Comments on: Gruesome Corpse: Art Of Murder 2 Demo

By: Dean

Dean — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:45:54 +0000

There’s a sequel to Culpa Innata in development. I liked Overclocked but it would have been ten times better had the whole “playing recordings of one patient to another” been implemented as a proper new mechanic in the game rather than shoe-horned into the regular point-and-click interface. Give us a screen with pictorial representations of each memory on a time-line, representing the main character’s notes.

By: Zap

Zap — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:47:26 +0000

@Helm: always found it strange that so many people insist “le Serpent Rouge” is a landmark of great adventure puzzles. I only remember being frustrated and bored by it. That, and the befuddling sentence “I’m not ready for that shape yet”, which I’m still using regularly to this day in a variety of situations — to convey the idea that I don’t want to do something for no discernable reason in particular.

All in all I found GK3 was pretty weak and Old Man Murray’s review pretty much on spot.

By: whatwhywhen

whatwhywhen — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:31:04 +0000

Actually the part where you smash the pencil to take a fingerprint is quite logical:
Pencil’s core is made of graphite and powdered graphite is used to “lift” fingertips.
p.s.
Pencil’s core is often called “lead”, though it doesn’t contain any lead in it.

Other than that, i agree with you that the game is horrible.

By: Helm

Helm — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 08:25:54 +0000

Igor Hardy :

No worries. I wasn’t attacking the premise of the genre (inspecting a branched storyline through the viewing lens of a developing character). I am not writing off adventure games at all, in fact I consider them potentially an amazing venue for emotionally and intellectually effective gaming, which is something we see really little of. I am just annoyed with how the form is constantly underutilized because of above mentioned reasons. My observations are not based on information regurgitated from distant sources, they come from my first-hand experience as a member of the AGS community and as an once AGS game developer myself. I actually remember when it was also enough for me for something to be a point and clicker for me to play it (there is just something about ordering a little character about on a beautiful static backdrop) and how I slowly became more aware of the limitations of past designs and more critical of them. A lot of other people in that video gaming scene do not go through this change I think, because nostalgia obscures. They buy new, awful adventure games, compulsively ‘solve’ them and then bitch on forums about how they were mediocre. But they buy more. Because the little men on the screen await instructions.

By: Pantsman

Pantsman — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 01:49:53 +0000

@Dean
Luckily for me, I figured that out early in the game. It was my favorite thing about it. Unlike most adventure games, it wasn’t the same adventure game I’ve been playing since Monkey Island. It actually took the genre in a new and very interesting direction. I just hope it was successful enough to warrant further efforts by the developer.

Also, the music and setting were quite nice.

By: malkav11

malkav11 — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:19:58 +0000

I think the adventure genre could do worse than to fade away commercially. Just look at the text adventure scene. Stopped being commercially viable sometime in the mid to late 80s (although there have been a couple of attempts at reviving it as a paid format since then, none particularly successful on a larger scale.). But by now, there’s a flourishing fan community turning out works of a quality and sophistication all but unheard of during the commercial days – only a few Infocom games (Trinity, A Mind Forever Voyaging, maybe one or two others) and Legend games (Gateway, say) come close, imho.

I think we may already be seeing some of that in the AGS community.

By: Heliocentric

Heliocentric — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:18:32 +0000

I am enjoying overclocked. Gamefaqing it though.

By: Dean

Dean — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:57:16 +0000

edit – It’s worth the £6 it’s available for on Steam though.

By: Dean

Dean — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:56:51 +0000

Culpa Innata was a weird one. I played all through it like I play most adventure games: I talk to characters about unimportant stuff first before proceeding on to the stuff that advances the plot so I get the most out of it.
The problem with Culpa Innata is if you do that, you miss the game. There’s no really many traditional adventure game puzzles in it (most are hidden away within a sub quest that you can easily miss entirely) – the game comes down to conversation. When I finished it and was given a score, I finally understood.

The point of the game is to get info out of all the suspects and witnesses as effectively as possible, without pissing them off so you have to leave and come back the next day. It’s a nice mechanic, but it took me the entire game to realise that was the mechanic. That that was the game.

By: Igor Hardy

Igor Hardy — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:48:22 +0000

Thanks for the discussion, Helm. I hope I didn’t come off too antagonistic. I just don’t like when people cross off adventure games because of some broad condemning generalizations.

@Pantsman
Limbo of The Lost in adventure gaming circles had its own portion of kinky/weird stories actually.

By: Pantsman

Pantsman — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:59:28 +0000

The fact that Limbo of the Lost was rather well-received in adventure gaming circles before its theft of assets was revealed permanently damaged the credibility of these fans in my mind.

That said, I quite liked Culpa Innata. Haven’t seen any RPS-ers talking about it. Anyone else have thoughts?

By: Helm

Helm — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:08:14 +0000

I see. Thanks for the information and dialogue.