Strong Badia the Free Review
By Chris Watters
Posted Sep 16, 2008 7:01 pm PT
Improved gameplay structure makes for a markedly better--and funnier--second episode.
When Strong Bad made his episodic-gaming debut last month in Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People: Homestar Ruiner, his signature sense of humor was stretched disappointingly thin across the open-ended structure of the game. The second episode, Strong Badia the Free, has a more linear layout that not only makes for better gameplay, but allows the humor to get a foothold as well. These improvements make this adventure game both funnier and more fun than its predecessor.Read More
Outcry Review
By Brett Todd
Posted Sep 12, 2008 6:05 pm PT
Outcry is one of the more surreal and impenetrable adventure games ever made.
Adventure gamers looking for something off the beaten path get more than they bargain for in Outcry. This point-and-click exercise in the surreal from Russian developer Phantomery Interactive is certainly a step removed from the norm, but it's also so relentlessly strange and impenetrable that it's nearly impossible to play. Style has been elevated over substance in every aspect of the design, resulting in a trippy game that's appealing only for its bizarre atmosphere, philosophical pretensions, and striking visuals.Read More
Spore Review
By Kevin VanOrd
Posted Sep 4, 2008 12:01 am PT
Spore merges multiple run-of-the-mill building blocks into a big, entertaining game.
Spore is an enjoyable game that pulls off an interesting balancing act. On one hand, it lets you create a creature and guide its maturation from a single cell to a galactic civilization through an unusual process of evolutionary development. Because the tools used to create and revise this creature are so robust and amusing, and each creation's charms are so irresistible, it's hard not to get attached to your digital alter ego. On the other hand, this intimacy is abandoned in the long, later portions of the game, when you lead your full-grown civilization in its quest for universal domination. The idea sounds ambitious, though Spore isn't as much a deep game as it is a broad one, culling elements from multiple genres and stripping them down to their simplest forms. By themselves, these elements aren't very remarkable; but within the context of a single, sprawling journey, they complement each other nicely and deliver a myriad of delights.Read More
Murder in the Abbey Review
By Brett Todd
Posted Sep 3, 2008 6:42 pm PT
Murder in the Abbey may not be entirely original, but it's an adventure with a lot of personality.
The odd combination of monks and murder has been a staple of whodunit fiction for decades, so the biggest mystery here is why somebody didn't come up with an adventure game like Murder in the Abbey (known in Europe as simply The Abbey) before now. Developer Crimson Cow delivers a solid take on the murderous monastery minigenre, too, thanks to a smart story and impressively painted scenery populated by cartoonish characters reminiscent of graphic novels. Unimaginative puzzles and some overwritten dialogue make your sleuthing tedious at times, although the adventure still delivers a gripping, sharp-looking trip back to the Middle Ages.Read More
Dracula 3: Path of the Dragon Review
By Brett Todd
Posted Aug 29, 2008 5:25 pm PT
Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon is dreary and dated.
Dracula again? Vampire fatigue is a legitimate feeling that you might encounter when ripping open the shrink-wrap of Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon, given that it seems like Bram Stoker's infamous creature of the night has already been the focus of a lot of adventure games. This latest one, the third in a franchise that started nearly a decade ago with Dracula: Resurrection and Dracula: The Last Sanctuary, doesn't bring much new to the table. Developer Kheops Studio sticks to the ancient adventure-gaming formula that it has specialized in with previous releases such as Return to Mysterious Island and Voyage, and spins a dull yarn in which you research the biggest bloodsucker of them all in 1920s Transylvania. Busywork puzzles and stone-age visuals further drain the rest of the creeps out of this supposedly scary saga, which unfolds more like an uninspired detective story than an ominous encounter with a legendary monster.Read More
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