Still Life
Gruesome murders in Chicago and Prague lead inevitably to puzzles
Tags: Still Life Categories: PC Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Aug 12th, 2005
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Still Life (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Adventure | No | ||
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Still Life is one of the rare breed of true “adventure” games that crop up once or twice a year on consoles. It used to be that this was the main form of computer gaming “back in the day” but now with growing technology and the industry evolving, this quiet genre seems to have fallen out of favor. It’s too bad, because far too often these games help provide storytelling and provide an experience than many videogame publishers and developers are trying to convey that the industry is capable of.
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The game centers on two main characters, starting with Victoria MacPherson, a special agent investigating s series of brutal murders in Chicago. It turns out that these murders bear a striking resemblance to a series of murders that were investigated by Victoria’s grandfather in Prague many years back. We are transported between the two timelines throughout the game and watch events unfold to try and come to the solution of the puzzle at the heart of the game – who is the murderer, and how are these two series of events related?
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The gameplay is a bit more methodical than many players will be used to – at least those that have been weaned on first person shooters and RPGs that no longer require the player to plan out a strategy of attack. True to conventions in the adventure genre, there are plenty of puzzles – even the clichéd crate puzzle. Most of the puzzles are failry appropriate for the environments, but there are a few that are absolutely and horribly difficult. I personally can not do tile sliding puzzles – never have been. Thankfully there are those out there that have solved it and have posted solutions. The other extremely frustrating puzzle is the lockpicking… well, that one took a while, even with the solution handy.
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True to form, the “pick everything up” convention of play is still held true, as is “everything you can examine” will at one point be used. The game first came out on PC, where the adventure genre still enjoys a decent life, and where the controls are very intuitive – pointing the mouse over an object to pick it up, exmaine it, or click on an area to move the character. Translating that to the Xbox was a bit clunky, as the mouse is gone – but that’s not the root of the problem. Instead of moving a cursor, players move the character around. At certain points, players will be able to move a cursor around over objects, but it would have been better to have kept the cursor controls rather than change it up for the console audience.
The story is well written to progress nicely, giving just enough information as it would flow naturally. The themes are definitely “adult” in nature, and this isn’t a game for the weak of heart. The acts depicted are not nice, and I’m not talking disgusting zombie gruesome either. Still Life is rated “M” for a good reason.
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The voice acting goes along nicely with the story, and while it does sound as if the actors are reading from a script, it isn’t as stiff or stilted as in many other games. The dialogue is natural for the characters and the situations they are in. The effort put into this is evident.
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What doesn’t make sense is the way dialogue is executed. There are no choices to be made by listening to the dialogue. The only options are to listen to things that are crucial to the advancement of the story (by pulling the left trigger) or enacting dialogue that will help deepen the characters (by pulling the right trigger). The problem here is that the script is already set. By having the player constantly pull the triggers it needlessly lengthens the game and pulls the player out of the immersive story. It would have been better to have just tied all of the dialogue together and created a cutscene for it.
Graphically Still Life is very well done, with plenty of little touches and attention to detail such as the way a character drums their nails on a table. The camera in every scene, however is completely static, so being able to move the character around can occasionally be hampered, and only goes to reinforce the fact that the “mouse” control should have been kept.
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The game’s ending will be frustrating, as it sets up a sequel – the twists to the plot are all within the last couple of hours. With developer Microids being bought out by UbiSoft and no sequel announced, many will be left with a bad taste in their mouth. Hopefully a sequel will be announced soon so the story can be completed.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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+ Immersive story that is well written + Good visuals and dialogue + Puzzles don't feel arbitrary |
8.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
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- Having to contantly go back and forth from one place to another with load screens every time - Certain puzzles are infinitely harder than the rest of the game - A cursor style control would have been better than moving the character |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| A well done adventure that displays much of what the genre is capable of. | |
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Tags: Still Life
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Aug 12th, 2005 and is filed under PC Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
