I bought Salammbo on a lark, but what a nice game this is. Hard enough to be interesting yet do-able without a walkthrough .

An added bonus: the military strategy puzzles lured my son, who has long abandoned adventure games for strategy games like Age of Empires-- back into an adventure game.

War, cool puzzles, and scantily-clad women what more could you ask for?

Scantily clad men too?

Hugs, Cheryl

hey, fantastic. i was just thinking about picking this up since it's relatively cheap. thanks

gopher

I really enjoyed this one too. A nice blend of different gaming styles

This is a great game for any adventure gamer who enjoys something a little different. Also, a must-play for gamers who feel that the genre has not been sufficiently innovative.

I too enjoyed this game. It kind of 'came out of nowhere' with very little advance publicity. It was a nice mix of puzzles, and I liked the unusual graphics. (not sure about the people having red eyes though.. !)


Louis

I'd certainly rank Salammbo far ahead of most other recent games.

It's definitely different, although I'd say the strategy puzzles were the only things that were particularly innovative. The rest was mostly cosmetic. In many ways (gameplay, mechanics, puzzles) it's a very traditional adventure game still, in case anyone is worried about that. It's the subject matter and creative visual style that really set the game apart from the latest "me too" adventure.

If there was ever a game that could predictably become "rare", I'd say Salammbo is it. I have no idea what the inside dirt is, but TAC really dropped the ball on this one. It could just be a distribution problem, but personally I think the "adult" themes in the game scared them off. By the time they realized what they had on their hands, they were legally bound to publish the game, but this game is an outcast even in their own catalogue (in North America it's an "exclusive import"). Unlike the rest of TAC's games, when this one's gone, I'll bet it's GONE, and as we all know, that's when people start scrambling for them.

So, good game, cheap price, and potentially scarce down the road... Hmmm...

Jack

I Loved it!! The only really 'adult' bit about it was Salammbo's costume Mind you if the distributors think about this logically, the majority of adventurers are over 18 anyway!

The settings and atmosphere of the game are wonderful.

Tig

I dunno about that, Tig. You could slap more clothes on them, but it'd still be a game that includes slavery, torture, cannibalism, prostitution, war, etc. Why they couldn't just market it as more "mature" than the usual standard fare is beyond me, but the way they handled it just smacked of being swept under the carpet and praying that no one noticed.

OK, so just Which one of those is Not featured on todays news?? Just one I believe and the news in the UK is on at 6pm, before the watershed!! Apparently on interviewing youngsters it was found that they were more affected by the pictures and stories on the news than by any pc game!!

Tig

Well, I actually don't see a lot about prostitution and slavery on the news. Especially prostitution with that -- whatever it was. Maybe there's a bit more coverage of torture, given what went on in Iraq. Can't remember the last time they explored cannibalism on the news.

In addition to the above,I thought Salammbo was very adult because of the character development of Spendius. The more wicked and manipulative he became, the more he progressed in the game. Maybe I've been playing only do-gooder, escapist games, but this scenario isn't something I've encountered before and it shocked me.

There was also something intimate about watching Spendius's failures and their consequences. I hated seeing him waiting for his execution because I had made the wrong choices for him.

I have heard nothing but good things about this game. I got it waiting on my shelf, now if I can just jostle something to the side for a week...

Salammbo was the most fun I had playing a game this year and my favorite TAC game since RotS. Exceptional, gorgeous and innovative. Two quibbles... it was kinda short and there is a vicious timed sequence that leads up to a really abrupt ending.

(Actually the timed sequence isn't quite as vicious if you somehow come up with the idea of eating a bunch of inedible items to survive.)

It's definitely a T-rated game, but there isn't really anything that explicit. Compared to many other games, it's pretty tame, I think

BJ: I also didn't understand about eating the inedible stuff, but after about 15 tries did make it through the timed sequence on cactus alone.

Nope, nothing that hasn't been portrayed 100X worse elsewhere, including the news. And I'm certainly no believer in the notion that games influence kids negatively, anyway.

This wasn't about me, though; it was about TAC. I was merely commenting they they might have worried about their public image by publishing a game that presented these themes as entertainment (which IS pretty new territory for adventure games). How else to explain the TOTAL lack of publicity for the game?

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err you are advised that eating sandals is a yukky thing to do.. IF you can find the guy who recommends that... then you know sandals are edible?????????????