I wanted to like this game, I really did. I played it at PAX during an Xbox showcase that Microsoft had for ID@Xbox developers, and the team behind it were cordial. As a huge fan of FMV games, I was looking forward to this myself.
I found myself engrossed by the story and idea of it initially, but as time went on, and the interactivity dropped, I realized things were not playing out as I had planned. The gameplay simply wasn’t there. I was essentially hitting the mouse to advance to the next screen. The only choice you have in the game as at the very end, where you have a simple binary decision, and the games ends 5 seconds later.
I recently finished the fantastic FMV title, Contradiction, where you play as a detective in England trying to solve a murder in a small town, and couldn’t out it down. I had high hope, coming from that experience, and imagined a world where FMV was coming back, especially after the sweep of wins that Her Story achieved at GDC earlier this year.
For $20, I suppose you have a 2 hour long film, which wasn’t by any means bad, it simply wasn’t an entertaining experience. Most of the title is played through flashbacks, which give some exposition, but just as you begin to care about the handful of characters, the game ends.
Pity, but I still have hopes for FMV games and their resurgence. At $20 it is a bit pricey for my tastes, even as an FMV aficionado, but at $10, I think it hits a sweet spot.
-----------------------@DaveVoyles
