Adventure Gamers - Forums

Casual Friday

One game that was frequently nominated for a CCPT was Dark Strokes - Sins of the Fathers. I don’t know why it never gained enough traction to get elected, because it is a very good game. It may have suffered from the same problems many other games suffer from when it comes to the playthrough process. That is, it was always the second-best game nominated, and it finally ran out of voting steam.

The basic story is that you and your fiance have been invited to visit your father. While not specifically stated, there is an ominous undertone to the invitation.

Upon your arrival, your fiance is kidnapped by a masked entity. (The mask is somewhat reminiscent of the Guy Fawkes mask in the movie “V for Vendetta.” Your father is also missing. Fortunately you are befriended by a man who was seemingly injured while trying to thwart the kidnapping. It goes without saying that your three goals are to save your fiance, find your father and discover what the heck is going on. You will succeed in all three, but not without experiencing some bizarre plot twists that came as a complete surprise the first time I played the game.

The game, from Alawar Games, is well designed. The story is very good, as are the graphics, music and voice acting. The one shortcoming that I found is that the graphic portrayal of the main characters is not done at the same high level as the rest of the game. There aren’t many scenes where this minor flaw comes into play, so it doesn’t really affect enjoyment of the game.

Sins of the Fathers was released in the same era as other games that seem to have too many hidden object scenes for current tastes. I’m guessing that this era pretty much accounts for most games released prior to 2013. That said, this game, which was released in April 2012, is one of the first to attempt some form of interactivity in the hidden object scenes. It may be something as simple as using a hammer to smash a vase to find a rose, but at least it is a start. Alawar should be commended for getting hidden object games started on a better path.

Nice hat! 

Why is it that so many casual games have good but similar graphics? Aren’t there many companies that try to stand out with their graphics???

TimovieMan - 18 December 2015 03:30 PM

Why is it that so many casual games have good but similar graphics? Aren’t there many companies that try to stand out with their graphics???

I would beg to differ. Although, perhaps you are basing your opinion on the specific scenes I chose for the AGSotD. I’ll grant that this screenshot looks like a Sacra Terra screenshot I posted a few weeks ago.

But this looks nothing like Angelica Weaver. Which looked nothing like Enigmatis. Which looked nothing like Four Horsemen. Which looked nothing like Puppetshow. Which looked nothing like ....... you get the drift.

Aside from the color palette used, I have to say that many of the “retro/pixelated” adventures of recent years bear a strong similarity to each other.

I will say that some developers have a distinctive style that varies little from game to game. ERS Games fits that definition. And the fact that it probably puts out more games than any other developer probably doesn’t help if you are looking for some variety.

I’m hardly an expert on casual games, but the ones I have played, have all looked more or less similar, with different variations over the same overall graphical style. There are of course also differences, but they still seem much more uniform than the many completely different graphical styles we see in modern adventure games.

I would argue that at the very least they all use similar hue and lighting filters and achieve similar effects that way. The only real exceptions are Drawn and Emerald City Confidential (and even Drawn uses similar lighting effects, imo).

I guess I can take part of the blame for that. As I’m going through a game, it’s the dark, brooding scene that often catches my eye. The large Gothic architecture-inspired structures, often accompanied by a brightly moonlit sky, usually in the Fall as the trees have no leaves.

The adjectives that come to my mind are massive, foreboding, impressive, stable, bleak, intimidating plus others.

Perhaps I should try to include more colorful, brightly lit scenes. There are several that come to mind as I write this. But in all honesty, they belong to games and/or game types that I do not enjoy playing. Although I suppose there is nothing wrong with not liking a game. Cadenza is a good example. Although in that case, I had a reason for not liking it, but thought the graphics were OK. But again, there was undoubtedly a brighter scene available.

EDIT: Don’t know why you edited out all the links. Other than I don’t think they either confirm or deny your premise. They certainly confirm my tendency towards “dark” subjects. Putting them in, in a way that you have to click on each individual word in your post in order to see them makes me want to slap that Santa hat right off your head.

rtrooney - 18 December 2015 07:00 PM

EDIT: Don’t know why you edited out all the links.

I didn’t edit them out. That’s how I wrote them in - I write BBCode directly.

Putting them in, in a way that you have to click on each individual word in your post in order to see them makes me want to slap that Santa hat right off your head.

I was just making a point. Lightly.
Looks like it worked.

UruBoo - 19 December 2015 06:07 AM

I guess the reason that most CGs look almost the same in graphics is because they (the developers) all use the same tool: Spark Casual Engine. Have you notice that?

Well, that explains a lot…

Here’s an interesting interview with the engine developer.

Of note is the fact that the first game developed using the engine is one of our favorites: Enigmatis: Ghosts of Maple Creek.