Thursday, March 01, 2007

Something new about Simon

Before I start bitching again, I want to write a few more words about the new "Simon the Sorcerer"-game. I've come quite far now - though I can't say how far, as I do not know what is still to come. Nevertheless I've seen quite a bit of it now.


I was very happy to find out that the mistakes they made in part 3 have been removed from part 4. The story is interesting with many twists and turns, there are a lot of surprises and the characters are strange - just as they should be in a "Simon the Sorcerer"-game. The puzzles are logical and there's quite some help in Simon's journal.

I can't say much about the voices, because I usually play with the sound turned off - which makes quite a lot of people wonder, because it's what makes modern games so 'multimedia'. From what I've read online at the website of my favourite computer games magazine, the voices aren't always perfect. There's a lot of talk, which the testers of the game didn't like either - but I do ... and if I don't like how long it lasts, I can just click it through (no sound, remember, I just have to read it through).

There's something missing, though - the original "Simon"-spirit, I should say. The first two games were made by Adventuresoft, who invented Simon and the magical world. They are quite ugly by modern standards - no wonder, considering how old they are -, but the content (that's the story and the puzzles) was better.


Nevertheless I like the game - and today there's not too many good adventures around, anyway. I like seeing Simon again (he's about 16 or 17 in part 4). I like seeing what has become of characters I've come to know and like (like Alix, the Swampling or the two demons Gerald and Max). Of course the world looks much better now - but that's to be expected, considering the modern computer hardware.

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