Your Wise Thoughts...

[indyjones2131]

So, seasoned veterans of adventure, care to share your wise thoughts on the following titles? Include Puzzle quality and type please!

1. Sanitarium
2. 5 Days a Stranger
3. Beneath a Steel Sky
4. Tale of Two Kingdoms

Curious to get thoughts on these from such a knowledgeable group of folks.

[Erwin_Br]

Beneath a Steel Sky is my favorite on that list. For reviews I would Google it.

--Erwin

[Kazmajik]

Beneath a Steel Sky is an excellent game, with mostly inventory puzzles of the type familiar to anyone who's played Sierra and LucasArts adventures. It does have a few strange puzzles, where the world is reduced to symbols and you have to negotiate a simple maze, but they're logic-based and I don't remember them being too tough. You can die in the game in several places.

Sanitarium is a strange creature. With an isometric view, it looks more like an RPG-type game, but it is an adventure. It takes some time to get used to how it looks and behaves, but it's well worth playing for the original story alone. Many of the puzzles involve interacting with others, and gleaning clues from what they tell you. That and lots of exploration. I believe you can die in the game, though if you do it just sets you back to where you were before you made the choice that leads you there.

[Lucien21]

Both BaSS and Sanitarium are classics.

Sanitarium is probably one of the most original adventures ever released. The control scheme is a tad naff, but the mature storyline and atmosphere are brilliant.

BaSS is good fun and ahead of it's time when it was released.

[indyjones2131]

Hmmm, so Sanitarium is based a good deal on conversational puzzles??? Errr, I HATE those type puzzles. If I had my way I would have all inventory puzzles and no conversation!

So does Beneath a Steel Sky allow the player to die? I actually like being able to die in games. Also, are the puzzles based much on alien tech? Or are they good Macgyver style real world inventory style?

Thanks for the help.

Also to the one reply, I don't want to read reviews, I prefer getting opinions for you smart people!

[misslilo]

Beneath a Steel Sky is definitely a game all adventure gamers should play at least once in their lifetime :D

[indyjones2131]

So what exactly IS so great a bout Beneath a Steel Sky?

[misslilo]

Well, I can only speak for myself, but to me it's a mix.
- The sci-fi world
- The sometimes/somewhat MacGyver'ish :D puzzles (which you like, right?)
- The classic Sierra/LucasArts graphic - I'm an absolut old timer, when it comes to that kind of graphic. I woldn't mind if every adventure game, was like that :P
- The character is definitely likeable.
- Point & Click
And a whole lot more that has to do with the feel of it.

It's up there with The Flight of the Amazon Queen. (If you liked Indiana Jones, you'll find lots of references to those games - and smart remarks about them too, lol. I loved this game! )

[indyjones2131]

Sounds good. I'll have to try it out. Yes I do love me some Macgyver puzzles :)

Also, Flight of the Amazon Queen - classic also? Never did get around to playing it.

I love the old games as well. Something about the art and style of the Sierra and Lucas games that are just unmatched. Looked hand painted, but that style seemed to go out with The Dig (bad puzzles! or at least not my style, but a good game).

Anyway, Whispered World looks GORGEOUS as does AVS.

[misslilo]

I know these games are not on your list. But have you played Innocent Until Caught and Guilty? (the sequel, sometimes called Innocent Until Caught 2)

[indyjones2131]

I have not. See, I'm not TOO big on Space based games. Not much for robots and such. I am very picky!!

Are these really good games? Good puzzles?

[misslilo]

They are excellent games!
And even if they have a space theme - sort of - it's not about robots as such. You can't compare them to the space Quest games at all. :)
The puzzles are good too, yes.

I dug them out of my old games hideout a little while back, and was surprised how much I enjoyed them.
I know they may not be mentioned a lot on here, which is a shame, because to me they are classics too - they have the same take-your-time-and-relax-and-explore feel over them.

[indyjones2131]

Hmm. I'll have to check them out. Are they more action adventure and surviving danger or more conversations and investigation. As you can probably guess, I prefer the former.

[misslilo]

Can't say it's action adventure, but it's not conversation heavy games either.
It's more inventory puzzled games.. the kind you like.
Oh and yes, you can get stuck in these games, if you get caught, lol.

[indyjones2131]

I'll definitely give them a try. Thanks!

[Kazmajik]

Be Vigilant! (you'll see...)

[Kivie]

The only one I've played from there is Beneath a Steel Sky, and it looks like you're already convinced you should play it. It is, after all, a free download.

The opening video, presented as a comic strip, was laughable in terms of its dialogue and pictures, but afterwards the voice acting became superb, with a great variety of different accents to keep it entertainingly colourful, and the graphics were easy to get used to. The control system was the most intuitive I've ever seen - left-click to examine and right-click to use (the reverse of the Broken Sword games, which were made by the same company). Story was great, and I found the puzzles at an amiable difficulty level.

You can indeed die at several points. I also managed to put the game into an unwinnable state, but there appears to be only one way of doing that. Just remember to save every so often towards the end.

[Gazzoid]

I'd say Beneath a Steel Sky as well. Haven't played the others but i would like to get Sanitarium at some point.

[rtrooney]

BASS gets my vote too.

[nikolas]

Why not all?

BASS, 5 days and ATOTK are free that I know. My guess is sanitarium must be free as well, since it's on the list.

I was on the dev team of ATOTK, so I can say a few words. It's got very good low resolution graphics, imho and it must be bugless by now. It's also been downloaded at least 25,000 times which seems a good number for 3-4 months of being released. Music ranges to quality, but it's more than 1 hour, and 55 tracks if I remember correctly. The setting is Medieval and knights and that sort of thing, with fairies and magic, etc.

Puzzles range from rather easy and a bit obscure (like the very first puzzle really), to rather hard ones. There are 5 different endings, depending on how you do in the whole game, which raises the replayability a bit, and some, if not most puzzles can be solved in more than one ways. It should be almost bugless now (which needs to be mentioned since it's a freeware title to begin with) and... that's all.

[Dale Baldwin]

My guess is sanitarium must be free as well, since it's on the list.
As far as I'm aware, it isn't.

[Melanie68]

I've seen Sanitarium in the $9.99 bin at Fry's Electronics on occasion. :P

[Kazmajik]

I bought the Sanitarium jewel case for like $10 from Amazon two or three years ago, so I don't think it's public domain yet.

[Davies]

Check eBay for second-hand copies of Sanitarium.

It's the only one on the list that I've played all the way through, and I can recommend it very highly.

The movement and inventory systems are strange and not exactly intuitive, but not difficult to pick up. The game has one of the best examples I've ever seen of a first level designed to be a "live" tutorial. By the end of the first level, you will have had some practice with all the essential game commands.

Sanitarium can be a bit confusing to begin with, as you are trying to unravel two or three interwoven storylines, and can't be sure (at the beginning) what's going on or what is real. This is intentional. I suppose it would be classified as a horror adventure, since there's nasty stuff going on and several gory background scenes. Not one for young children, but I wouldn't go so far as calling it "mature content".

There is a lot of conversation, but not exactly what I would call "conversational puzzles". Most of the talk is to get clues to open up new lines of investigation, and it's all pretty much to the point. The conversation system is based on keywords, is easy to use, and allows you to repeat conversations as often as necessary.

Most of Sanitarium is typical manipulation, inventory, and conversation, but about once a level there's a (fairly easy) physical challenge to liven things up a bit. You can't be killed; if you get beaten in a physical combat you just start the challenge over again with no penalties.

Recommended especially for deaf and hard-of-hearing gamers, as there is not only a subtitle option but you can also adjust the music, important sound effects, and atmospheric sounds separately. The physical challenges are not very difficult once you've twigged what you have to do in each one, so dexterity is not a very big issue either.