Posted By: oldmariner
Heaven - 09/12/09 02:37 PM
Heaven
I normally do not include opinion in games I review. As I said before who cares what I think. You want to know what the game is like. Does it work? Are there glitches? What is wrong, what is right, etc. But I will start with this, I hate puzzle games! Give me a good story with interesting characters not a bunch of puzzles for the sake of puzzles. I bought this game on preorder and within a short time before I finished it I put it up for sale. That certainly speaks well for the game doesn't it? Not really, because as I said I hate puzzle games and this thing is not exactly Gabriel Knight 1-2 or 3. You can tell Myst is not in my collection, there is no room on the shelf between Gabriel, Tex, April and Phoenix for this. With that out of the way and the bias kicked aside, lets look at the game. I managed to sell it a few hours before I finished it. Luckily the post office is closed on Sunday so I kept banging at it.
The Graphics are great with the game flowing easily without glitches and your grandmother looks great. This is in first person, point and click with 3d interface. You can look in any direction you want. There was no quick sudden scene changes common with first person 3d. That gets a plus, quite a few things get a plus. It is a good looking game, oh I said that. Those of you who complain about conversation will love this game. Besides God bless you or Praise Jesus there are not a lot of wasted words. There is a lot of humming though. But the burning question the one that has all the opinions flying around. Is it really short? No easy answer there, it depends upon how quickly you grasp the puzzle mechanics and what you have to do. There is some help with the compass and the guide saying, "go that way." But truthfully without it you may not ever figure out what you are trying to do. I consider that another plus. There were no mazes but walking back and forth over and over again may well be considered a maze. There are many interesting views to be had but not a lot to investigate or examine closely. This frustrated many who commented on the game.
The object of the game is quite simple, you died and went to heaven as evidenced by your grandmother looking like Barbie and now serving as your guide. If you think about it, things could be worse. You need to advance through the six levels of heaven to reach the seventh, the pearly gates. To advance you have to solve a puzzle to open that gate. What is maddening is you have no inventory. That is not so bad in regard of hauling everything you see all over the place but! It is nasty that when you pick something up to use in a puzzle you can't see it. You can in fact think you picked up said object walk some distance to find you don't really have it. Now then nobody tells you exactly what goes with what, you have to search around looking for clues to sort all of this out. Now is that an easy puzzle? Some have complained of how it was elementary. Me it took three days.
There are in all five puzzles with the added bonus of one that you don't know is a puzzle. That is until you float around and around sitting behind Barbie to discover you are going in circles. Barbie suddenly tells you "we should go there." Then you think, "Oh I gotta do something! You mean I'm driving from the back of the horse?". To answer the question is this game as short as some people have complained. Yes and No! Big help, it simply comes down to how well you anaylize puzzles. This game took me longer than several others that were of mid length. But as I said I am slow with puzzles, I don't like them. I only finished this because it infuriated me to a point I decided this thing ain't gonna win. There was no walkthrough, no hints no nothing. To get even I wrote a walk through which may be seen soon, then again?
What about the preaching we hear infuriates so many. I say it is about going to heaven and if they let you in don'tcha think some angel is going to say "praise god?" Seriously though, your grandmother says, praise God and spits out some platitudes every so often. With that said it is not a revival meeting. Come on be serious, complain about things like that when video games raise mayhem featuring blood and guts. We have vampires, axe murders and all kinds of violence. To tell the truth with that in mind Heaven does not look so bad.
Basically it is a good looking game that plays without glitches. There is no conversation tree, no mazes, no timed puzzles, no action based quick reflex stuff. There is of course the infurriating issue of only one auto. Save at closing, one that overwrites itself. When you re-engage you start where you left off, no do overs. You have one save, that's it. But I bet the creative in you have already figured out the work around, havn't you? I won't give it a grade because it is not fair since I hate puzzle games. But it is not bad, really it isn't. For me it was not short for you it depends on how you relate to puzzles. There are seven levels five with a not too easy puzzle to solve, some with a real brain teaser and a sixth that is hardly a puzzle. With that definitve answer and the fact it took me close to twenty hours because I'm slow witted I will give it a thumbs up, if you can get it on sale because the premium price is troubling.
I normally do not include opinion in games I review. As I said before who cares what I think. You want to know what the game is like. Does it work? Are there glitches? What is wrong, what is right, etc. But I will start with this, I hate puzzle games! Give me a good story with interesting characters not a bunch of puzzles for the sake of puzzles. I bought this game on preorder and within a short time before I finished it I put it up for sale. That certainly speaks well for the game doesn't it? Not really, because as I said I hate puzzle games and this thing is not exactly Gabriel Knight 1-2 or 3. You can tell Myst is not in my collection, there is no room on the shelf between Gabriel, Tex, April and Phoenix for this. With that out of the way and the bias kicked aside, lets look at the game. I managed to sell it a few hours before I finished it. Luckily the post office is closed on Sunday so I kept banging at it.
The Graphics are great with the game flowing easily without glitches and your grandmother looks great. This is in first person, point and click with 3d interface. You can look in any direction you want. There was no quick sudden scene changes common with first person 3d. That gets a plus, quite a few things get a plus. It is a good looking game, oh I said that. Those of you who complain about conversation will love this game. Besides God bless you or Praise Jesus there are not a lot of wasted words. There is a lot of humming though. But the burning question the one that has all the opinions flying around. Is it really short? No easy answer there, it depends upon how quickly you grasp the puzzle mechanics and what you have to do. There is some help with the compass and the guide saying, "go that way." But truthfully without it you may not ever figure out what you are trying to do. I consider that another plus. There were no mazes but walking back and forth over and over again may well be considered a maze. There are many interesting views to be had but not a lot to investigate or examine closely. This frustrated many who commented on the game.
The object of the game is quite simple, you died and went to heaven as evidenced by your grandmother looking like Barbie and now serving as your guide. If you think about it, things could be worse. You need to advance through the six levels of heaven to reach the seventh, the pearly gates. To advance you have to solve a puzzle to open that gate. What is maddening is you have no inventory. That is not so bad in regard of hauling everything you see all over the place but! It is nasty that when you pick something up to use in a puzzle you can't see it. You can in fact think you picked up said object walk some distance to find you don't really have it.
Click to reveal..
There are in all five puzzles with the added bonus of one that you don't know is a puzzle. That is until you float around and around sitting behind Barbie to discover you are going in circles. Barbie suddenly tells you "we should go there." Then you think, "Oh I gotta do something! You mean I'm driving from the back of the horse?". To answer the question is this game as short as some people have complained. Yes and No! Big help, it simply comes down to how well you anaylize puzzles. This game took me longer than several others that were of mid length. But as I said I am slow with puzzles, I don't like them. I only finished this because it infuriated me to a point I decided this thing ain't gonna win. There was no walkthrough, no hints no nothing. To get even I wrote a walk through which may be seen soon, then again?
What about the preaching we hear infuriates so many. I say it is about going to heaven and if they let you in don'tcha think some angel is going to say "praise god?" Seriously though, your grandmother says, praise God and spits out some platitudes every so often. With that said it is not a revival meeting. Come on be serious, complain about things like that when video games raise mayhem featuring blood and guts. We have vampires, axe murders and all kinds of violence. To tell the truth with that in mind Heaven does not look so bad.
Basically it is a good looking game that plays without glitches. There is no conversation tree, no mazes, no timed puzzles, no action based quick reflex stuff. There is of course the infurriating issue of only one auto. Save at closing, one that overwrites itself. When you re-engage you start where you left off, no do overs. You have one save, that's it. But I bet the creative in you have already figured out the work around, havn't you? I won't give it a grade because it is not fair since I hate puzzle games. But it is not bad, really it isn't. For me it was not short for you it depends on how you relate to puzzles. There are seven levels five with a not too easy puzzle to solve, some with a real brain teaser and a sixth that is hardly a puzzle. With that definitve answer and the fact it took me close to twenty hours because I'm slow witted I will give it a thumbs up, if you can get it on sale because the premium price is troubling.