Adventure
games get bad press just now, and have done for a number of years.
Sometimes fairly, often unfairly, in my opinion, but I don’t think
there will be many defenders of this also-ran in the genre. But
first, a warning; this game has an ELSPA rating of 15+. I believe
this is correctly rated as the game is based on the idea of human
sacrifice and cannibalism. Not themes I would suggest addressing in
a game for your average Tomb Raider fan!
The Mystery
of the Druids comes in a standard DVD casing, on 3 CDs, one for the
installation; one marked The Present, one The Past. Funnily enough,
part of the game takes place in the present, and part in the past.
The installation program runs smoothly enough. However, it wasn’t
until I looked at an FAQ on the game’s website, that I discovered
that there is the option of a full-install. Then, no more disk
swapping, or disk loading pauses between scenes.
If you
don’t have space for the full install, the experience of the game is
somewhat jerky, and I know that some people have experienced a lot
of crashes. However, I must say that my own experience, having done
a full install, is that the game was stable, and didn’t crash until
the end credits.
Now the
game itself. The game interface is the standard point-and-click
third person perspective. This is generally fine, although finding
some of the hot spots is pretty frustrating. For example, you have
to pick up a key that is not actually visible on-screen, except for
its effect upon the cursor image. Unfortunately, it is very
difficult to tell whether the action cursor means some item in your
inventory can interact with the target object, or that clicking on
the target will have some effect. But I must mention one nice
feature, that I know some will appreciate, is that you can often
interact, albeit superficially, with many objects that are not
actually involved in the game.
This is a
police procedural story to begin with, with all the attendant
clichés. You play Detective Brent Halligan, who’s been given the
task of investigating the Skeleton Murders, out of the desperation
of the maddening Chief Inspector Miller, who’d far rather someone
with some passing skill as a detective be given the case. With the
assistance, or otherwise, of the slimy-but-successful-with-women
colleague, the slightly strange scientist in the forensic lab, and
the ice-maiden computer operator, Halligan is the archetypal
socially inept, unkempt, disorganized primary protagonist. Yes, it’s
a young Columbo, right down to the dirty trench coat, but without
the wit, the charm, the cigars, or the “Oh, one more thing?” From
this point on, the plot just went down hill.
The police detective’s handbook pretty soon goes out of the window,
as you have to use underhanded methods to achieve almost anything,
even within your own department in Scotland Yard. Strange that, I
thought that a police detective could at least expect some support
from his colleagues. And I wonder how many police investigations in
the Thames valley result in a detective making ad-hoc trips to
France, not to mention 11th century England, without first informing
their superiors?
Would you believe, there’s a love interest as well? At least, I
think that’s what it’s meant to be. In amongst the tangled and
clumsy conversation trees, there are some suggestive dialogs with
the secondary protagonist, an archaeologist, Melanie Turner. She
also takes over as the player’s point of control in the game for
three minor sections.
Okay, let’s look at the technicalities. For those who remember The
Longest Journey from late 2000, this game appears to use similar
graphical technology, with 3D modeled actors on 2D rendered
backgrounds. But, the developers appear not to have bothered to make
sure all the polygons stitch together, and as for characters walking
behind foreground objects? In hardware mode on my Celeron 400, with
Voodoo 3 and the latest drivers (just about the recommended
configuration, as it happens), Halligan frequently walked through
tables and walls, and the Chief sits in the middle of his desk!
However, the two software modes worked fine in this respect.
Having compared Mystery of the Druids with The Longest Journey (one
of the very best adventure games of the last few years) once
already, I think I ought to also say that Mystery of the Druids has
quite realistic looking graphics, but absolutely nowhere near The
Longest Journey. And as for imagination? I think the German
designers of Mystery need an urgent imagination transplant from
neighbouring Norway!
I guess you must be asking by now, are there any redeeming features
to this game? Well, surprisingly, there are. For a change,
especially with titles originating in continental Europe, the voice
acting in Mystery of the Druids is actually quite good. Yes, the
Chief is annoying as a character, but there’s nothing wrong with the
actor’s portrayal of him. And, as a whole, the other characters are
just as well acted. The music is also reasonable, with some good
orchestral moments, but it does become repetitive. The other sound
effects are generally totally forgettable. You might take this to
mean that the sound effects melted into the background in such a way
as to give a good general ambience to the game, but I’m afraid this
is not the case. Most of the time, there basically are no effects to
speak of.
So, let me conclude by saying this: The Mystery of the Druids takes
quite some time to play, even with some nudges from a walkthrough,
but unfortunately, unlike, say Riven, this is not because of the
richness of the environment. Nor is it, as in Schizm, the
intellectual level & mathematical brains required to solve the
puzzles, but because of the illogicality of the methods you have to
pursue to make progress. To put it another way, I’d far rather buy
another copy of The Longest Journey to play again, than be paid to
play this wannabe title.
Grade: C+
design copyright ©
2004
GameBoomers
Group
