Are you in the need for a dose of classic gaming? I long for the adventure style games of yesteryear. I want to revisit the land of Daventry as King Graham or throw back a few barrels of grog on Melee Island w/ Guybrush. But, where do you go to do such things that today? Although there are a few entries into the genre, such as Syberia and The Longest Journey (Not Dreamfall); Adventure games are pretty defunct and dead.
You have to go deep into the underground to get your fix. Some of the most impressive games out there are actual remakes of the classics from 10 (or more) years ago, and the most popular of them is the remake of King’s Quest brought to us by AGD Interactive. AGD followed up KQ1 with a refactoring of the KQ2 story. The refactoring was an attempt at bringing together a lot of disjointed elements of the original game under a single plot banner. They did that wonderfully; so many were excited to hear that the AGDs (short for Anonymous Game Developers) were about to try an all-original project.
This is where Himalaya Studios and Al Emmo enters the picture. I was so excited about the prospect of some modernized retro gaming that I pre-ordered the game as soon as it became available. (Last June while at the CFUnited conference). I finally received it about a week ago. Was the wait worth it? Well, honestly I’m not sure.
You play as Al Emmo, a 42-year old virgin loser who comes to the town of Anozira to pick up his mail order bride. She dumps him immediately and he misses the train home. Thus our adventure begins. Al tries to woo local bar singer Rita Peralto, but is continuously thwarted by sweet-talking prince Antonio Bandana. Along the way, you start to unravel a mystery behind Antonio, Rita’s father, and the treasure of the Lost Dutchman.
Although the game takes place in a Wild West setting, they don’t really make use of that, with many of the game drawing heavily from pop culture. Al Emmo himself is obviously inspired by Al Lowe’s Leisure Suit Larry character, but the humor in the game never hits home. Al Emmo is 42. (Any Hitchhiker fans out there?). A few of the characters will remind you of other pop culture icons such as Pam Anderson, Hugh Hefner, Antonio Banderas, and a “Rambo” character.
The puzzles are mainly inventory puzzles that rarely have anything to do with moving the plot forward. If you’re stuck, talk to everyone again. Most likely the solution will pop in your face. A review at Just Adventure left me a bit surprised; they obviously enjoyed the game a lot more than I did. The Adventurer Gamers review seems a lot more balanced.
Pros
- No Hotspots: Unlike most games of today, Al Emmo did not have any hotspots. Hotspots are when you’re told where to click by a change in your icon. This was the best decision made by the folks at Himalaya Studios. They combated the hotspot devoid by making everything in the game clickable. You’ll always get some type of response. It made the game more fun to play and explore, but unfortunately did not add to the challenge of puzzles.
- The ending: This is one of the few games I’ve played in recent memory that actually had a satisfying ending. One oddity, though, is that they give you the option to save your character for future games. Since the game is extremely linear (see the cons section) I can’t fathom what they are possibly saving. It’s not like this was a stat building game, and I want to start “al Emmo 2” with all of my throwing points.
- Exploration: Al Emmo has ~120 hand painted backgrounds. That is a lot of area to explore. They also included a simple mapping system to allow you to jump to main areas of the game. But sometimes the walk is worth it.
- Puzzles: When I played the refactoring of King’s Quest 2 that these guys did, I must say that the puzzles felt derivative of the old school adventure games. Although there was cool that the plot tied together different unrelated pieces of the original game, the story seemed to extend in places it didn’t need extending and the puzzles all felt like they were straight out of competing games. Al Emmo doesn’t present that problem. The story and puzzles are definitely in the style of adventure games of old, but they breathe a new freshness to them and retain their own character.
Cons
- Voice Acting: To say the voice acting was horrible would be a complete understatement. Words cannot express how bad it is. Have you never heard a cat screech because you dragged its claws across a chalkboard? I haven’t heard that either, but it would have been an improvement. Unfortunately, the voice behind Al is the worst offender of the bunch. I might have been able to deal with a bad voice hear or there, but turning the main character into a cheese grater for your ears was not a good idea. Next time I hope they institute some type of third party review before they record all the vocals.
- Short Acts: The game moves along very quickly and before you can blink the act your in is finished. Many of the act splits seemed to offer no purpose other than to throw in a cut scene. Shakespeare plays have 5 acts. Today we’ve cut that down 3 for most popular movies / plays. This game would have been better served by fewer longer acts.
- Game Path; The path through this game is very linear. There was never a question as to where to go next or what you have to accomplish. Once you “map out the land” (presumably in the first act) there is never a reason to go exploring again. That is one aspect where they did not stay in line with older adventures.
- Graphics: 640x480 graphics are a little too retro for my tastes. It wouldn’t fit on my 20-inch monitor without a setting change (I discovered the setting change half way through the 9th chapter).
- Packaging: I had heard reports this game would be ‘packaged’ in a manner similar to games of old. I was either misinformed or delusional. The game came in a standard DVD jewel case, with only minor inserts (such as a “tell your friends” postcard). There wasn’t a printed manual of any sort. (Not even the cheesy ones you find in CD Jewel case games). I suppose the packaging got saved for the more expensive collectors edition.
- Green Ghost Skulls: The green ghosts on the cover aren’t in the game anywhere. Talk about a tease.
- No more ColdFusion: The original AGD interactive site was built in ColdFusion, but they moved to PHP.
Final Thought
Overall, it took me about 10 hours to get through the game from start to finish. I guess I got better bang for my buck than going to a movie theatre, but I’d feel a whole lot better if the price point was $20, which is comparable to most other games I buy. The game failed to evoke an emotional response in me, so I’ll probably forget it. Perhaps I can play again it as if it were new in a month or so? I’ll definitely buy the next game that these guys produce, if for no other reason than I have nowhere else to go to get my fix. If you remember the games of old fondly, give this one a shot. Otherwise stick with the latest on your Xbox.
posted by Jeffry Houser in
Game Reviews, Personal
| 2 Comments
#1 by Vern on 2/16/07 - 7:32 PM
I was kind of surprised by your review of the game.
Personally, I enjoyed most of the game. Al's voice fit well
with his character. I think in general the humor in the game
was pretty good. The only thing I didn't like about the game
was the chapter with the drag queen stuff in it. I think the
reason the puzzles were so easy is so that people would be
able to solve them without much difficulty. There are some
older games out there with very difficult ones to solve such
as Shivers and Shivers 2. In my opinion the game was a lot
of fun and well worth playing. Send me an email Jeff.
Sincerely yours,
Vern
#2 by Jeffry Houser on 2/20/07 - 7:32 AM
The game had good and bad points. It was a nostalgia romp for sure.
Just like I mentioned in my 'final thoughts' I don't remember the drag queen chapter. I guess the game was easily forgettable.