I love to travel, but haven’t had the chance yet to leave the United States. I’ve made a pledge to myself that when the kids are gone, my husband and I will be visiting Europe. In the meantime, though, for people that can’t go there in person, a game like A Weekend in Capri is a good opportunity to see a very beautiful island off the coast of Italy.
This is an unusual game in its presentation, in that it is primarily composed of thousands of photos which represent the locations that players travel through in order to get from one area of the island to another. The game can either be played as an adventure, or as a tour of the island.
Upon startup, players can choose to either participate in a tour, or start the adventure. The adventure begins on a boat traveling to the island of Capri. You, a tourist, are set to stay at a hotel during your stay, but something strange happens on the way to the hotel; suddenly, all the tourists and other people on the street disappear. Confused, you read the sign on the hotel that states that more information will be given at the newsstand, and you make your way back to the market square.
Thus begins a long adventure that at first glance appears to be entertaining in its novel approach to the adventure genre, but ultimately proves to be nothing more than a tedious “fetch and deliver” quest.
After reading the sign on the hotel, players must make their way back to the newsstand for more information. This is easier said than done, especially for directionally challenged people. There is a map with road and landmark names, but these names are hard to read and some important ones are not labeled, or have different names. The hotel sign directs the player back to what is essentially the market square, but the name given on the hotel sign is different than what it is labeled on the map. The map has a “you are here” flashing arrow, but this is only helpful in determining if you’re going the right way, which involves tedious clicking several times in one direction while traveling, then going to the map to see if it’s the right way. This is made even harder at intersections.
Again, the names given on the map and the ones in the conversations sometimes don’t match. Players who know Italian will have an easier time with this, as the names are probably close in meaning, if not in actual words. The rest of us will just have to wing it.
The mystery unfolds in a manner much like any other adventure game in its essentials, but there’s not enough information given in the first part of the game to keep anyone’s interest high for very long. Players find out they are a boy named Rafael, who lives under a monarchy on the island. He is an employee of a greengrocer, who’s main job is to run around town and fetch and carry various items and give them to people. And that’s all he does the entire game. Couple this excessive traveling with the fact that travel consists of clicking each screen to travel to the next screen, that many times the probable locations to find items aren’t obvious and will require much wandering around aimlessly looking, and that there’s not much interesting dialogue for clues, just conversations that detail the next errand set, and the result is an increasingly boring journey.
The still photos in and of themselves are completely charming, and I loved looking at them while I traveled. There was a complete sense of immersion in the real Capri. However, once the novelty wore off, the tedium set in after clicking over and over again on endless photos just to get from one place to another. On into the game, there is a jump function to pre-set points on the map, but again, this isn’t all that helpful as the names of locations needed often aren’t known yet, and their proximity to the jump spots are unknown as well.
The interface is one of the clumsiest I’ve ever experienced. It’s not intuitive at all and makes the game more difficult than it should be. The dialogue notebook doesn’t list the recorded conversations in any logical order that I could discern, the menu buttons are not clear as to use, and the save/exit/load functions are designed badly.
The voice acting is adequate, but it’s often difficult to understand the accented English of the speakers. The dialogue is saved in a notebook, though, which is a good thing. I did like the amateur feel of the speakers; I felt that it enhanced the atmosphere of the game in the sense that it imparted a great deal of the “you are here” feeling.
I was intrigued by this game, and was prepared to like it on first playing. I’ve never been a player that is big on the latest advances in graphics and/or sound, in fact, I’ve just finished playing Heroes of Might and Magic II again for the third time, and it’s very dated in its looks. However, it’s one of the best games ever, and I like it much better than the later ones in the series. That said, I do expect the gameplay in any game to capture my attention and keep my interest. That doesn’t happen here, mainly because the story isn’t interesting, the puzzles are ho-hum, and the continual traveling is a pain. This is a game that I can only recommend to people who enjoy playing adventure games in a leisurely way, and who don’t mind excessive traveling from one location to another, and who like looking at photos of distant places.
Gameplay: 5
The gameplay is boring. The endless clicking through umpteen photos gets old very quickly. The interface detracts from the overall gameplay with its unnecessary difficulty in traveling around the numerous intersections. Item gathering is what the entire game consists of, except for a very few puzzles, and becomes tedious early on.
Graphics: 5
Wholly average graphics, composed mainly of still photos.
Sound: 4
The sound is slightly worse than average, and doesn’t feature enough sound effects.
Difficulty: Medium
The game is not hard to solve in terms of puzzles and clues, but the game is very long and can be difficult in parts because of a lack of direction in what is needed to be done next to advance the story.
Concept: 6
A different approach to adventure games that I wanted to succeed, but one that doesn’t ultimately deliver in the presentation.
Overall: 5.8
I really wanted to like this game, but find I cannot give a higher recommendation, in spite of the fact that I enjoyed the touristy feel of the Capri Island experience. That alone is not enough to make a game. The gameplay is not involving, and most players will not finish this game, as there simply isn’t any incentive or payoff to do so. A definite bargain bin purchase.
