Fenimore Fillmore’s Revenge,
hereafter known as Revenge, is the third adventure game to feature
our stalwart cowboy hero, Fenimore. This outing begins with a bang, which
continues through to the very end.
“Ok, what’s the story?”
Fenimore
While racing through the red-tinted desert with no particular
destination in mind, Fenimore and his beautiful, curvaceous girlfriend,
Rhiannon, stumble across a gravely wounded man. They stop to help him and
quickly discover their canteen is empty. Fenimore sets off to procure some
of the life giving liquid while Rhiannon stays with the stranger.
Our champion returns to discover that the stranger has died, but not
before giving Rhiannon crucial information as to the whereabouts of some
stolen gold. The proverbial outlaw gang arrives and shoots Fenimore in the
back. After a spirited fight on her part, our feisty heroine is kidnapped,
and so the game begins.
The story is your standard good guy versus bad guy western that we all
know and love. You’ll adventure through a very authentic appearing old
West setting enhanced by background music reminiscent of the Clint
Eastwood spaghetti westerns and accompanied by appropriate environmental
sounds.
“I don’t mind as long as
we are together.” Rhiannon
While the story unfolds along expected lines, Rhiannon’s part is more
reflective of modern sensibilities. She is no shrinking violet waiting
breathlessly for her man to rescue her. This green-eyed, red haired beauty
fights with guts and gusto. So what if certain of her “attributes” are
just a little too prominent, her jeans a lot too tight, and her stance
decidedly bowlegged (even though no other character’s is) -- she is an
equal partner.
“These herbs are having a
strange effect on me.” Carson
I greatly enjoyed her character, but was bothered by Rhiannon’s voice
acting. The other voices, Fenimore, Baker (a reformed outlaw), and
assorted other non-player characters (NPCs), were average, but Rhiannon’s
alone had a fingernails-on-the-blackboard effect on me. This was a bigger
problem than it needed to be, as dialogue and cut scenes cannot be
skipped.
“I’m all right. What’s the
next challenge?” Fenimore
Depending on the stage of the game, the gamer controls either Fenimore
or Rhiannon. Whichever, you’ll encounter mostly inventory type puzzles.
Though no items were truly hidden, several blended a little too well into
the environment and some combinations seemed a bit odd. Though the
graphics are not gory, one demands that you manipulate a dead body. I did
pixel hunt at times, but that was due to the interface, which failed to
give me a pickup icon until I positioned the cursor just so.
Also, there are several timed sequences. I did not find them difficult,
but you can die and I did, often. There are also several shooting
challenges. The first few were easily conquered, but the combination of a
decidedly awkward interface and a much higher degree of difficulty for the
final contest rendered me unable to complete the game on my own (a first
for me). After many hours over several days dying over and over again, I
implored another gamer to step in and save my sanity.
This he did, and he was able to eventually win the battle, but even his
younger fingers and faster twitch response found the controls for this
part of the game aggravating. He specifically bemoaned Fenimore’s lack of
ability to reload his pistol after a kill. Of larger concern was the NPC’s
ability to kill Fenimore from any position, while the player could only
down the bad guy from certain predetermined spots. For instance, several
times, the shooting target was squarely on the chest of the selected NPC
and Fenimore was close enough to touch him, but inexplicably, the NPC was
unhurt even after several shots.
Though for most of the game you can save at will, this did not hold
true for the shooting challenges. So each time Fenimore dies, you must
start the entire sequence over, and over, and over.
There are no color or sound puzzles, no sliders, and no mazes.
“I don’t do that.”
Rhiannon
Now, on to the interface. Revenge is totally point and click.
Right clicking scrolls through the options (look at, pick up, use with)
and left clicking initiates the action. A single left click moves Fenimore/Rhiannon
and a double left click causes them to run.
As mentioned above, you can usually save at will and I did not run out
of save slots. However, I’m not sure if it’s because the save slots are
unlimited or because the game is short. Leaving out the final onerous
shooting scene (oh, if only we could), a seasoned gamer will breeze right
through this one.
Normally, mouse controlled games are easy to use, but I fought the
interface in this game the entire time. I’d click on the arrow on the far
right to move my avatar in that direction and perplexedly watch him/her go
left or to the middle or the back or the front, and vice versa. I’d move
to the far side of the screen to see what was next and indeed, the camera
would swing along but would immediately swing back to center. I could see
needed inventory items or know the next action necessary, but be unable to
get the appropriate icon (use, take) to appear until I moved pixel by
pixel across the object.
I’m firmly convinced that I could have finished the final shooting
scene if I had been able to move with keys and shoot with the mouse. I
tried adjusting for mouse sensitivity in the options menu, but it had no
beneficial effect.
In addition, there is something in this game that does not play well
with my computer as I also experienced a few crashes to desktop.
“I think he’s coming. I’d
better get out of here.” Rhiannon
This was my first experience with Fenimore and it most likely will be
my last. I enjoyed the graphics and the music and was glad to play a game
where the story actually ended when the game did. However, the
difficulties I had with the interface combined with the vexatious final
shooting sequence -- as well as not being able to skip dialogue or cut
scenes -- just made playing this game more work than having fun ought to
be.
Grade: C+
Short List:
Third person adventure game
Mouse controlled
Difficulties with hot spots
appearing
Inconsistencies in camera
angles and control as well as with character movement
Background music harks back to
old westerns
Classic story
Voice acting average with one
exception, which grated on my ear
Inventory puzzles
No sound or color dependent
puzzles
No sliders
No mazes
Shooting mini games with one
extremely difficult level
You can save at will (except
during shooting tests)
Short in length if you leave
out time spent shooting
You can die
Timed sequences, though the
time is usually sufficient
Subtitles available
I played on a computer with the following specifications:
OS: Win XP Professional SP3
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad
CPU @ 2.40 GHz
Ram: 3.25GB Dual Channel DDR2
667 w/ECC 2-DIMMs
Gx card: nVidia GE Force 8800
GTS
Sound card: Creative Labs Sound
Blaster X-FI Xtreme Music
April, 2009
design copyright©
2009
GameBoomers
Group
