Posted By: CraigR
Is Paradise worth the trouble? - 07/23/07 07:52 PM
I found Paradise in a discount bin at Big Lots for $6.00 so I figured it was worth a try. I didn't have the machine to run Paradise when it was first released, so I didn't pay much attention to it then. But I recently upgraded my PC, and I loved AmerZone, Syberia, and Syberia II.
So I was REALLY pumped and excited about Paradise.
So far it has been a serious letdown.
Paradise needs like 2-3 times the machine that Syberia needed, yet looks worse than Syberia (Paradise looks dull, fuzzy and washed out while Syberia looks crisp and clear), and Paradise runs much worse than Syberia (Mouse cursor stutters around sometimes, menus slow to load/unload, etc).
But I could tolerate this if the story or puzzles were top rate.
So far they aren't.
I spent four straight evenings trying to get to the Prince on the first level. Solving the puzzles was more a brute-force "do everything, try everything, talk to everybody approach" than a deductive solving of the puzzles. I can live with this if the game mechanics make it quick and easy to move around and try things.
Sadly this was not the case either. Lots and lots of intermediate screens with nothing important on them. I'm sure the game designers were hoping to "Wow" the gamer with the lovely setting. Instead they were washed-out dull looking scenes often shown at odd camera angles. And all these extra scenes did was slow me down as I went back-and-forth trying different things to move the game along.
And on some of the puzzles on the first level I had to resort to a walkthrough (which I hate doing because it spoils the fun of adventure games for me). Once I saw the solutions I often said to myself, "I'd have to do a Vulcan mind-meld with the game designers so I could read their minds to figure that one out!!"
But I've endured games with poor gameplay and Vulcan mind-meld puzzles if the story grabs me.
Well the story so far seems very piecemeal and not at all captivating like AmerZone and Syberia I/II.
So after griping about how bad the first level of Paradise has been, I have a couple simple questions...
Does it get any better? Is it worth the effort?
If so, then I'll bear with the bad until I hit the good.
If not, I'll uninstall Paradise and just be thankful I didn't pay full retail for it.
Thanks,
Craig
So I was REALLY pumped and excited about Paradise.
So far it has been a serious letdown.
Paradise needs like 2-3 times the machine that Syberia needed, yet looks worse than Syberia (Paradise looks dull, fuzzy and washed out while Syberia looks crisp and clear), and Paradise runs much worse than Syberia (Mouse cursor stutters around sometimes, menus slow to load/unload, etc).
But I could tolerate this if the story or puzzles were top rate.
So far they aren't.
I spent four straight evenings trying to get to the Prince on the first level. Solving the puzzles was more a brute-force "do everything, try everything, talk to everybody approach" than a deductive solving of the puzzles. I can live with this if the game mechanics make it quick and easy to move around and try things.
Sadly this was not the case either. Lots and lots of intermediate screens with nothing important on them. I'm sure the game designers were hoping to "Wow" the gamer with the lovely setting. Instead they were washed-out dull looking scenes often shown at odd camera angles. And all these extra scenes did was slow me down as I went back-and-forth trying different things to move the game along.
And on some of the puzzles on the first level I had to resort to a walkthrough (which I hate doing because it spoils the fun of adventure games for me). Once I saw the solutions I often said to myself, "I'd have to do a Vulcan mind-meld with the game designers so I could read their minds to figure that one out!!"
But I've endured games with poor gameplay and Vulcan mind-meld puzzles if the story grabs me.
Well the story so far seems very piecemeal and not at all captivating like AmerZone and Syberia I/II.
So after griping about how bad the first level of Paradise has been, I have a couple simple questions...
Does it get any better? Is it worth the effort?
If so, then I'll bear with the bad until I hit the good.
If not, I'll uninstall Paradise and just be thankful I didn't pay full retail for it.
Thanks,
Craig