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Adventure Game Scene of the Day - Friday 21 October

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Guitar lesson tomorrow. Prep for a gig later backing up a Sheryl Crow wannabe. She is actually pretty good. Plus, I have a multi-band block party gig on Saturday. Figured it would be good to get this in early.

Casual Friday

I thought I had played all the games in the Secret Order series from Sunward Games. But a discussion on the Casual Games thread told me that I hadn’t. In fact it was the first game in the series, The Secret Order - New Horizon, that I hadn’t played. I recently remedied that situation.

I mentioned elsewhere that I thought the series has lost some of it’s charm. The fourth and fifth games were not up to the same quality level as the second and third.

So what happened at the very beginning? It is obvious that Sunward had a plan from the start. The concepts of time travel and the competing factions of Griffins, (the good guys) and Dragons, (the bad guys) were in place. But it was equally apparent that Sunward was still getting its feet wet when New Horizon was released.

I don’t normally include two screenshots, but it was necessary here. It is easily seen that there are two dramatically different graphic styles at play. One is an almost photo-realistic style with bright colors. The other, a toned down muted pastel style. It’s interesting that neither style made it to the second game, Masked Intent.

Also, the concept of time travel changed entirely from the first game to the second. In this game the time travel method is very mechanical, while the second game makes time travel a literal flight of fantasy.

There is no voice acting in game one. All dialog is done in subtitles. The music and effects are adequate but not great. The puzzles are relatively simple, but are interesting enough that I found myself playing through to the solution long after the Skip button was available. There are many HO scenes, and some of them are fairly difficult. Finally there are some hot spots in several scenes that aren’t readily apparent. I won’t call it pixel hunting, but it helps to give the cursor a quick pass over the scene to make sure you’ve found everything before moving on to the next location. (Or, you can use the ever-present Hint button.)

The plotting was very good, and that clearly was carried forward through the third game. For anyone who has played other games in the series, but not this one, I think it’s definitely worth a play. It gives a good insight into how a game gets its start and then evolves.

     

For whom the games toll,
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rtrooney - 20 October 2016 08:57 PM

Guitar lesson tomorrow. Prep for a gig later backing up a Sheryl Crow wannabe. She is actually pretty good. Plus, I have a multi-band block party gig on Saturday. Figured it would be good to get this in early.

You’re actually late by Kiritimati or New Zealand time. It would have been Friday evening there at the time of your post.

     
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I was attracted by the realistic looking locations of the game so tried the demo & was tempted to buy the rest of it - I haven’t finished yet but thanks Tim for the post!  Thumbs Up

NB Hope the gig goes/went well!  Smile

     
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rtrooney - 20 October 2016 08:57 PM

a Sheryl Crow wannabe. She is actually pretty good.

So, not really a wannabe, then. Naughty


Is there an explanation for the difference in the two styles (is it time-travel related for instance, like having flashbacks in that pastel-style and present-day in photorealism)???

     

The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka

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It’s complicated. You, the protagonist are visited, via time travel, by a relative from the future. He informs you that your dead father, along with the other four founding members of the Griffins, were killed in a fire set by a member of the Dragons. You are tasked with preventing that fire. Which you succeed in doing. Thus, by saving the Griffins, the time travel mechanism takes a different evolutionary path than the one created without them.

I understand if that makes little sense.

     

For whom the games toll,
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That didn’t answer the other half of your question re: graphic styles. Most of the game is the muted/pastel style. Still realistic, but not photo realistic. I’ve seen this in other games, and the only explanation I have is that either a time or a money crunch forced the developer to subcontract some of the work to another studio. And there was either insufficient supervision or insufficient direction. The result being a very noticeable break in continuity.

     

For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.

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