Lifestream
Focus:
Exploration
Rating: Appropriate for ages 13 and up. Contains some violence and
adult themes.
Story
This is not my typical review. I don’t have to
discuss voice acting, action scenes, or puzzle types that make adventure
players cringe. This is a text adventure game with the advantage of a
point and click interface and good graphics. It’s a hybrid where you can
play a text adventure without typing, and there are puzzles. I have not
played a text or interactive fiction game since way back in the
nineties, I believe at a time when I owned Tandy 1000 machine, well
before Windows.
As the information available states, the length of
the game is eight plus hours of content with over 78,000 words. It is
the text equivalent of a full-length novel! That word count might be the
norm publishers prefer, but I'd rather a novel contain 100,000 words.
But that is neither here nor there. Basic requirements are listed on the
game website. They appear to me to be minimum.
I’ll begin with the story. It is a remake of the
original point and click adventure game from 2004, in text form. I have
not seen that game so I will not comment on how it compares to this
version. Lifestream is billed as containing additional detail and
extended game play, beyond what is found in the original game. The
characters are Father Randolph Holton, who presents as dead, not
physically but emotionally. He is troubled by a spiritual fall years
ago, and now he is missing. Enter the second actor, his son John Holton,
whose existence is the reason the priest is troubled over the state of
his soul.
Read and click through the prologue and see an
elderly man clad in priests' attire, writing at an oak desk. He seems
distressed and anxious, as if he is too deeply invested in whatever he
is writing. See a young man named John Holton waking from a dream in his
bedroom. Learn that his father, Randolph, has been missing and his son
decides to search for him on his own. He learns that his father is a
priest. John can assume he is the man from the earlier scene, so he does
not want to involve police, as priests are supposed to be sworn to
celibacy. The son has questions. We have a book length novel telling
the story, incorporating a mystery while utilizing supernatural
elements. It is a well written story.
Gameplay
It is definitely a text adventure with point and
click mechanics. You have a musical soundtrack as a background, and
sound effects which are good. One of my favorites was using a rock to
break a lock, the sudden crack I heard startled me. I did not expect it.
Chapters alternate between playing as Randolph and John. It is an
automatic shift to the other character. Saves are of the automatic
variety. You cannot create saves. This feature has always been
off-putting for me, however the automated saves are well-done in this
application. When you reopen the game, a play button takes you back to
where you left off. For me it worked without a glitch. There are eleven
chapters if you include the Prologue. They are:
Prologue: Pathways
Chapter
1: House of Worship
Chapter
2: Meetings
Chapter
3: Dinner Guest
Chapter
4: The Well
Chapter
5: Conspiracy
Chapter
6: Making Contact
Chapter
7: The Search
Chapter
8: Remembrance
Chapter
9: Trial & Truth
Chapter
10: Gateway to the Realm
This is a text adventure game with a unique
interface that is pleasant to navigate. It includes compass navigation,
an inventory through which you can combine items, an archive of journal
entries and other readable materials, and more. There are puzzles in the
form of questions where you select the correct answer from a list, or do
things in the right order. I mentioned the rock earlier. You had to pick
that up, which goes into your inventory.
One of the screen shots, labeled “Basement,” shows
your basic screen. It is not your opening screen of course, but it
typifies the game screen. It is where you play the game. On the left,
several icons are presented. You are in the basement and you have
choices where you may examine the highlighted Church Bulletin featured
in this screen. Often there are several choices to examine. You can go
to another room by clicking a lighted direction in the compass.
The second icon represents a backpack. Clicking on
that reveals your inventory. Use inventory by highlighting an object in
your inventory, followed by clicking on the stick figure to reenter the
game screen. The item’s name will show below the compass. Clicking on
the item will automatically activate the action. For example, when faced
with the lock, you click on your rock in inventory and bang. By clicking
on one or more items in the inventory you may be able to combine them as
you would in any adventure game.
The third icon is your map. Clicking on it will
bring up a pattern naming the rooms in your locale. The room you are in
will be blinking. It helps to orient you with respect to your choices or
routes available on the compass. It does not allow you to simply click
to go to another location.
The fourth icon is your notebook where you store
and read items such as letters that you have picked up.
The fifth icon identifies the character you are
presently playing, and the sixth is for Options and the ability to
adjust various settings and access the Main Menu to continue or quit.
There are a hundred fifty pieces of original artwork and an hour-long
soundtrack. The game also provides a complete walkthrough.
Summary
I found this game to have a very
good storyline featured in an innovative way, blending the old text
adventure style with the standard point and click interface. I searched
sites such as GOG, Steam and Humble Bundle. It is not available at any
of those stores. You can currently purchase the PC version at
Storycentric website or the
Unimatrix Produtions itch.io website.
The game
is also available as an Android or iPhone/iPad app. You also have the
ability to Greenlight the game at Steam on the Storycentric website. For
the current low price of $3.99 it is one of the better game options
presently available. I did not locate any listing of requirements.
GameBoomers Review Guidelines
July 2016
design copyright© 2016
GameBoomers
Group
