Adventure Gamers - Forums

wisnoskij - 05 March 2013 01:14 PM

Paradise is misunderstood. It is the most story oriented Sokal adventure and the one with undeniable the best story. It starts out incredibly slow (and boring), and this is 100% necessary for the story. To me it is the absolute best Sokal adventure and is a more mature, developed Syberia. Yes there are loads of bugs, and I had to keep changing settings and installed and uninstalling patches, but it is still playable.

I totally agree

Monolith - 04 March 2013 03:42 PM

To this day I still remember Sinking Island perfectly. For something that shouldn’t have been so memorable, it did a good job.

That is exactly how i fell about paradise, when i first finished the game, i thought it was quite mediocre, but the more i thought about it and the more time it had to sink in, the more and more it left a deep impact on me.

Like all (the best) of Sokal’s adventures it is very metaphorically and symbolic, and it is very much about the Felling of Africa for better and worse (there will be blood), i don’t know how to describe it better. And i don’t think you can tell such a story in a more conventional way, the story needs time to unfold and it needs time to set the whole setting and mood of the game, and it needs to have a slow pace, so yes it is boring in the beginning, but if it wasn’t then it wouldn’t have been the same. (Being bored isn’t always a bad thing)

So if you can live with possible game breaking bugs, a high amount of flaws, a boring beginning, and an overall slow paced game, then i can highly recommend you give it a try. (Or give it a second try TimovieMan)

Edit: I might add that you shouldn’t read the review her on AG, it contains too many spoilers.

Edit again: I might also add, that one of the best books i have ever read, also had an extremely boring beginning, and at the first try i gave up after about 150 pages. Years later i gave it a second try, got past the boring part, and suddenly it hit me right in solar plexus.
I guess this is the nature of great art, it is not always easily accessible, you often have to struggle with it, and it is not for everybody.

Edit one last time: Delete a section, because i realized my memory isn’t what it used to be - Sigh

My mistake, there was something that i remembered as being revealed later in the game, but according to a quick check, it is actually told early in the game.

Iznogood -

(Being bored isn’t always a bad thing)

It is for me.
I make a BIG distinction between just being “slow” and being “boring”. Slow I can handle, in fact it’s often preferred, as it allows you to gradually get to know the characters and the situations before things start happening.
Boring usually means that the writing is generic at best, and that the characters leave you so cold that you just don’t care about their situation at all. Boring is very bad.

Iznogood -

(Or give it a second try TimovieMan)

I might, but only AFTER I’ve played the Syberia games and only IF they blow me away. It goes without saying, that if Syberia only invokes an Agustín Cordes reaction from me, then I’m not going within a mile of a Benoît Sokal game ever again…

Iznogood -

I might also add, that one of the best books i have ever read, also had an extremely boring beginning, and at the first try i gave up after about 150 pages. Years later i gave it a second try, got past the boring part, and suddenly it hit me right in solar plexus.

Then you’re a better man than I. I wouldn’t quit after 150 pages of ‘slow’, but I’m not sure I’d even last 150 pages of ‘boring’ before throwing the book in a fire. And I definitely wouldn’t give it a second chance, no matter how awesome the rest might be…

Don’t get me wrong, Sinking Island had many flaws making it a pretty terrible game. But it was also pretty awesome. The setting, the characters, the mechanics all combined to make a psuedo-realistic experience. I have Paradise sitting here, but I haven’t found myself ready to settle down and play it, like so many other adventures I have. lol

Nice insight Iznogood.