Mr Robot

Mr Robot is a homegrown independent game by Sheffield-based Moonpod. It’s a quirky little puzzler set on a spaceship. The script is engaging, the graphics are nice and the puzzles are reasonable. There’s enough of a story lurking in the background to make you want to play a little further. You want to find out what’s really happening around poor lowly Asimov. Plus, you get to push crates onto annoying zappy robots.

I’ll review the full game soon. In the meantime you can download the 25MB demo or watch the trailer with overly dramatic music.

Runaway 2: The Dream of The Turtle

Runaway 2 is the story of Brian and Gina (who has an extremely sexy surname ;) ). It’s a point-and-click adventure game in the traditional style that we all know and love. The graphics are lovely and the scripting is self-referentially amusing. Unfortunately, the demo is marred by that fear of all adventure gamers - there aren’t enough clues to avoid the dreaded try-combining-everything-with-everything-else technique that plagues this genre.

I have to scare away a polar bear. I’ve tried all my actions. I’ve tried everything I’m holding. I’ve tried to pick up everything I can see. I’ve tried every dialogue option with every character I’ve found.

Nothing.

I can only assume that there’s some room I haven’t entered or some object that I haven’t yet noticed. It all boils down to the old pixel-hot-spot-hunting problem. There so much stuff in the screen that I don’t know what’s usable and what’s decorative. A button to highlight useful objects and exits would go a long way. As it is, I’m stuck in the cold watching this damn polar bear and I just don’t care any more.

Try it yourself. Let me know how you did it. You can get the 440MB demo on the official Runaway 2 site. BTW, the voice-acting is very American. You Have Been Warned.

Age Rating: 7+ (PEGI)

What is it?

A spoooooky mystery.

Is it fun?

No.

Is it worth the money? £24.99

No.

Why not?

It’s another in a plethora of stories masquerading as games. They seem to plague the DS. Unfortunately, this story isn’t very good.

You wander around from room to room poking things until you trigger a 5-minute-long chunk of plot exposition-through-dialogue. And not even the kind you can leave playing while you walk away to do something interesting. You have to keep poking options. On the rare occasions that you actually get to do something, it’s trivial and not at all challenging. One memorable scene had me drawing circles on the screen to simulate cranking a wheel that opened a gate. Another had me scrubbing the stylus across the screen to rub rust off a plaque. Whoop-dee doo.

Yes, I know Nintendogs has you scrubbing dirt off a dog. The difference is that Nintendogs gives you positive feedback in the form of a cute puppy that reacts and squirms where you poke it. Scrubbing the plaque in this game was a bit like… scrubbing a plaque. Not just any plaque. A boring plaque. There is the occasional innovative puzzle but they are few and far between. The rest of the game is just too depressing for those moments to help. It has a very annoying design flaw that you can’t actually pick things up until you’ve found where you need them. Cue much frustration as you go “I know I saw a knife somewhere… but where?” and wander slowly from room to room to room.

The story isn’t bad but it’s nothing special either. It’s the tale of a bored child with dead parents who explores a bit, finds a ghost and helps him on his mission while learning a little something about herself along the way. (Why is child-of-dead-parents such a staple of games?) The characters aren’t particularly engaging and dialogue is utilitarian, to say the least. I found that I just didn’t care that much about anyone, unlike Phoenix Wright where everyone has their endearing little quirks.

Young children will enjoy this game, provided they haven’t played many other DS games yet. Everyone else should save their money and get… something else. Anything else.

Links:

Nintendo Europes’s ‘Another Code’ Page

Screenshots:

What is it?
An interactive adventure with a compelling storyline. Also available on Xbox 360.

Is it fun?
It’s… interesting. I wouldn’t say fun.

Is it worth the money? £17.99
No.

Why not?

It’s not a game, it’s an interactive story. And by interactive, I mean that you get the exciting tasks of walking around large areas, carrying objects from one section of the level to another (and back) and, if you’re lucky, the chance to hack into locks through a simple mini-game.

The storyline is entertaining - it’s just not a decent game. There’s hardly any challenge and you get no sense of achievement by playing it. For the most part you’re sitting around watching cut-scenes. You get to choose from dialogue options but it still feels like you’re forced into one outcome.

Also, I finished it in two sittings. Rubbish.

It does, however, make me want a Nabaztag. The characters have this fantastic thing called a “Watilla”. It looks like a friendly miniature gorilla, talks to you, plays games, keeps track of your schedule, tells you when you have messages and reads you the news, like a little purple cuddly feed reader. Plus, it’s super cute, especially when it hums out of boredom :)

On the bright side, this game actually allowed me to use my Thrustmaster Dual Power (mmm, phallic name), so I could sit on the sofa while playing it. Comfy. It was like watching a particularly tiresome film where I had to keep prodding the actors onto their marks.

I did like the way they modelled locations from the previous game, The Longest Journey. I would post comparison screenshots but my ancient Longest Journey discs have grown bored of being cooped up in a drawer with all these newfangled youngster games and retired to Blackpool. Or somewhere. They’ve left the manual behind but that’s not much good to me.

Dreamfall has a good story but a very poor gaming experience. Shoulda made a movie.

Links:
Official Site

Screenshots:

What is it?

A bizarre and wacky adventure game from the creator of Grim Fandango and Full Throttle. UK release date of 03/02/2006

Is it fun?

Yes.

Is it worth the money? (£17.99 from play.com)

Yes, definitely worth the price of a large pizza and chicken strippers from Dominos. Mmm… pizza…

Why?

It has quotes like:

“I hope you learned something today”

“Yes! Shooting things is fun. And useful”

“Uuh… no.”

And

“Now why are you still talkin’ when you could be burnin’ stuff?”

It’s a chirpy light-hearted game where you help Raz (your psychic trainee hero) learn his new skills to earn his Psychonaut merit badges while wandering through bizarre mind-worlds to sort out entanglements in his and his teachers’ brains. These worlds are brilliantly diverse and psychedelic is the only appropriate word for the level designs.

Puzzles are mostly of the shooting or jump-about-platforms variety but with enough mad locations and twisted pathways to keep them interesting. The plotline and one-liners are intriguing enough to keep you going, although if you weren’t amused by the quotes above, this game definitely isn’t for you. I particularly like the freedom you have to explore and collect items - it’s story-driven but you never feel rushed into the next section. There’s always plenty of time to wander around for the scavenger hunt, or stop and chat to your crazy fellow students.

Another very nice point is that the game’s restore points are very conveniently placed, so if you do die you don’t have to play through miles of platform that you’ve already completed just to get back to the tricky part.

Stylish design, entertaining plot and cheesy jokes. Just my thing!

Links:

Official website
Interview with the creator, Tim Schafer

Screenshots: