Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure (More info?)
MINI-REVIEW: Divided
<http://www.jeroenstout.net/divided/>
<http://www.jeroenstout.net/divided/download.htm> (26 Mb)
(Review copyright 2005, Andrew Plotkin <erkyrath@eblong.com>)
I'm always happy to find another Myst-genre game sprung out of someone's
basement. _Divided_ is a short one, and somewhat uneven, but I still enjoyed
it. And it's a free download, so you should enjoy it too.
(I'm going to talk about the uneven parts now, but don't let it scare you
off.)
The interface is a slightly odd choice: panning, but with horizontal
rotation only. It's serviceable, but it leads to a few odd moments:
something important is on the floor, but you can only interact with it if
you step *back*. Because if you're close to it, it's below your field of
view. I'd say it's worth extending the engine to handle up-down panning as
well.
The hotspots and cursors are also inconsistent -- or just more complex than
they need to be. In the panning view, the cursor lights up on hotspots, like
you'd expect. This is also true in *some* close-up scenery views. But in
others, the cursor is always lit. I think this indicates that that view has
no hotspots, and you should just click anywhere to back away. Perhaps more
convenient, but definitely more confusing. I spent a lot of time clicking
around those views, looking for something to do.
I also got confused by the inventory system. You can get a close view of
anything you're holding, which is fine. Some of those views have hotspots,
which is also fine; you can page through books and fiddle with some devices
as you hold them. However, the distinction between cases where you're
supposed to fiddle in your inventory, and cases where you're supposed to
*use* an inventory object on a specific location, is very thin. It made
sense in retrospect, especially when I considered how much video would be
needed for certain objects. But while I was playing the game, I was
frequently trying to use things the wrong way.
The puzzles were quite good. (I could quibble about the first one being
underclued, but really I'd just be complaining that I wasn't paying enough
attention.) You have your purely logical puzzle, your math puzzle, your
alien-machine puzzle, your physical environment puzzle... just about one of
each, come to think of it, since the game is so short.
The scenery is atmospheric, detailed, and there's plenty of it; it's not a
mere thin wrapper around the puzzles. I appreciate that. I got a little
tired of the algorithmic textures, but I'm not complaining here; the
environments were nifty. There's even some video -- heavily compressed,
since this is a downloadable game, but good enough. (If the author offered a
high-resolution version of _Divided_, on CD, I'd pay for it.) Good audio as
well. Okay, one of the instruments in the background music made me think I
was being chased by an angry D'ni cow, but it was good background music
nonetheless.
The story is an unapologetic mix of classic adventure tropes. You're in a
symbolic world in someone's head. Two brothers in conflict. Tricks and
traps. I'm all in favor of this, as long as it's done deliberately, and in
_Divided_ it certainly is. (I caught a _Myst_ in-joke, and the author
credits _Myst_, _Riven_, and _Zork Nemesis_ as inspirations.) The story
underlying all this is original, *not* generic adventure cliche. The
journals that you find reveal quite a bit about the world. (The author's
English is imperfect, but passes.) I thought this background wasn't tied in
tightly enough with the gameplay, but it was still interesting material, and
it supported the narrative and the ending.
My biggest complaint is that, given all the _Myst_ riffs, I expected a game
with multiple endings. It's not that an adventure game *needs* multiple
endings! But when I hit a resolution that seemed non-optimal, my first
impulse was to go back into the game and look for an alternate outcome.
(Remember, I had been confused about the interface. I thought I might have
simply missed some combination of inventory items and mouse clicks.)
When this turned up nothing, I looked at some web forum posts, and it became
clear that *was* the ending. It was a perfectly suitable ending for the
story. But because I had been expecting more, and then didn't get it, the
ending came off as anticlimactic.
None of these are fatal complaints. _Divided_ is a nice short-story-sized
homebrew adventure, and since the only cost is download time, it's a
bargain. I hope the author does more.
(This review, and my reviews of other adventure games, are at
http://www.eblong.com/zarf/gamerev/index.html)
--Z
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
I'm still thinking about what to put in this space.
MINI-REVIEW: Divided
<http://www.jeroenstout.net/divided/>
<http://www.jeroenstout.net/divided/download.htm> (26 Mb)
(Review copyright 2005, Andrew Plotkin <erkyrath@eblong.com>)
I'm always happy to find another Myst-genre game sprung out of someone's
basement. _Divided_ is a short one, and somewhat uneven, but I still enjoyed
it. And it's a free download, so you should enjoy it too.
(I'm going to talk about the uneven parts now, but don't let it scare you
off.)
The interface is a slightly odd choice: panning, but with horizontal
rotation only. It's serviceable, but it leads to a few odd moments:
something important is on the floor, but you can only interact with it if
you step *back*. Because if you're close to it, it's below your field of
view. I'd say it's worth extending the engine to handle up-down panning as
well.
The hotspots and cursors are also inconsistent -- or just more complex than
they need to be. In the panning view, the cursor lights up on hotspots, like
you'd expect. This is also true in *some* close-up scenery views. But in
others, the cursor is always lit. I think this indicates that that view has
no hotspots, and you should just click anywhere to back away. Perhaps more
convenient, but definitely more confusing. I spent a lot of time clicking
around those views, looking for something to do.
I also got confused by the inventory system. You can get a close view of
anything you're holding, which is fine. Some of those views have hotspots,
which is also fine; you can page through books and fiddle with some devices
as you hold them. However, the distinction between cases where you're
supposed to fiddle in your inventory, and cases where you're supposed to
*use* an inventory object on a specific location, is very thin. It made
sense in retrospect, especially when I considered how much video would be
needed for certain objects. But while I was playing the game, I was
frequently trying to use things the wrong way.
The puzzles were quite good. (I could quibble about the first one being
underclued, but really I'd just be complaining that I wasn't paying enough
attention.) You have your purely logical puzzle, your math puzzle, your
alien-machine puzzle, your physical environment puzzle... just about one of
each, come to think of it, since the game is so short.
The scenery is atmospheric, detailed, and there's plenty of it; it's not a
mere thin wrapper around the puzzles. I appreciate that. I got a little
tired of the algorithmic textures, but I'm not complaining here; the
environments were nifty. There's even some video -- heavily compressed,
since this is a downloadable game, but good enough. (If the author offered a
high-resolution version of _Divided_, on CD, I'd pay for it.) Good audio as
well. Okay, one of the instruments in the background music made me think I
was being chased by an angry D'ni cow, but it was good background music
nonetheless.
The story is an unapologetic mix of classic adventure tropes. You're in a
symbolic world in someone's head. Two brothers in conflict. Tricks and
traps. I'm all in favor of this, as long as it's done deliberately, and in
_Divided_ it certainly is. (I caught a _Myst_ in-joke, and the author
credits _Myst_, _Riven_, and _Zork Nemesis_ as inspirations.) The story
underlying all this is original, *not* generic adventure cliche. The
journals that you find reveal quite a bit about the world. (The author's
English is imperfect, but passes.) I thought this background wasn't tied in
tightly enough with the gameplay, but it was still interesting material, and
it supported the narrative and the ending.
My biggest complaint is that, given all the _Myst_ riffs, I expected a game
with multiple endings. It's not that an adventure game *needs* multiple
endings! But when I hit a resolution that seemed non-optimal, my first
impulse was to go back into the game and look for an alternate outcome.
(Remember, I had been confused about the interface. I thought I might have
simply missed some combination of inventory items and mouse clicks.)
When this turned up nothing, I looked at some web forum posts, and it became
clear that *was* the ending. It was a perfectly suitable ending for the
story. But because I had been expecting more, and then didn't get it, the
ending came off as anticlimactic.
None of these are fatal complaints. _Divided_ is a nice short-story-sized
homebrew adventure, and since the only cost is download time, it's a
bargain. I hope the author does more.
(This review, and my reviews of other adventure games, are at
http://www.eblong.com/zarf/gamerev/index.html)
--Z
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
I'm still thinking about what to put in this space.
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