Hottentot
06-01-13, 02:20 AM
Picked this up from GOG's sale yesterday and, having never before heard of it, I was surprised how good it was. Therefore, since the sale is still going on, here's a quick review for those of you who haven't heard of it either.
Are you like me? Do you in theory love puzzle games, but dislike how most of the genre works? Would you like a puzzle game with no hunting of that pixel sized little object in the dark corner of prerendered room? How about a puzzle game with no guessing what item the developers wanted you to combine that item with, or if you even have that other item? Do you hate aimlessly wandering from one place to another, trying to guess where you missed that one pixel or trying to use all your inventory items with all the hot spots in vain hope that the millionth time is the charm? How would you instead like a puzzle game where most of the work is done from your character's office and computer? If you are like me, then you might like Spycraft: a puzzle game that doesn't have any of those conventional annoyances of the genre and actually focuses on the puzzles. What's more, it's even a good game on its own too.
Spycraft is an interactive spy thriller from the 1990s. As was common in the decade, the game utilizes the Full Motion Video technology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Motion_Video) heavily and thus it resembles a movie filmed from the protagonist's point of view. As a film you have seen it a million times: there is the obligatory assassination, the huge political game playing in the background, the traitor and all that other stuff you could imagine to find in a spy movie. If this was a film review, I would stop it here and chuck Spycraft out of the window. But it's a puzzle game review, and as a puzzle game Spycraft still shines even today despite of being almost two decades old.
The game puts you in the shoes of a young CIA operative at first assigned to find the obligatory assassin. From there on the plot branches into various directions and you will find yourself tracking a mole, figuring out where an illegal sale of a nuclear weapon is going to happen and finding out about an underground organization of...shall we say, disgruntled employees. While such plot may sound boring, it's still in practice very gripping, because it makes you feel always being just one small step behind the target and knowing that you are missing just one little piece of the puzzle. Almost at any given time you have a clear task (or multiple) which will take you forward in the plot. These tasks are in fact the game's puzzles and to solve them you usually need to use (by the 1990s standards) high tech equipment. And unlike in so many other games, in Spycraft technology feels suitably advanced because it actually does something.
You don't need to collect millions of clues just to get a computer finally tell you something that you could have figured out on your own too based on them. Instead a typical puzzle in Spycraft is how to apply the technology and how to use the information from many different programs to arrive in conclusion. An early example from the game would be figuring out who the assassin is based on a 3D model of the crime scene. You will first scan the area to find bullet holes. From them the computer calculates you the bullets' trajectory. You follow it to the other end, zoom in and ta-dah, there's a guy standing in the window. Then you make as good sketch of him as you can with the facial recognition program and let the computer find out if there is anything like it in the database. This is still relatively simple. More complicated puzzles later include finding out a missing person by analyzing background noises from a recorded phone call, or tracking down a criminal by cross referencing marked bills and flight schedules of several pseudonyms he is known to use.
While the game usually has a pretty clear goal, there are times when you can still feel lost. While you are free to follow different clues in any order you choose, the game may expect you to have uncovered some information from one branch of the plot in order to solve the next problem in another. This is rare, but it can happen. The game also doesn't really take into account what has happened in the other plot branches, but may give you a dialogue where you say you "just" did something what you, in fact, did already ages ago. In theory it's still impossible to get stuck, because your PDA has a briefing tool which should always tell where to focus your attention next. The problem is that the briefing tool, much like some other vital pieces of information, is hidden in the PDA's endless depths and the game doesn't really encourage to use it because usually you are given the next task by email. Therefore sometimes, even though you may have one way or another solved the puzzle, you may still be left confused and wondering how the heck was that supposed to make any sense.
While majority of the game consists of playing with the high tech equipment, there are some more poorly implemented parts in the story. One of them is shooting. Granted that I completed the game with exactly two shooting sequences they are not common, but nevertheless they don't fit the game. The idea basically is that you move around an area until you "detect enemy": then they pop up like targets and you either manage to click them for the game to accept they died, or then they shoot you dead and it starts all over again. Likewise some dialogues give you an opportunity to shoot, which usually means that you do either that or get shot yourself. This wouldn't be annoying if the game still didn't expect you to follow exactly the right dialogue tree and click the magic "shoot button" in exactly the right moment without giving you a clue of when that moment might be. Both dialogues and shooting parts are often preceded by a cutscene which you can't skip (while normally you can skip them), and after the fifth time listening to them can really get on the nerves. Additional minus points granted for not having subtitles in them. Even though I could follow the plot relatively well, sometimes the characters simply mumbled so incomprehensibly, especially when combined with the background noise, that I had no slightest idea of what they said or if it was important.
Spycraft is also pretty short: I completed it in about one day. While there are some choices you can make and supposedly they may have some consequences in the long run, I really don't see much replay value in this before a long time has passed and the puzzles feel fresh again. Despite of this and the shortcomings described above, Spycraft is a good game and a refreshing mental challenge that doesn't rely on trial and error. So if you feel like staring a virtual computer, gathering little pieces of intelligence here and there and trying to paint a big picture from them, then this is a film you might want to watch and play in. Definitely worth the $3 I paid for it. :up:
Are you like me? Do you in theory love puzzle games, but dislike how most of the genre works? Would you like a puzzle game with no hunting of that pixel sized little object in the dark corner of prerendered room? How about a puzzle game with no guessing what item the developers wanted you to combine that item with, or if you even have that other item? Do you hate aimlessly wandering from one place to another, trying to guess where you missed that one pixel or trying to use all your inventory items with all the hot spots in vain hope that the millionth time is the charm? How would you instead like a puzzle game where most of the work is done from your character's office and computer? If you are like me, then you might like Spycraft: a puzzle game that doesn't have any of those conventional annoyances of the genre and actually focuses on the puzzles. What's more, it's even a good game on its own too.
Spycraft is an interactive spy thriller from the 1990s. As was common in the decade, the game utilizes the Full Motion Video technology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Motion_Video) heavily and thus it resembles a movie filmed from the protagonist's point of view. As a film you have seen it a million times: there is the obligatory assassination, the huge political game playing in the background, the traitor and all that other stuff you could imagine to find in a spy movie. If this was a film review, I would stop it here and chuck Spycraft out of the window. But it's a puzzle game review, and as a puzzle game Spycraft still shines even today despite of being almost two decades old.
The game puts you in the shoes of a young CIA operative at first assigned to find the obligatory assassin. From there on the plot branches into various directions and you will find yourself tracking a mole, figuring out where an illegal sale of a nuclear weapon is going to happen and finding out about an underground organization of...shall we say, disgruntled employees. While such plot may sound boring, it's still in practice very gripping, because it makes you feel always being just one small step behind the target and knowing that you are missing just one little piece of the puzzle. Almost at any given time you have a clear task (or multiple) which will take you forward in the plot. These tasks are in fact the game's puzzles and to solve them you usually need to use (by the 1990s standards) high tech equipment. And unlike in so many other games, in Spycraft technology feels suitably advanced because it actually does something.
You don't need to collect millions of clues just to get a computer finally tell you something that you could have figured out on your own too based on them. Instead a typical puzzle in Spycraft is how to apply the technology and how to use the information from many different programs to arrive in conclusion. An early example from the game would be figuring out who the assassin is based on a 3D model of the crime scene. You will first scan the area to find bullet holes. From them the computer calculates you the bullets' trajectory. You follow it to the other end, zoom in and ta-dah, there's a guy standing in the window. Then you make as good sketch of him as you can with the facial recognition program and let the computer find out if there is anything like it in the database. This is still relatively simple. More complicated puzzles later include finding out a missing person by analyzing background noises from a recorded phone call, or tracking down a criminal by cross referencing marked bills and flight schedules of several pseudonyms he is known to use.
While the game usually has a pretty clear goal, there are times when you can still feel lost. While you are free to follow different clues in any order you choose, the game may expect you to have uncovered some information from one branch of the plot in order to solve the next problem in another. This is rare, but it can happen. The game also doesn't really take into account what has happened in the other plot branches, but may give you a dialogue where you say you "just" did something what you, in fact, did already ages ago. In theory it's still impossible to get stuck, because your PDA has a briefing tool which should always tell where to focus your attention next. The problem is that the briefing tool, much like some other vital pieces of information, is hidden in the PDA's endless depths and the game doesn't really encourage to use it because usually you are given the next task by email. Therefore sometimes, even though you may have one way or another solved the puzzle, you may still be left confused and wondering how the heck was that supposed to make any sense.
While majority of the game consists of playing with the high tech equipment, there are some more poorly implemented parts in the story. One of them is shooting. Granted that I completed the game with exactly two shooting sequences they are not common, but nevertheless they don't fit the game. The idea basically is that you move around an area until you "detect enemy": then they pop up like targets and you either manage to click them for the game to accept they died, or then they shoot you dead and it starts all over again. Likewise some dialogues give you an opportunity to shoot, which usually means that you do either that or get shot yourself. This wouldn't be annoying if the game still didn't expect you to follow exactly the right dialogue tree and click the magic "shoot button" in exactly the right moment without giving you a clue of when that moment might be. Both dialogues and shooting parts are often preceded by a cutscene which you can't skip (while normally you can skip them), and after the fifth time listening to them can really get on the nerves. Additional minus points granted for not having subtitles in them. Even though I could follow the plot relatively well, sometimes the characters simply mumbled so incomprehensibly, especially when combined with the background noise, that I had no slightest idea of what they said or if it was important.
Spycraft is also pretty short: I completed it in about one day. While there are some choices you can make and supposedly they may have some consequences in the long run, I really don't see much replay value in this before a long time has passed and the puzzles feel fresh again. Despite of this and the shortcomings described above, Spycraft is a good game and a refreshing mental challenge that doesn't rely on trial and error. So if you feel like staring a virtual computer, gathering little pieces of intelligence here and there and trying to paint a big picture from them, then this is a film you might want to watch and play in. Definitely worth the $3 I paid for it. :up: