Shrek Super Party
March 15, 2009 by Xbox Reviews
Filed under Video Games
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Shrek Is Good As A Party Game!
Shrek Super Party is the best Shrek game ever made! After I played Shrek 1, I wasn’t sure if I should play this one, but I did and am glad. You pick from six charcters: Shrek, Donkey, Princess Fiona, Lord Farquaad, Mousuier Hood and Thelonius (why Thelonius?). It’s very reminiscent of Crash Bash, Mario Party and Sonic Shuffle, only with Shrek characters. The graphics are hilarious! Each character has a super-inflated head. This may be a kid’s game, but I’m 13, a huge M-rated game fan, and I still love this game. If you had to buy one Shrek game, buy this one!
3 Stars A bit monotonous, but still good gameplay
My six and eight year old kids like playing this game and can spend hours doing so. My six year old doesn’t like the fact that the computer tends to beat him consistently in the ‘Epic Battles’, but as they continue to play the game, they are getting better at the various tasks. I’d recommend this game to families but just know that the ‘Epic Battles’ can be a bit trying on the patience for older players.
5 Stars Perfect for families to play together!
I played this game at a friends house and decided it was time to buy an XBox! My husband and I have been playing it for six months now.
Anyone that has opposable thumbs can play this game. You only need to use the left thumb pad and two buttons with your right hand. This is a fun game for the controller-challenged, children, and is stimulating enough for more advanced players. Some of our friends visited us and were surprised at the depth of involvment in this “children’s” game.
The biggest plus to Shrek is that you can set the time frame that you want to play. So you can play for anywhere from one-half of an hour up to two hours. If your kids are junkies, you can limit them to only playing one game, and you will know that they aren’t going to be zoned out for the next six hours.
This game is similar in style to Mario Super Party, but, once again, uses less buttons on the controller. You also have the option of playing the mini games.
An all around A+.
4 Stars Fun for the family!
This game is really great! But sometimes the announcer of the game (the magic mirror) gets a little on your nerves. I mean all the characters are from the movie which is good. Now all you have to say is… what are you playing? All of the games are mini games. There are 30 of them. Some of the games are lame. But some are very fun! If you like mini games that are family type, buy this.
5 Stars THE GREATEST GAME EVER IN THE HISTORY OF X BOX!!!
I love this game!!! Me and my friend love it. We are practicing the tournament now. Thelonious, Lord Farquaad, Shrek and Monsuier Hood are always playing the TV people and my friend always is Donkey and I am always Princess Fiona. We always lose, though but we keep practicing. My favorite one is Dragon’s breath. I recommend this Super Party to anyone who likes X Box games.
Evil Dead Regeneration
March 12, 2009 by Xbox Reviews
Filed under Video Games
Evil Dead: Regeneration follows along with Ash, the hero of the Evil Dead movies. Ash is the only survivor of the evils unleashed by the Necronomicon, that night in the cabin. Ash is blamed for it and sent to the Sunny Meadows institute for the criminally insane. He thinks he’s safe and can rest now, but the perverted experiments of Dr. Reinhard are about to change that.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars GOOD GORY FUN LIKE THE MOVIES 8.5 OUT OF 10
I love the Evil Dead movies, and I even like the games, something that can rarely be said about licensed games. This is another one of those licensed games that didn’t get as much attention as it truly deserved.
WHAT THE GAME IS: The protagonist Ash finds himself in a mental hospital still ranting and raving about the Book of the Dead and the evils within, and once again someone has read from the book and legions of demons/zombies called Deadites have been set free to roam the Earth. So Ash and his half Deadite sidekick Sam must stop this evil force, save the world, and uncover the secrets behind this outbreak in this really gory and really fun game.
GRAPHICS: Textures are sloppy but the environments and character and creature designs look good. The gore could have been better, but what’s here is pretty good.
MUSIC: The music is pretty good, but it could have better. It knows how to set the mood, but it’s nothing spectacular.
SOUND: Shooting, chainsaws, voice-actors like Bruce Campbell (The protagonist from the movies and games who plays Ash), Sam Raimi’s brother Ted Raimi stars in this game as your ally Sam, and the other actors are pretty good.
GAMEPLAY: I’ll get the bad parts out of the way, this game can get repetitive at times and save points shouldn’t be spread out that far. Now the good parts. In this game you only start out with a revolver in the beginning, then you get your trademark shotgun and chainsaw which adds more fun and gore, then eventually you get a device that shoots out a cable that pulls an enemy to you so you can shoot them as they are impaled on the cable. Chopping and shooting the Deadites is good gory fun that’s difficult to put down. This game also perhaps contains one of the best allies you’ll have in a game, Sam. He maybe annoying as hell sometimes, but he can get killed numerous times and he’ll just respawn. You won’t fail at all, he just gets killed and comes back in hilarious ways. You can kick him onto an enemy, and he’ll pull off their head or keep them distracted while shoot them because some enemies can’t get killed without Sam attacking them. You can also possess Sam so he can help you open certain doors and other obstacles. Puzzles are also interesting and can be difficult to solve at times. Boss battles are nothing special though.
OVERALL: This game is definitely worth a look, especially if you’re a fan of the movies. This is the ultimate Evil Dead game and it plays great.
THE GOOD: Funny characters, good graphics, decent music, lots of gore, interesting weapons, unlimited ammo, and an interesting storyline.
THE BAD: Gameplay can be a bit repetitive, save points are sometimes too far apart, sometimes characters are annoying.
5 Stars A Must For Any Deadite!
Hail to the King, this game was fun! Something you can play over and over again and I love that there’s infinite ammo! And of course having Bruce Campbell voicing Ash makes it even better!
5 Stars Awesome!!
This is definitely the best out of the three Evil Dead games, and I liked Fistful of Boomsticks. The story is better, Ted Raimi co-stars as Sam, and the problems that Fistful had are fixed in this game. It makes for a great action title, and a real fun treat for fans of the series. Ted and Bruce are great, and the dialogue they exchange is priceless! One of the better things about this game is that Ash actually looks like Bruce Campbell, and he didn’t really have that look on the previous game. The extras that are unlockable are also worth seeing, even though you have to find them throughout the game. Overall, this is a game you must play if you are a fan, because it is the best and it gives me hope for the next one.
5 Stars Evil Dead +Video Games= Awesome
This game is a blast to play, you have Bruce Campbell cracking one-liners, and of course you kill deadites with a chiansaw and shotgun, what more could one want.
4 Stars Ash Is Back
In EVIL DEAD: REGENERATION the game begins with a short prologue explaining about how Ash and his friends stayed at the cabin in the woods, discovered the Necromonican, and brought forth the evil that raised the Deadites. After the prologue, the game has an introductory segment that allows the gamer to get used to the various controls. This segment actually takes places in the cabin in the woods. After this, the storytelling begins as Ash explains how he was convicted of murder and ended up in a sanitarium (Sunny Meadows) because no one would believe his story. No one, that is, except a beautiful blonde woman named Sally. At Sunny Meadows, one of the chief doctors, Vingo Reinhard, spends his time using the Necromonican to perform ghastly scientific experiments. Reinhard is a mad scientist and ends up stealing the book, kidnapping Sally, and transporting himself to an alternate dimension to raise an army of evil that he can use to conquer the world.
Ash’s job in the game is to get back the book (hopefully to destroy it), rescue Sally, and stop Reinhard. In this adventure he’s joined by a half-Deadite named Sam (voiced by Ted Raimi, brother of director Sam Raimi; Sam is dead, but he still has his soul. There’s also a giant floating, phantasmic head of the original doctor who found the Necromonican who dispenses with sage advice now and again. Together Ash and Sam have to battle their way out of Sunny Meadows and through the country surrounding the place, closing portals that Reinhard has opened. It’s a crappy job, but somebody has to do and who better than the chain-saw wielding hero, Ash.
I’ve now played both EVIL DEAD: REGENERATION and FISTFUL OF BOOMSTICK and of the two, EVIL DEAD: REGENERATION is the one I like more. The graphics of the game are a little better than in BOOMSTICK. Also, with the addition of Sam, the action of the game is more interesting and fun. I mean, there are times you have to punt Sam, put Sam on fire, and have him ride a troll-like Deadite that ends up ripping off his head. Besides, with Sam around, the dialogue of the game isn’t as one-sided as it usually is-instead of monologues we are offered comedy sketches with two people.
Along the game, there are various pages of the Necromonican that Ash and Sam can collect. There are 20 of these in all and they unlock various treasures. Some of these are art concept sketches and paintings, but the majority of them are short videos with Bruce Campbell. These are a real treasure on the game. Some of the stuff is informative in a trivial way, and some of the news is now outdated (what Bruce does in SPIDER MAN II, for instance). However, all of these segments, even the outdated ones are entertaining.
For gamers who aren’t familiar with the Evil Dead series, EVIL DEAD: REGENERATION doesn’t offer much more than the typical video game. However, for fans of the series or fans of Bruce Campbell, the game is very entertaining.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
March 11, 2009 by Xbox Reviews
Filed under Video Games
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie & The Chocolate Factory brings a classic film and literature experience to life. Based on the beloved Roald Dahl book and the upcoming Tim Burton film, you’ll become young Charlie Bucket after finding a Golden Ticket. Embark on a fantastic adventure as you tour Willy Wonka’s factory — guided by the notorious, reclusive candymaker himself.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Fun game!
This game is fun and has great animation! My only problem was it seemed like it didn’t take long to finish. Well worth the $ though!
3 Stars Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The game is a lot of fun for my kids. It is a little chalenging at parts for my younger kids but that makes it more fun.
1 Star Collecting dust due to nausea
This game never gets played at our house. I have kids from 5 to 12 years of age and no one likes this because it is visually disorienting. Anyone looking on becomes sick to their stomachs in just a few minutes. Solo play is the only option with this one. And its just not fun enough to want to take it off the shelf.
1 Star Mediocre game play, can’t savegame in any useful way.
As a parent, I hate this game.
The game can’t be saved at any arbitrary point. So, you put a time limit on the game and your kid complains about not being able to save when their time is up.
And, the save game can’t be saved to a flash memory card and only has like three save spots. If you have more than one kid trying to play and save, forget it.
Every kids game should have these features: Save as is RIGHT NOW, and save to flash memory cards.
My kids like the game “ok” it’s pretty mediocre and repetitious for game play, but they want to finish it.
5 Stars I absolutely loved it!
I rented this game from Blockbuster, so I had to return it in a certain amount of days or whatever. I was so determined to finish it before the due date, that I was constantly playing it. It was so much fun! I ended up beating the game in a little less than a week, which is funny, because I take forever to finish video games. I guess that I was so attached that I didn’t even realize that the game was over. At the end, I literally said, “That’s it?” Big thumbs up on this one.
Blood Rayne
March 11, 2009 by Xbox Reviews
Filed under Video Games
As the half-vampire BloodRayne, you have sworn your life to protect humanity from the supernatural. Your latest assignment — seek and destroy the nefarious vampire Jurgen Wolf before he can use powerful occult relics to unleash untold horror upon the world. Slaughter, dismember and behead devious enemies that seek reinforcements and plan ambushes. Acquire supernatural skills and master brutal weaponry as you progress. BloodRayne is a pulse-pounding thrill ride that grabs you by the jugular and won’t let go until it’s over.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars elegant destruction of all who oppose you
elegant destruction of all who oppose you, that is what the gameplay appears to be, great for bloodthirsty gamers
4 Stars Pretty fun game
Okay, I must admit that I made the mistake of seeing the movie first. In retrospect of how they had the movie tie in with the video game, I simply don’t get it. Okay okay, let me explain. BloodRayne the video game is hugely better than the movie, so those movie goers who saw that first, don’t let they shirk you from playing this game. That being said, I was very pleasantly surprised at how fun this game was to play!
Naturally you’re playing as BloodRayne and she’s more than just your average vampiric character. She’s what they call a Dhampir, half human, half vampire. Naturally her character concept is incredibly alluring. Anyway the game starts with a video sequence of her being watched by the Brimstone society and her essentially getting recruited. Now this is all taking place a little before World War II era. Which obviously doesn’t mesh with the movie, because in the movie she got involved with Brimstone in the Middle Ages, how you screw that one up is beyond me? Anyway, the game starts you off in Louisiana hunting down some anomalies. This is basically a training level so you can get used to using BloodRayne and your mentor Mynce is there to help you out. After you complete this section of the game your real mission begins, but five years has passed. The Nazis, on their rise to power, made a group called the Gegengheist Gruppe (Anti-Ghost Group) or GGG and Rayne’s mission is to essentially bring this group to their knees. You get a list of targets to assassinate and you are sent through a large amount of harrowing missions!
I should forewarn any parents of how violent this game is, sorry just a good thing to throw out in a review. You do dismember limbs and heads from enemies. I was even surprised at all the harsh language in the script. To be honest the swearing seemed out of place and forced, so it had a fairly goofy quality, but that’s from an adult perspective. So parents might want to know about these specifics because the target audience for this game is most certainly not young children, you’ve been forewarned.
I thought this was going to be a fairly quick game originally and I was pleasantly surprised it took me a lot more than six hours to beat, which is kind of what I was expecting. Unfortunately the story and missions get a little monotonous towards the end, because basically you have to assassinate the people on your target list. The only variation is the location you’re in. Some of the areas are hard to navigate and you can get lost kind of easily because the way through isn’t very obvious all the time. The worst part was jumping up to a certain level in the middle section of the game. Basically you had to jump upon a series of small ledges to a very high location in order to get out, which was a horrible area to play, but I will admit it was very different.
In terms of game controls, it does take some getting used to. Rayne can jump really high, which is a boon when you want to get somewhere tough! However, sometimes this can prove detrimental when you want to land someplace very specific, in flight she is sort of hard to control and you don’t get much say. Rayne also has the ability to walk on something as thin as power lines (which is necessary in the Louisiana chapter). Like I mentioned above it’s a boon, but it’s not always easy to land on those power lines. Other than this general movement controls are fine and smooth. The camera can be rotated, which is a must for any newer game as far as I’m concerned!
In terms of combat this game can handle itself pretty well. I was surprised at the assortment of weapons I could choose from. Naturally Rayne has her arm blades (my preferred weapon in this game), but she can also pick up guns and you can use stuff ranging from pistols to rocket launchers. I wasn’t expecting this, but I thought it was awesome. So if you have an enemy standing in water and you don’t want to cross or get close you can shoot them from a distance. Rayne also executes automatic combos, which I suppose takes away from some of the challenging factor a game like this could use (however, I think it’s challenging enough as is). However, your bloodlust can rise, in which case Rayne goes into a sort of berserker mode and she’s nigh unstoppable! As you go further in the game she also levels up a bit and her attacks become stronger, but you have no control over that so it’s not like a role playing game by any stretch of the imagination. I also like the way they handled the health/damage issue. If you get damaged all you need to do is suck some enemy’s blood and your health meter will go up.
Added into this game is a whole series of different cheats you can enter to either help beat the game or make interesting things happen. Like you can get god mode or you can get one that adds extra dismemberment. I don’t really like the way they made the interface for the cheat code section because it’s fairly cumbersome to use and if you turn one on then have to stop playing the game, when you start your game up the next day you need to re-input all the cheat codes.
Ultimately I thought this game was a lot of fun. I have to take off a star because after a while the Nazi story-line, regardless of how interesting, does get rather mundane. I think the writers should’ve made a series of missions of the length of the Louisiana game, but with slightly different objectives each time. Rather than having a short introductory section with Louisiana and then having an incredibly lengthy assassin mission with the same objectives/concepts for the rest of the game. I think this would have split the game up a bit more and gave it a less monotonous feel. The writers did try to break it up fairly well, especially when you ended up going to the castle stronghold, that part was actually really fun, but again, the mission objectives were the same as the prior level. The game is definitely challenging and I will admit I had to turn on god mode a few times to get through certain sections because I simply couldn’t find my way out! If you can beat this game with ease not on god mode, you are a better gamer than I and I salute you.
4 Stars A FUN, SIMPLE, ACTION GAME THAT’S VERY BLOODY 8 OUT OF 10
I usually hate vampires in games, especially after playing Castlevania and Buffy the Vampire Slayer in which they’re pretty big d***s to kill, but Bloodrayne is a surprisingly cool action game that at the same time is gleefully blood and gore saturated with its constant bullet-spraying and slicing and dicing gameplay, and you’re a vampire!. Bloodrayne may be a bit undercooked around the edges but it’s a game that is well worth an investment and of your time.
WHAT THE GAME IS: You are a half human, half vampire girl named Rayne. The time is the 1930′s and you are a part of a secret organization called the Brimstone Society; an organization that hunts the supernatural. You must stop the Nazis from releasing horrific creatures using a powerful relic. So you kill ugly insect creatures, Nazis, and other abominations while hunting for Rayne’s biological father who was a vampire. You must you various guns and the blades on your arms to accomplish your goals.
GRAPHICS: Its age shows. Lip movements are off, animations are stiff, and the textures and environments are dated, but still work.
MUSIC: Sets the mood, but feels a bit too quiet.
SOUND: Bullet-spraying, slicing and dicing, screams of enemies, and fairly good voice-acting.
GAMEPLAY: The gameplay is quite simple, yet quite fun. I love all the guns I can get, and I love blood rage mode when everything goes slow-motion and slicing Nazis to pieces and hearing them scream while I do it. The puzzles are interesting, but what damages this game in particular is the fact you will wander for long periods of time figuring out what to do next. This problem is a minor flaw to this wonderful gory experience. The controls work great, though there are minor camera problems. Beware of water, it will hurt you. And here’s a tip so you don’t get stuck at the beginning of the game: power lines are basically a walkway to the next location at the beginning of the game.
OVERALL: A fun, yet surprisingly simple action game that is very gory and very entertaining, it’s an adventure that’s difficult to put down the controller for.
THE GOOD: Very bloody gameplay, cool female protagonist, lots of weapons, interesting puzzles, okay graphics, interesting story.
THE BAD: You will wander for long periods of time figuring out what to do next, music and graphics are a bit dated.
4 Stars Very enjoyable game. Recommended!
The graphics are nice. Not spectacular though, as some say it is. But they are adequate, at least indoor environments are. Outdoors aren’t that good due to the dullness of everything.
The control system…. must heavily recommend using the “1st person” controls. You get different moves as you progress in the game, but you aren’t much in control of them… they execute as the computer sees fit in the moment.
The game is fast paced and there’s a lot of freedom of movement… although you don’t progress unless you complete certain checkpoints, and exploring isn’t very rewarding.
You get weapons, but IMHO they are not very useful. Sure they do quite a bit of damage, but what’s a machine gun good for if you only get 15 rounds along with it? A grenade launcher with only 2 grenades? A 3 bullet loaded pistol?
The music isn’t very varied, but it works well jumping up the pace of the game. Sound effects are ok..
All in all, it’s an entertaining game indeed.
5 Stars blood rayne
thank you for speedy shipment and great service. oh also thank you for helping me recover my refund for the xbox game grand theft auto (san andreas) which i never recieved.
Still Life
March 10, 2009 by Xbox Reviews
Filed under Video Games
In Still Life, you’re on the hunt for a serial killer. Face five dead bodies, a mountain of circumstantial evidence and an angry boss breathing down your neck. This killer has a strange link to your character’s past, and you’ll have to dig deep and unravel the truth before the murderer strikes again. Beautifully detailed environments and stunning cinematics
User Ratings and Reviews
1 Star seems like a fun game except..
Well, i baught this game to play in my console (Xbox 360). however the game didn’t won 360 console. and it turned to be that some Xbox games don’t work on the xbox 360!
well, how would i suppose to know that! and at least there should be a note saying it only works on xbox!
right now i have the game and dunno what to do with it!
5 Stars Need help!
I love this game. Great story and fantastic graphics. On the gory side also. If anybody that has played this game knows how to pick the lock on Mark’s studio I’d love some help, I’m stuck! Thank you.
2 Stars WATCHING PAINT DRY WAS LESS BORING THAN THIS!
I enjoy games that have a lot of puzzle solving (MYST, for example), but I just couldn’t get into this game. This game just moved WAY too slow for my taste. I think the fact that there was very little music (except during the cut scenes) made it seem even slower. Then again, I put a lot of stock into the music of a game, some of you may not.
The graphics aren’t the best I’ve seen, but they’re not bad either, except when you are trying to read your journel. Some of the letters are so blurry, it becomes a huge annoyance trying to read it. I actually enjoyed the game up until the second chapter where I had to discover the combination to a safe that had symbols for numbers. OK, its a puzzle, but the item I needed to look at that would give the clue of what number each symbol signified was too blurry to read. I had no choice but to look it up online. You were able to zoom in on the bookshelf it was sitting on, but not the item itself. History has shown that these type of games are better played on the PC, so maybe I would have enjoyed this game much more if I had bought the PC version instead.
The game involves solving the murders of women found naked and eviscerated (a la Friday the 13th or Nighmare on Elm Street); so, it’s very dark and morbid. If these kind of storylines interest you, than you may like this game, but if your expecting it to move along at a pace like Resident Evil or even Haunting Ground, then you probably won’t like it.
Bottom Line: This game is for a very specific gamer; those gamers will most likely enjoy it, but the rest of you will find it boring. For those gamers who like these type of games, don’t get this version, get the PC version instead.
3 Stars Pretty visuals, dull gameplay
A nice looking, budget priced maiden effort from The Adventure Company, STILL LIFE is an old school “wander around environments looking for clues and talking to NPC’s to solve a mystery” game that takes you all the way back to the days when such games were text-based. Still Life adds a few “CSI”-ish elements to keep everything current.
For such a small title the visuals are often stunning, with pre-rendered backgrounds to match the best examples the video game industry has ever offered. Character modeling is reasonably good, too, and the murder mystery plot isn’t so bad either.
The problem? Gameplay. It’s all simply way too slow moving. After a promising early scene when you actually get to wander through a very “Se7en”-ishly disgusting-looking crime scene gathering physical evidence (you even spray a wall with Luminol and use a black light to read messages written in blood a couple of times), the whole thing peters out into a s-l-o-w exercise in going from one map to another, asking NPC’s questions, solving puzzles to unlock things, and collecting items. In other words, been there done that.
The game is so linear that even the scripted conversations you have with NPC’s don’t offer you any freedom of choice. Instead of giving you several options of how you can steer the course of a conversation (say, as in Deus Ex Invisible War and others), you are simply offered the choice between clicking the L or R triggers. The L trigger has you conduct a story-specific “nothing but the facts Ma’am” conversation, while the R allows for “off-topic” chat about the weather and things like that. But when all you’re doing is clicking the triggers over and over to get to the next scripted line, instead of being allowed a choice of three or four replies your character can give, it makes me wonder why the conversations weren’t just cut-scenes. No matter what order you click the triggers, there’s never a change to the conversation that affects the game’s ultimate outcome.
Speaking of cut-scenes, this is one of those games where all the gameplay is “move your cursor around until it passes over something in the frame and becomes an icon.” Conversely, the exciting stuff happens in cut-scenes; when you first see the killer, there’s a frantic chase down a darkened street and up a fire escape onto a roof. And you just sit there and watch it. Meh.
Okay, so it’s a budget title. But still.
Graphically, I think there is enough impressive work here that I’m interested in seeing what this company does in the future. As a game, even for 20 bucks, it’s merely so-so. But there could be some good things to come from these guys.
4 Stars Budget Title
You get what you pay for. Its true for almost everything in this world. You buy a $10 new game, chances are there is a reason its $10 and not $50. So, when you look at a “budget title” like many from the Adventure Company, you need to understand that things aren’t going to be at the same grand scale of say Halo 2 or Final Fantasy.
Before I get onto my review, a reader mentioned the game ends in a cliff hanger. Its true. There is a third game that was planned to finish off this series (the game started with Post Mortem) but now that the studio responsible for this game was bought by Ubisoft, who knows if it will come to be. Here’s hoping it will!
Games like Still Life don’t have many fans on the consoles. Adventure games (Still Life, Post Mortem, The Longest Journey, Sierra et al) thrive on the PC market but you rarely see these games cross over onto the Console. Myst and Monkey Island are two of the better known ones, but you’d be hard pressed to find many more above and beyond them. I think this is probably why there are some bad reviews here; most console players don’t know exactly what they are getting themselves into.
I happen to like most adventure games that are logical. I couldn’t get into Monkey island because I never did figure out why I was connecting the old sock, the string cheese and the hook to make a contraption to escape my situation. True, Still Life has its own share of silly riddles and puzzles (why Vodka would be the code for the morgue is beyond me) but its not to the degree others have been.
Games that are like Still Life get my mind going. A mix of Seven, CSI and adventure game, Still Life is a sequel of sorts to Post Mortem. You play as Vic MacPherson, a field agent, who is investigating a series of murdered young women. The crime eventually starts to draw parallels with an earlier string of murders commited 75 years ago. Is it a copy cat? Or is something more malicious going on?
The best thing about adventure games, for me, is that they usually are very story focused. The stories are usually very good and well thought out. Still Life is no different. It’s a dark story that earns the M rating in the first few scenes. Bad languange, partial nudity, violence and gore abound, but hover around the range of, say, Seven.
Going back to my budget comment, the FMVs aren’t of the best quality. In fact, some of them look worse than those on the first Playstation. But the graphics in game are stunning, really. Beautiful pre-rended backgrounds lend an air of creepiness and fit the theme. The first building, dilapidated and severely gross is a good indication of the rest of the game. The character models are lacking, though. Particularly when Vic runs. She walks okay, even though she walks like a super model, but running is both slow and clunky. There are also a ton of quick loads. The camera is presented in a cinematic way (ala Resident Evil) and sometimes moving between camera frame to camera frame there is a quick 1 second or so load. Annoying because it breaks the pacing but not detrimental.
The dialogue is hit or miss. Sometimes Vic’s voice is spot on and other times its silly and sounds like a high schooler with no acting experience reading the lines. Other voices range from great to bad. I like that the game gives you an option of sticking just to the facts when talking or asking about every day things. By pressing the R or L trigger, you can discuss facts pertinent to the investigation or about the weather. I do kind of wish there were dialogue trees. It takes out the investigative nature of the game if you simply choose to pull L to continue the story.
Surprisingly, for a budget game, the game is presented in 720p which is awesome considering not many Xbox games are presented in it. It also has 5.1 surround sound in game and is Live Aware. Not bad for a 20 buck game!
All of these complaints aside, you get what you pay for. In this case, you get more. For every bad quibble I have with the game, there’s something good. And, it really boils down to the game cost me $19.99 new. You can’t hold it to the same standard of a game that costs almost 3 times as much. If you like murder mysteries and don’t mind the format of an adventure game, you can’t go wrong with Still Life. If you like adventure games and only own an Xbox, you will enjoy Still Life.