SALAMMBO: Battle for
Carthage
Background:
Salammbo is a tale first told by Auguste Flaubert. However, it took the
talent and vision of Phillippe Druillet to take this saga and bring it to
life in the form of graphical fiction. Druillet creates a dark and
brooding tapestry with his art, reminiscent of Mobeus and others who
raised the bar for illustrated fiction. With Metal Hurlant and it’s
American cousin Heavy Metal, "comics" evolved from Scrooge McDuck on the
bottom rack of the corner store to an adult oriented art form. Druillet
is at the heart of that evolution.
For those unfamiliar with Druillet’s computer gaming credits, he is the
guiding force behind Ring 1 and II. Now we are fortunate to travel in the
environs and reaches of his newest effort… Salammbo: Battle For Carthage.
The somber graphics, evocative music and characters create a dark tale of
love, hatred, quest for power and the darkest motive of all…. Revenge.
The Scheme of things…
The game opens with a sweeping view of the twin temples and Salammbo high
priestess. We spiral down from this lofty vista into the great city state
of Carthage. Finally at the end, we find ourselves deep within it’s most
brutal and sinister interiors. For this adventure centers not on our
beautiful priestess or even her love, the mighty Mathos. Instead this
story centers on a lesser individual, Spendius, a mere slave. He is
enslaved within the city, beaten, tormented and ulitmately thrown into a
forgotten dungeon. His fate is now cast. His future is to die and take his
place among the bones crowding the floor of this fetid pit. But in ancient
stories, the least shall be the greatest. The gods and goddesses were
famed for their caprice. To aid his cause, Spendius is clever and
resourceful. A thief by trade, a survivor by default - He vows to escape
this place and take his revenge upon the city of Carthage and it’s
masters.
As fate may have it - he is aided by a vision that Salammbo receives from
her Goddess and mistress. Salammbo is desperate to contact Mathos, a
fierce warrior and general encamped below the city. She has fallen in love
and is determined to send him a message and proof of her love. Sending
Spendius on his way in secret, she has no idea what forces she has
unleashed with this small act.
The Players in our Tale
The characters in Salammbo are wonderful to encounter. These are complex
personalities. An uneasy mix of self interest and honor. Greed and
selflessness. Salammbo is the high priestess for the Goddess of Carthage.
Her father is the commander of the Carthaginian Forces and rules this
great city. Mathos, a general of uncertain motives and unsettled passions
is the leader of the Mercenaries. Our main character, Spendius is crafty,
devious and bent on destruction of all he sees. He has well oiled phrases
that gain him allies (for the moment) and an instinct for advantaging
sudden shifts in loyalties and power. In the barbaric days of ancient
Carthage, the best one could hope for is a temporary alliance. No one can
really be trusted and all are suspect. A wise man would always sleep with
a knife at his side and one eye opened. In this game, you may not like
Spendius. But you understand his ways and admire his capacity to
advantage every situation and most importantly his will to survive in
desperate times. The other characters are also noteworthy. Salammbo is
fixated on her love, but ever mindful of her position. Mathos has a
passion for this priestess, but is canny and power seeking. Other people
that you encounter through out the game all have very distinct
personalities. The people of this story create a rich focal point for the
plot. I found the interaction and development of these figures to be one
of the strongest points of the game.
A Tapestry of sight and sound
The graphics are as mentioned above, brooding and strongly built. These
are the colors Wagner, Bartok and others would have used if they painted
pictures rather than composed brooding symphonies and operas. What is
interesting is the use of metallic lines against soft swatches of color.
Hints of teal and pink, stand in stark contrast to the overwhelming
structures of iron and stone. . This creates a surrealistic feel and
mystical quality to this game. I found myself instantly transported to
ancient and mythic times. You become absorbed in the mood of Salammbo
rather quickly. For those who have played Druillets earlier games, this
will all look very familiar. For those who haven’t, I would try to
envision a world of gods and goddesses, adventurers and sorcery. These are
not the graphics for those who like light hearted tales.
The ambient sounds are excellent and aid greatly in setting the mood. Even
better is the musical back ground. Like Ring and it’s Wagner cadences, the
developers of Salammbo have chosen a symphonic based musical background
for their game. In this instance – it is the music of Dvorak. I felt like
I was playing an interactive great symphonic opera than a PC game. No
dumbing down here with dialogue, characters or music. It is difficult to
review Salammbo, and treat the music, graphics and sounds as discrete
events. It is the synergy of them all that create the flow and art of this
game.
Challenges
Salammbo has the most varied mix of challenges/ puzzles in any game I have
played in some time. There are inventory based standard puzzles. You have
dialogue trees where the right question or response will get you where you
want to go. Choosing badly will hinder your progress and possibly could
even lead to your death. There are a few practical hands on puzzles.
Calibrate and ancient weapon, toss a helmet at a shield. You have infinite
chances at these and they are not too difficult to quickly master. There
are some strategy type puzzles. You set up where people should go in
particular scenes and sit back for the auto play and see how you did. I
enjoyed these very much and was pleasantly surprised by their inclusion.
For those who hate the thought of in game challenges that are timed, there
are a few of those. Fortunately, failure lands you back at the point of
your ill chosen move. These again are not the hardest type of this puzzle.
You can save as you go and baby step your way though them or ramble
through a couple of times to see the quickest route and then do it very
easily.
One thing has to be mentioned. You can die in this game. Wrong dialogue
choice and you can find yourself in deep trouble. Walk into the wrong
place and - woosh - you are captured. Carthaginians had one sentence for
escaped slaves - immediate death. It is a bit of a treat to run into these
from time to time as you get to see cartoon panels unfold that detail
your fate. The good news is, after watching cut scene of your death, you
are re-deposited exactly where you were in the game before you made your
bad move or statement. Unless you have a low tolerance for any "games
over" moments, no matter how gentle - I wouldn’t let this game aspect
scare you away from Salammbo.
I do think that although most of the puzzles in this game were hinted at
from dialogue, encounters, observation and intuitive attention to the
story. There were a few that were quite difficult due to a lack of hints
or sense of what to do. I managed to get past these - but it could be
necessary to consult hints or a WT for these areas. This warrants a slight
depreciation of where I would rate the game - but it is hardly a game
killer.
Interface & Game Mechanics
I found the game interface and controls to be very easy. There appear to
be unlimited saves or at least a very generous number of saved slots. All
saves are labeled with a time/date stamp, but the associated screen shot
shows up to your left when scanning through saves. The controls are the
mouse. Movement is slideshow in appearance - but the transitions are very
smooth. Once stationary you have 360 degree panning available. The
overall interface is almost identical to Zork Nemesis. However, you can
get a bit lost in some locations. This occurred primarily in the Mercenary
Camp below the walls of the city. Clicking on a forward arrow will carry
you way past where you would expect to end up and you may spend some time
back tracking in this area. However once you are within Carthage, there
are maps throughout the city and it is quite easy to get around. Later in
the game - you get a map that allows you to go from place to place by
using the map feature. I wish they had employed the same tool for the
camps below Carthage. I am not sure why the interface had such
inconsistencies and it is one black mark against an otherwise intriguing
game. I was not thrilled with the constant wandering around I had to do
whenever I was in this area of the game. Even after I felt fairly familiar
with what was where - I still got momentarily lost and would have to back
track.
One big plus was the well designed "options" area. You can alter the
resolution, color settings for the game load. You can also access or turn
off in game hints and/or sub - titles. Most of any fine tuning to
accommodate system config differences could be accomplished here. I like
adaptable games – where you can re-configure the game – rather than having
to adapt your system.
Game Tips
I played Salammbo on W98SE. I had a problem initially with the audio and
video in the cut scenes synching up. By adjusting the options to 640x480
screen resolution and 32 bit color - the game played perfectly after that.
There is also a patch that was released for the European edition. I am not
sure that you need it for the US version - but I installed it just in case
and it didn't cause any problems. So if it’s needed it’s there and if not
- it didn’t seem to affect the the game load/play negatively.
You can get the Salammbo update here:
Salammbo Patch
Final Thoughts
Given our current sparsity of released games - it is easy to give Salammbo
high marks. Regardless of your past exposure to games on the dark side
and/or games with a few timed sequences, it would be worth your dollars
and time to get Salammbo. Even if the games were rolling out daily - I
would strongly recommend this game. My only caveats are inconsistencies in
the movements within the Mercenary camp and what I perceived as a lack of
logical hints or plot threads for a few of the puzzles. But with the rich
story line, music, graphics and characters I think you will find Salammbo
worth a try.
I give Salammbo a B+.
design copyright ©
2004
GameBoomers
Group
