[Intrepid Homoludens]

title - In Memoriam
genre - Adventure
developer - Lexis Numerique
publisher - UbiSoft
official site


I'm really surprised no one here has mentioned this game. Very little press coverage, which is strange, considering that it's being released by the presently ubiquitous UbiSoft (Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time), and that it's supposed to come out in less than 2 weeks! (October 16 to be exact) It looks absolutely intriguing!

A suspense thriller mystery adventure in the spirit of such movies as se7en and The Blair Witch Project, with inflections from the game Majestic. The story will have you investigate the mysterious vanishing of two young journalists, consequently whisking you away to locales like Paris and Istanbul, tracking down information, studying clues, and tackling some dark enigmas. The main feature of the game is that you will move beyond the game to use the actual Internet as a key part of your investigation, along with seeing disturbing cinematics, websites that may or may not be real, saturations of the occult, and archaeological references. If anyone can add more than I have, please do! Thanks. I'm hoping this game will be a cool new adventure experience.

The website offers an atmospheric trailer.

[nordic_guy]

Looks very interesting. I've always wondered why internet hasn't been used as an active part of investigation in a game more often.
Although I'm not really a fan of these types of adventure games, I might look into this one.

[pleto4_ryan]

websites that may or may not be real

:eek:

very interesting

[Swordmaster]

This game looks very cool, I love the (visual) style.

[Royal Fool]

Cool art, the premise is a bit like The Stone. (Players have to use the internet and possibly other sources to solve the puzzles) The trailer indicates that the game uses FMV cutscenes, which in turn reminds me of Spycraft. (Spycraft was FMV-heavy and also had you going online to gather additional information on both real and fictional webpages)

This game certainly has me interested. Strange that it has had almost no media exposure... it isn't mentioned on Ubi Soft's website, either.

[Royal Fool]

Found some more at Ubi Soft's store:

A unique investigation experience to track a serial killer.

Reality and fiction are blurred in this movie style thriller game.

Enter the game of a serial killer using e-mail, the internet and movie footage to solve his puzzles in a dark and thrilling environment.

Features:

Original concept: a CD-Rom created by a Serial Killer:
- The Serial Killer rules the game and manipulates the player how he wants. Can you out fox him?
- Total immersion, with 40 puzzles to be solved.
- Absorbing and never seen before script: the Serial Killer holds all the cards. You must interact with him to get the clues needed to solve the mystery of Jack Lorski?s disappearance.

Captivating and strong atmosphere taken from the best Thrillers:
- Feel the suspense with high quality sound and visuals.
- A credible and breath taking script.
- Inspired by movies such as The Silence of the Lambs and Seven?

A blend of reality and fiction:
- Based on real facts.
- You will have to visit both real web sites and extremely realistic fake sites, created for the game and integrated into the world wide web.
- Receive More than 40 e-mails, which build the story and are integrated in to the script.
- More than 45 minutes of real movie footage, featuring professional actors, and many sequences created by the Serial Killer.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Thanks, Fool.



Heh heh, the game is also thematically similar to The Bone Collector, that movie with Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. This is so uncanny, for a long time I've wanted an adventure or adventure/action game that pits the player against a highly intelligent serial killer, and now I'm getting my wish with In Memoriam and the upcoming Hannibal (providing arxel tribe can still finish it).

[remixor]

I heard about this some time ago and was also wondering why I didn't hear much about it. I went to the official website and was quite interested, then I thought I heard it was released. Obviously not I totally forgot about the game since then, but I'm definitely going to keep an eye on it now. Fascinating concept. I hope it pans out.

[DomStLeger]

I hope this is future proof though; if the sites go down then your £30 game is non replayable. Thats the only problem I see with it in the long term.

But it is intriguing. The Da Vinci Code book mentioned in the Chit Chat forum had a pretty fun online set of puzzles that worked quite well as part of the promotional campaign for the game. So good in fact that I'm actually going to read the book. So online fake websites etc can work really well and draw you into a mystery I think.

[amishler]

Originally Posted by DomStLeger

The Da Vinci Code book mentioned in the Chit Chat forum had a pretty fun online set of puzzles that worked quite well as part of the promotional campaign for the game. So good in fact that I'm actually going to read the book. So online fake websites etc can work really well and draw you into a mystery I think.

That's what this game made me think of too, Dom, but I was afraid to mention for fear it would start another discussion on the impropriety of referring to Leonardo da Vinci as "da Vinci..." But yeah, that was a good bit of multimedia fun, and it sounds like a similar but simplified idea of what In Memoriam will try to pull off. I look forward to seeing whether they can do it.

[Marek]

The slogan "are you willing to play this?" is a little suspect. It's like the marketing departement's little inner demon speaking.

[Leonard Shelby]

Wow sounds intriguing and exciting for sure

I would like to know : is this a whole unique game and will you have to buy episode from it each month as a special realease

[Intrepid Homoludens]

I actually have no idea how it will be sold, Leonard. Very little has been revealed, and this infuriates me because it shows the ineptitude of adventure game publishers. If they so badly want to their games to sell, why the hell do they never use tactful, aggressive marketing ?!!!!!!!

[Erwin_Br]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

I actually have no idea how it will be sold, Leonard. Very little has been revealed, and this infuriates me because it shows the ineptitude of adventure game publishers. If they so badly want to their games to sell, why the hell do they never use tactful, aggressive marketing ?!!!!!!!

Maybe adventure games don't sell good enough to finance tactful, aggressive marketing?

--Erwin

[Intrepid Homoludens]

That's a stupid way of reasoning: No deposit? Then no return.

[Royal Fool]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

That's a stupid way of reasoning: No deposit? Then no return.

Sure is, but I think you might be surprised how many 'educated' and 'experienced' marketing analysts and so forth think this way. It's totally dumb.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

No it isn't. Find the money, find the marketing talent. Your existence will not be known unless someone heralds you. You could have the most brilliant game on your hands, but it's worthless until it's well marketed.

[BacardiJim]

If I might offer an observation about the marketing of adventure games without having my past rhetoric held against me......

I have long held that adventure games should be marketed on TV. In particular, the American shows 24, The West Wing, Law & Order, and CSI are natural advertising spots for adventure games, in that they attract upper-income audiences who own computers and have above-average intelligence, enjoy a puzzle/challenge, and are in the "demographic" age group for the genre.

Why don't publishers take advantage of this marketing possibility? Because sales report figures show that there aren't enough adventure games purchased to justify spending the money for such a marketing campaign.

But... there is a fly in the ointment that keeps the marketing people from seeing the audience that exists.

Most adventure games are NOT purchased in stores, but are purchased online. This is partly a matter of mall penetration (or lack thereof), and partly a matter of the fact that stores don't carry many adventure games. This leads us to the real crux of the matter: MOST ONLINE GAME SALES AREN'T FIGURED INTO SALES REPORTS! A retailer must actually PAY in order to subscribe to the two big online sales reporting services. Very few of them do so. EB doesn't. GoGamer doesn't. The end result is that the majority of adventure game sales aren't ever tallied in industry reports.

This leads into a tightening circle: Publishers don't realize exactly how many games they are selling, and cut back on both production and marketing. Retailers see that they aren't selling many adventure games (largely because they don't order/carry many adventure games so people are buying them online) and they cut back on the number of adventure games they pre-order for their stores. Mistakenly low reports of sales figures convince publishers that they don't dare spend money marketing their next adventure game....

It ain't right, but it's how things are. Wanna see adventure games marketed better? Write a letter to your favorite publisher explaining that he needs to ignore what his market analysts tell him and ask the "guys in the factory" how many copies of a game they actually sold.

[remixor]

I'm surprised that's not how publishers derive their data. You'd think it would be easier for them to get data directly from their own sales reports than from a third-party organization. Go figure

[Intrepid Homoludens]

I rest my case.