This is easily one of the best Point & Click Graphic Adventures of all times.
I played nearly 60 games from this genre and in my point ofThis is easily one of the best Point & Click Graphic Adventures of all times.
I played nearly 60 games from this genre and in my point of view it has the best story of them all. Even I can't think of a single game at all that has a better story.
Roberta Williams, the director and writer of the game series blends in a very suspenseful and intriguing mix of horror, mystery and real historic elements. And it is obvious that she did a lot of research for the writing and visited all of the locations it plays in.
In a greater context, from my point of view, the story is on par with the Harry Potter series, the Lord of the Rings and X-Files (although this is not science fiction).
This is one of the best examples of Full Motion Video (FMV). It has a great cast of real live actors and was filmed on original locations in germany. For example the castle Neu Schwanstein in Bayern. the cutscenes where entirely filmed and the main game plays on 2D backgrounds that are edited from photographs in a very good quality, compared to other games that use a similar technique. And boy does it have a lot of videos. Every dialog choice was fiilmed!
From a todays perspective you could argue that the gameplay has it's flaws. But it serves the storytelling well. It's mostly a mixture of dialog choice, spotting things on the background, takeing objects and combining them with other objects in your inventory or on the screen or with people. The problem is it is sometimes not obvious which objects to combine or what spot on the screen did I miss to progress in the story, which leads to trial and error.
Technically the game is dated, like a lot of games from that period (1995) because the video quality and resolution is low. It is one of the earlier Windows 95 games. This game deserves a new digitalization of the source material!
From my point of view this game should be on the list of the very best games of all times. And it's a shame that this game is such an underdog and other games get so much hype. Everyone that's interested in the art of video games should get a copy of it and play it. And if the gameplay is not yours, find a walkthrouh online to progress in the game.
It's the story that matters here not the gameplay!
P.S. As a note to Roberta Williams: Please travel around the world more, do history research on the places you love, get a good team and make us a worthy 4th entry to the series. We love your art. It's a shame that it doesn't get the attention it deserves in todays internet!… Expand
