[mgeorge]

As the title implies, I normally don’t play adventure games. I guess the closest I’ve come would be Indigo Prophecy, which I personally enjoyed, however there seems to be some debate as to whether that is a “real” adventure game. I did play Amber Journeys Beyond after purchasing my first computer in 1998 or 99, but other than that I’m a greenhorn in this genre.

So onto the review. I picked up the game at my local Gamespot. I was actually looking for Still Life as I had played the demo for that and liked it, but the store was sorely lacking in AG’s, so took what I could get. By looking at the box, it seemed to be a sci fi setting which was fine with me. I knew it was an AG from mentions of it around the web, but that was about all I knew about it.

It comes on a DVD, and installation was pain free and easy. The game opens with a very interesting cut scene which I found quite intriguing. It’s set in a future where greed and selfishness are considered good qualities in a human being. The world is pretty much free of disease and crime although it came at a price. I would advise anyone that does play the game to make sure and look at all the signs scattered throughout the game. These signs may not be integral to actually playing the game, but give some great background info, which in my case hooked me on the story. I won’t go into the plot any further as I believe the gamer would benefit by gleaning this information on their own.

I will say the basic premise of the game is this. You play as peace officer Phoenix Wallis, (a very attractive girl I might add), and are tasked with solving a murder case, something quite rare in this version of the near future. There’s a lot of dialog in the game and the bulk of it has you trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together by talking to various characters. The dialog tree is interesting as you’re given options to which questions you want to ask, but only allowed a certain number on a daily basis. Therefore if you ask the wrong questions, you can miss out on some useful information. Not game breaking I don’t believe, but important in the context of the story. You can usually go back and talk to the person again the next day, but many times the questions you’re allowed to ask have changed from the previous day so it’s a good idea to really think about which questions to ask when initially talking to someone, as the game scores you on how fast your able to solve the case as I found out later.

There are some side quests with one in particular that stands out. Although this quest leaves many unanswered questions not resolved in this game, I for one would love to see a continuation of the story with a sequel.

The graphics while not state of the art, are passable and I thought the interface was fine as well. Phoenix has a PC that has a variety of functions that serve as a way to solve puzzles and further the plot which I found a very cool idea too. The voice acting on the part of Phoenix was fine, as well as her boss, but the voices of some of the other characters you encounter in the game are almost laughable there’re so bad. Many of them sound totally bored by what they are given to say, which did ruin some of the immersion as far as I’m concerned. I also found the music somewhat bland and forgettable and the ambient sounds fair at best. Not bad, just not good.

The puzzles are a variety of all kinds of things, and many of them just plain nonsensical in my humble opinion. I am inept at puzzles, I will freely admit that, but there were several in the game that gave you no clue how to solve that I could find. In these I had to resort to a walkthrough, and even after reading the solution, still couldn’t see the logic. There was one in particular that had Phoenix breaking into a store to see the proprietor which included one of those annoying, (to me anyway) lock puzzles. This made absolutely no sense in the context of the story as she’s supposed to be an officer of the law.

All in all though I thoroughly enjoyed the game, mostly because of the interesting story and game world. I found the last third of the game really picked up as far as pacing goes too, and was actually clicking madly to see what might happen next. This was something that caught me off guard, as I honestly never expected to get so enthralled with an adventure game, coming from much more of an FPS background. So even though I found some flaws in the game, would still give it a solid B.

Too bad those pesky puzzles get in the way of the story!

BTW; I failed the game. That’s right, I didn’t solve the crime! It’s embarrassing but I didn’t. My closet rival did. I somehow missed a very important clue earlier in the game, (just plain stupidity on my part), and was summoned to my boss’s office just before gathering a vital piece of evidence, was informed of my idiocy, and…. Game over! And this to me was brilliant! Absolutely freakin brilliant. I blew it and got what I deserved. For this I give the devs credit for having the guts have you play a whole game and then tell you that you suck at it. Of course it tells you to be more careful and try again, and you know what? Sometime in the next year or so I’m going to do exactly that.

[misslilo]

Wow.
For a non AG gamer to give a review like this, I simply have to applaud you.

It's been a while since I played it, but I do remember I too got sucked in by the story, the plot and the world it was set in.
Many people have sort of trashed the game, which to me is a shame.
Sure there are a few places it has some flaws, but that didn't ruin the gameplay at all for me.

We the early gamers were also hit by a few bugs (before before the patches came out), but whaddayaknow - the devs came on board this forum and helped us. A nice touch indeed!

[Sar]

Mgeorge, That's great! I played the game four times and never got that ending. Scores ranged from 97 down to 85 a result of trying different directions. I take it the little weasel who worked under Phoenix solved it, ouch!

[mgeorge]

Originally Posted by Sar

Mgeorge, That's great! I played the game four times and never got that ending. Scores ranged from 97 down to 85 a result of trying different directions. I take it the little weasel who worked under Phoenix solved it, ouch!

Haha. That's just goes to show how dumb I am. I'm so dumb I didn't even get a score! But you know what? It didn't take away any enjoyment of the game for me at all. As a matter of fact it added to my experience because it was so unexpected.

And yes the little weasel did solve it. The arrogant SOB.

I also should have mentioned that I did have one serious tech issues with the game, where I was crashing at a very important part of the game.

Spoiler:

finding the cigarettes at the crash site

, but found by uninstalling then reinstalling, it fixed it. I finished the game unpatched because I was afraid that the patch had something to do with the crash.

I have one question though for people that did solve it. (which I'm sure probably 99% of you experienced AG ers did do). Are there really different endings? I knew the game was somewhat non-linear just because of the way it's set up, but wasn't aware that this was a possibility.

[smulan]

Originally Posted by mgeorge

Are there really different endings?

hmmm, haven't this thread just showed that there are?

Anyway, CI is one of the great AG:s, glad you enjoyed it.

[mgeorge]

Originally Posted by smulan

hmmm, haven't this thread just showed that there are?

Anyway, CI is one of the great AG:s, glad you enjoyed it.

Well I understand that there are different endings as pointed out by Sar. What I'm wondering is if it drastically changes the way the story unfolds. If so I may not wait, and just replay it now rather than later.

You guys have to remember that I'm much more used to saving the world by my lonesome and mindlessly killing and blowing stuff up.

I'm not accustomed to this crazy concept of "thinking" in a video game.

[Sar]

Mgeorge, so not to spoil it for you, I'll generalize and in a spoiler.

Spoiler:

When Phoenix selects the correct bad guy she gets a warrant issued. Then she gets to interrogate him. It is included in a long cut scene followed up with the boss giving her a promotion. Then our girl is flown off to a rogue state where she is to head up an investigation with the rogue state police. guess it is the set up for the sequel. The developers promised the sequel will follow the format of this game in game play mechanics. It was a good ending one that will satisfy.

[mgeorge]

Originally Posted by Sar

Mgeorge, so not to spoil it for you, I'll generalize and in a spoiler.

Spoiler:

When Phoenix selects the correct bad guy she gets a warrant issued. Then she gets to interrogate him. It is included in a long cut scene followed up with the boss giving her a promotion. Then our girl is flown off to a rogue state where she is to head up an investigation with the rogue state police. guess it is the set up for the sequel. The developers promised the sequel will follow the format of this game in game play mechanics. It was a good ending one that will satisfy.

Thanks for that Sar, although I'm not sure I should have read it lol. Now however I'm definately going to replay the game which suprises even myself because I never replay a game so soon after finishing it. However this game for some reason stuck with me after finishing it, and it very well may be fun to see how much the game changes making different choices.

I think some of the mistakes I made was by thinking as I would, instead of thinking the way Phoenix might. In other words I need to role play and put myself in her shoes, it being a different society and culture and ask questions accordingly.

I'm glad to hear there're planning on a sequel. The game really needs one. And if they do, they had better include more about the

Spoiler:

Renovators

.

[Sar]

The developers of the game have responded to players both here and over at gameboomers. They have been very helpful and I believe they did say that feature you asked about would be addressed.

[Trumgottist]

I've not played the game, but I'd like to pose a question to those who have:

Originally Posted by mgeorge

The dialog tree is interesting as you’re given options to which questions you want to ask, but only allowed a certain number on a daily basis. Therefore if you ask the wrong questions, you can miss out on some useful information.

This is unusual (and interesting). How did it work, i.e. was it a good thing?

[Shany]

In my opinion it was both a good and a bad thing -
It made you think about what you want to ask people about, and how to address them - for example you shouldn't address the psychiatrist informally, or ask about things that are irrelevant to the case.

But it didn't really matter in the long run - if you were supposed to find something out and didn't ask the right questions, you'll just have to revisit the person and talk to them until you find what you need.

It also got very repetitive - with every new person you meet you get several similar options, and most of them are relevant to your case.
It's not easy to figure out what kind of information you'll need from which person - for example, a coworker may know more about a person's personal relationships than his business partners, though it makes less sense.

[Trumgottist]

Would you like to see more games utilising a similar system?

[Shany]

Personally, no.
If I'm into a game then I want to be able to hear all the dialogue there is.
If I'm not into a game then I don't much care what's being said anyway.

I like the idea of there being consequences to what you say and how you say it, but being limited on how much you can ask doesn't work.