the screen. Depending on where your character on the screen is they may or may not appear. Actual interaction via items is accomplished almost completely through the inventory screen where you randomly press the use button(hopefully you are near something to use it on... you can't tell as you're in the inventory screen). This is not true a hundred percent of the time. For some reason there are points where you select an item for use and actually return to the game interface to select where the item is used. The game also fails to train the gamer. There are puzzles/mysteries that have to be solved by battling with the confusing interface. If you play through the game, be sure to randomly look at the items in your inventory, rotate them, and click the "eye" button. This actually only applies in one place in the entire game. One mark of a decent adventure game is where all the tools and thought processes are given to you in some kind of subtle nature. Can you imagine an RTS without a tutorial? This game felt very inconsistent in the interface arena.

For some reason the main character(s) like to take strange paths at times. This results in your character sliding along the boundaries of the given screen at a snails pace trying to go to the destination. While this is nothing new when it comes to adventure games, it certainly stands out.

Story/Adventure

The story of the game is that there is a serial killer on the loose and the main character, Victoria McPherson, is out to catch him/her/it. While it may be a very minor spoiler, you end up playing as both Victoria and her Grandfather following the same kind of serial killer case. Unfortunately if it is not obvious from my minor spoiler... well you can figure it out. I actually enjoyed the story more by not knowing a thing about the game at all. I found the Longest Journey and Syberia much more interesting having read no reviews at all.

The various stories in the game are weaved together effectively and make for an interesting experience. Fortunately not everything is outright predictable so you can count on some surprises, unless of course you try to think of every possibility while playing. I find that when I play these games I usually avoid trying to think too far ahead, making surprises more interesting.

One major drawback of the game is that it is short. A couple of the puzzles will consume more time than entire chapters of the game if you are not very quick with solutions. Even with listening to all the dialog, the game is less than 8 hours long... maybe even less (I finished it in about 3 evenings).

Characters

Unlike most adventure games, which often consist of a large cast, this one maintains a small diverse group. Unfortunately the only memorable characters are the two main characters, the killer, and maybe Clarice... only because she has a lot of lines... One major drawback is that none of the external characters ever do anything in the game. They are simply there to be interacted with. The killer, and the two main characters do plenty of things, while the others appear to stand around waiting for you.

This game appears to be more story-driven, with more events than character interactions. This is curse or a blessing depending on how your memory works when you think of adventure games you have played through... will you remember events and visuals? ... or will you remember characters and interactions?

Items

Like another adventure game, Legacy(which was pretty much awful), you have access to crime scene data collection tools. Both games use these items for about 2 minutes and are never seen again. I found this to be the opposite of what I would have preferred as the main character is an investigator. The one saving grace for Still Life was the repeated use of finger printing. I do not want to indicate that it is the most exciting activity in the world, but it certainly did help to maintain the investigative nature of the game.

Puzzles

Fortunately the game only consists of a few pain in the ... puzzles. For the most part there are item puzzles (which are hardly puzzles really...)

Here's some notes on some easy/hard puzzles you will find...

Lock pick - I imagine this is the puzzle that will stump the most people for the longest. This is what walkthroughs are for... unfortunately this puzzle is probably a bit much for the casual and semi-hardcore adventure player.

Making Gingerbread Men - I do not know the associations between spices and human characteristics... This reminded me of the whale sounds puzzle from Journey to the Center of the Earth which required a doctorate in marine biology... I understand that making difficult puzzles is fun and everything... but know your audience.

3/5 Puzzle - This has to be the most common puzzle in an adventure game. "Get 4L of water using only 3 and 5 liter buckets." I already knew the solution from Knights of the Old Republic, and probably from a million other places, so I guess it was a nice test of my memory.

Presentation: Graphics/Art/Music/etc.

This is one of the few games where I actually felt the graphics were too important to skimp on. The artwork shown in the game is incredible. Many of them are familiar to existing works. Daniel Perron (sp?) obviously is talented and was inspired to create unique and disturbing imagery. As for the rest of the game it is a bit gruesome at times. This has little affect on me thanks to the horror movies of the last twenty years...

The movie sequences are well done visually. I felt the encoding could have been much better, resulting in fewer artifacts. It is a shame when such great 3D animation is spoiled by Atari sized blocks of solid colors.

I honestly have little to say for the music. It was interesting that the music chagned dramatically whenever an important area was entered... otherwise I hardly noticed the music. It never felt out of place, so that's a big plus I guess...

Overall

I was surprised to see the review on Adventure Gamers give Still Life 4.5 stars (out of 5). The reviewer is not the same as the person who reviewed Syberia, so I cannot make too many comments comparing the two. Syberia I & II are better games than Still Life. Still Life is tight and grimy with lots of action and violence (still form or acted out). Syberia is an open adventure with exploration, beauty, and unique characters. I felt that Syberia is a better experience overall and is much more accessible by a larger audience. ... so enough comparing apples to oranges...

Still Life was an enjoyable experience. I wouldn't categorize it as much of an adventure though... The visuals and story telling are well done. Unfortunately the interface and some of the obnoxious puzzles can hurt the flow of the game.

Final Score: 3.5/5.0 (following the Adventure Gamers scoring method)