Samarkand

Year - 2009
Length - Short
Engine - AGS
Suitability Factors - N/A

Samarkand, created by Babar Ahmed Kemal, was the winner of the October 2009 MAGS competition. The topic of 'Steampunk' was perhaps taken to it's most distant limits, but this short Arabian Loom-like title was still more than worthy of it's victory.

Story

As an unnamed traveller in the city of Samarkand, the protagonist has travelled a great distance to hear the song of a particularly talented songstress. However, with her beauty not going unnoticed by the King, she is captured for his court before the song is finished. The protagonist fears that he must find and rescue the songstress if he is to ever hear her song again.

The underlying premise of the story is based on whether the reason for saving another life affects the value and importance of the act. This seems a thoroughly interesting idea, but unfortunately the issue doesn't appear to be explored as deeply as the beginning of the game suggests it might be.

Nevertheless, the story is still entertaining enough. The thoughts of the main character are conveyed well, while the game's dialogue is well written and feels authentic to the gameworld. And that gameworld is an interesting one. The city of Samarkand is unlike any other city - for the power of music has been harnessed by one of it's residents, and it is now stringed instruments that are the primary provider of energy.




Atmosphere

Talking of music, the piece that accompanies the game's introduction is perfect for drawing the player into the Arabian setting of Samarkand. This musical style is employed throughout the game, however the main tune is a little more dull in comparison.

Visually the game is simple but effective. The city's architecture looks genuine, and along with the well drawn and attired character sprites, does a good job of immersing the player in the gameworld. Despite also utilising a minimalistic style, the cut-scenes look great too.

Perhaps just as big a draw into the world of Samarkand is the aforementioned writing. It seems as though genuine thought has gone into making the dialogue original, and the game's ability to hold firmly onto the players interest increases greatly as a result.




Gameplay

There are only a small number of puzzles in Samarkand. The few that do exist are of a very low difficulty level, requiring the player to make use of a system similar to that seen in the LucasArts classic, Loom. For this, the player needs to pluck the strings of instruments in a certain order to set off whatever action that combination corresponds to.

Now, I'm a firm believer that while innovation can be great, it is not the only solution for improving the current crop of games in the adventure genre. Instead, looking back upon adventures from the past and utilising what made them so great can be just as effective. These things have to be used in the right context and in an appropriate setting, and this is exactly where many games go wrong. Yes, Monkey Island was great. It's inventory puzzles were great too. But that gameplay isn't suitable for all adventure's. And here's my point - it is great to play an adventure game where the gameplay, no matter how little of it there is, fits into the story and gameworld. So what if it is similar, albeit less complex, than a game from twenty years ago? It works, and feels plausible within the context of the game. I would personally like to see more gameplay design take this approach as I genuinely believe better games would be produced as a result.

As already mentioned however, the unfortunate thing about Samarkand's gameplay is that there isn't much of it. In fact, this is true of the game as a whole. It is very short. As a MAGS games this is to be expected, but you can't help but feel that the game has more potential than it's length will allow it to demonstrate. I would love to have been able to explore the strange string-powered city a whole lot more than I was able to.

Finally, it is also worth mentioning that it's possible to die in this game.



Summary

Much to it's credit, Samarkand takes an interesting premise and combines it with relevant gameplay - it's just too bad that the short length of the game prevents it from building on it's promise. Despite this, Samarkand is a MAGS game made in the space of only one month, and it is only fair to judge it as such. On this basis, it is very good indeed and well deserving of your attention. Just prepare yourself to wonder what the game might have been like had the developer had more time at his disposal.

Pros
- Interesting and appropriate puzzles system
- Thought provoking story concept
- Well written
- Simple visual style works well

Cons
- Length of game prevents full potential from being realised in terms of both story and gameplay

Download for free;

Samarkand (Scroll down to last post on page to find download link)

What's This About?

With the realisation that my previous 'What's This About' post was a little abrupt and not entirely useful, I have decided to write a new, slightly more structured piece.

If you are a first time visitor, then welcome. I would recommend you read this post to get a feel for what the blog is about. If you're an old-timer, then thanks for your continued support. Hopefully you'll still find this post mildly interesting and informative.

First things first, given the very positive nature of the content on here, it seems necessary to explain why this is the case. My aim for the blog is as follows;

To inform adventure gamers about freeware games that I feel they may enjoy.

The flip side of this is that I have no desire or intention to try and discourage players from playing games I haven't enjoyed. As such, you will notice that there isn't one negative review on here - if I haven't enjoyed a game, then I won't review it. This doesn't mean I don't attempt to point out a game's flaws and constructively nitpick about how it could have been improved, it just means that the overall tone of each review will be positive in nature. To a certain degree, I will have enjoyed that game. How much so, will hopefully be conveyed in the review.

My reasoning for this outlook is that this blog is about freeware - games that are legally downloadable for no cost. Who am I to try and put down the hard work of the people that slave over these labours of love for no financial gain? Providing that criticism is constructive, I have no problem with dishing it out, however if there are not enough positives to offset that criticism, I feel it unfair to give a review of that game. Now if I were paying for these games, then that would be a different story!

Moving on, the key characteristics of an adventure game are often discussed by fans of the genre. My personal opinion is that the most important elements are; Story, Atmosphere, and Gameplay. Other aspects of importance can likely be classed under one of these three areas. For example, exploration is part of the gameplay, characters part of the story, visuals part of the atmosphere. Of course this isn't a science and there are ambiguities in some areas, e.g. I often find characters have an affect on a game's atmosphere too, but as a basic starting point, I feel this model is nice to work from.

A great story makes the player anxious to find out what will happen next, it's conclusion is anticipated and dreaded in equal measure. The other areas of a game can undoubtedly add to an interesting plot, however it is very unlikely they will make up for the lack of one. As with any other medium, a story written for an adventure game needs to be intriguing, intelligent, well paced, and well written.

A game with a great atmosphere makes the player feel as though they are being drawn into the gameworld. If the atmosphere is unable to immerse the player, he/she will feel disconnected from the game, no matter how enthralling the story is. It is also vitally important that the atmosphere fits the tone of the story. This doesn't just refer to the game's setting, it applies to the characters' actions and dialogue too. Humour is great when used correctly, however when used in the wrong situation it can completely destroy any atmosphere that has been built up to that point.

Finally, great gameplay makes the player feel as though they are not just in the gameworld, but actually affecting it. Ideally, the majority of puzzles will be a part of the story - not merely an artificial challenge with no relevance to the plot. The player should be forced to make important connections using their own mind and the information they have at their disposal. Logical deduction is far more rewarding than the 'try everything on everything' approach. Exploration can also be a key gameplay element, helping to add to the immersion set by the story and atmosphere. This is difficult to achieve in a freeware game however because of the time and monetary constraints the developers are under.

There are of course exceptions, games that are enjoyed despite not following all of my own personal guidelines. As a rule however, I would argue that most of the top adventure games contain these elements.

Here are a few examples of games I perceive as excelling in the three key areas.

Story
Commercial

- Discworld Noir
- Dreamfall
- Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned
- Longest Journey, The
- Moment of Silence, The

Freeware

- Anna
- Ben Jordan Series
- Love and War Act 1
- White Chamber, The

Atmosphere
Commercial

- Black Dahlia
- Discworld Noir
- Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned
- Monkey Island 1-3
- Longest Journey, The
- Scratches

Freeware

- A Second Face: The Eye of Geltz
- Anna
- Ben There, Dan That
- Heed
- La Croix Pan
- McCarthy Chronicles, The
- White Chamber, The

Gameplay
Commercial

- Day of the Tentacle
- Discworld Noir
- Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned
- Quest for Glory 1

Freeware

- ! (Exclamation)
- Nanobots
- Quest for Glory 2 (VGA Remake)

So, that's it. I hope this post hasn't made you drowsy.

Thanks for reading,

JD

Brain Hotel

Year - 2004

Length - Medium
Engine - Flash Based
Suitability Factors - N/A

It would be fair to say that Brain Hotel, a game that can be played either online in your web browser or downloaded and played from your hard-drive (as I did), took me by surprise. Written and directed by Ron 'Aalgar' Watt, and programmed by Mark Darin, Brain Hotel pretty much blew away my preconceptions about flash-based adventure games, although I doubt there are many that live up to the standards of this one.

The game is based on the developer's comic book 'Tales of the Odd', while the programmer is the man responsible for the Nick Bounty series, and the forthcoming (and very promising looking) Nearly Departed.

EDIT: Mark is now a lead writer\designer for Telltale Games, and has been heavily involved in the development of the 'Tales of Monkey Island', and 'Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People' series of games. He has also worked on some of the Sam and Max episodes.

Story

The game had me in it's clutches right from the very start, partly because of the unique comic book introduction to the story's protagonist, but mainly because of the excellent and entertaining writing that accompanied it. I immediately had an interest in the main character and the city he lives in and was eager to learn more.

That city is Fort Burr, and the aforementioned protagonist is Ed Arnold, a down on his luck deliveryman who arrives at the Brain Hotel as it prepares to commence it's annual supervillian convention. While his initial goal is simply to deliver a parcel, Ed soon learns of one of the early arrivals evil schemes, and with minimal help from the villain's artfully rebellious robot, must set about stopping it.

The story's premise is simple, however it is clear that the gameworld is capable of producing something more involving should the developers have wanted it to. Nevertheless, the story presented is still enjoyable enough to prevent these thoughts from occurring until the game is completed.



Atmosphere

While playing, the story's simplicity is masked by the game's overwhelming strength, it's atmosphere. I felt genuinely immersed in the gameworld, all the more surprising given the very bland and unattractive backgrounds that awkwardly contrast the style of the characters. Indeed, while the character sprites themselves look far more stylish and certainly contribute to the vibe the game gives off, it is certainly not the visuals that take responsibility for the atmosphere evoked.

Instead it is the already discussed writing of the game that does the trick. Dialogue is well written and able to maintain a style of it's own throughout the duration - although perhaps the price the player pays for this is the sometimes offbeat and random nature of it. Despite this, the game's sense of humour doesn't feel out of place with the gameworld, and only by playing the game will one know whether the humour is to their liking. It may or may not be an acquired taste, but in places I would venture to say that it at least verges on being so.

Sound plays a role in setting the atmosphere too, with excellent voice-acting and appropriate music. The speech bubbles accompanying dialog also look right at home in the comic-book universe.



Gameplay

The game's puzzles are mostly inventory based, and while some are clever within the gameworld, there are others for which the solution is likely to be stumbled upon rather than discovered through logical thinking (at least that's how it turned out for me). If you do get stuck, the game's writer has taken the time to draw up a progressive hints page which is similar to that used by UHS.

A lack of interactable objects certainly has a negative affect on gameplay, with certain rooms having a decidedly uninteresting array of items available to manipulate.

As for the game's length, you'll probably finish it in one go, although you may get a couple of sittings out of it depending on how quickly you're able to solve the less obvious puzzles.



Summary

A longer game based in Fort Burr with a more engrossing story would have great potential, particularly with livelier and more stylised backgrounds. Nevertheless, as it stands, Brain Hotel is still a fun game in it's own right. The bizarre comic book atmosphere is responsible for that, as is the offbeat humour. Add in some great voice-acting and you have a very enjoyable flash-based adventure game that is well worth playing. Now I wasn't sure that I'd ever be saying that!

Pros
- Great comic-book atmosphere
- Excellent voice-acting
- Strangely funny and interesting world

Cons
- Background objects sometimes sparse
- Backgrounds are bland and contrast awkwardly with character sprites
- More information about wider scope of universe would have been nice

Download for free;

Brain Hotel