While I find myself asking this
very question, I also find myself strangely drawn to this strange, engaging
world. which I believe was designed to both infuriate and encapsulate me.
"What!" You say. Well, I’ll say
this. It has been a long time since I have been thrown in the proverbial
mental meat grinder. In other words, this game is tough, real tough. How tough
could it be? Well, I beat Myst, and I didn’t think it was all that hard, I
still have not beat this game.
Sentinel: Descendants in Time, is
very much like a Myst-style game, only there is more interaction with
characters than Myst. I’ll explain. In Sentinel, you play a character named
Beni. Beni is an amateur adventurer living in a fictitious world. On this
world are the remnants of a much more advanced civilization called the Tastans.
The Tastans left behind all sorts of strange and dangerous technology inside
of huge tombs. No one knows exactly what happened to the Tastans and many of
your fellow beings lost their lives exploring these tombs. One tomb in
particular, Tomb 35, is said to contain the greatest treasure of all. Problem
is, there is an A.I. construct named "Dormeuse" that guards Tomb 35 and she
has plans for you and anyone else who comes into her domain. To add just a
little bit more pressure to Beni, his sister has been taken by mobsters who
are telling you to go into Tomb 35 and find the treasure or they will kill
your sister.
Now Sentinel is played like a FPS,
only your weapon is your brain, not Beni’s brain, YOUR brain. You can run
around the strange environments and use your action button on various
devices that you find. No, there are no weapons, nor is their any sort of
combat. Instead, like Myst, you must solve and decipher strange devices
that help move your adventure forward. Beni can run and jump around (although
it’s weird playing a character who appears to have a six-inch vertical leap)
turning on generators that get their power from plants and activating
water-based technology all while playing a mental game of chess with Dormeuse
who pops up fairly frequently to have a discussion about your intentions. I
liked the feel of how Beni is controlled, and the action button does work well
with this type of game, but I must admit I wish he could have jumped higher,
and that speed at which he runs around was simply not quick enough for me. If
one of my loved one’s life was on the line, I know I’d be one fast-moving
fellow.
But those minor control blips
aside, the game looks absolutely gorgeous. Strange landscapes are done
wonderfully with shading and color usage. The textures look really good when
you move up on them, nice smooth (or bumpy) objects really make you feel like
you are on another world. Some of the levels reminded me a little bit of the
works of H.R. Giger (he did the Alien designs), while others had an almost
Aztec feel to them. The level design is clearly the game’s selling point,
although not necessarily it’s finest feature.
Instead, I like to say the game’s
finest feature is those "oh so tough, it hurts" puzzles. Yes, they can be
incredibly difficult, so I will give you a hint, play this with a friend.
Sometimes you must step out of your mind’s comfort zone in order to come up
with the answers (which sometimes are staring you in the face). And that may
be accomplished by having another set of eyes sitting next to you. The old
"two heads are better then one" adage certainly comes to mind. I’ve played
this game with my wife, son (who was no help cause he’s four) and friend. All
the help I can get at this point. Some of these puzzles are incredibly
devious, but once you beat one, there is a strong sense of accomplishment that
videogame’s can rarely give you.
Once a stage is beaten, you will
acquire a Hearth crystal that will allow you to transport back to Tomb 35 and
place into a console. Oh, did I fail to mention that you run around Tomb 35
transporting yourself to other worlds/dimensions? Well if I did, then there
you go.
Even the audio is done pretty
well. Beni "sounds" like a Beni as do the different tones of Dormeuse, and I
still don’t know what she is up to. Is she evil, is she using me, is she
trapping me? I have no clue, but there have been a couple of times I thought
she was going to end it all for me. Which brings me to another point that I am
starting to see more and more of in the various forms of entertainment. At the
beginning of the game, Beni’s sister is kidnapped, blah, blah, blah, well
when Beni first enters Tomb 35, Dormeuse asks him what he is doing here. Why
wouldn’t he simply say "My sister has been kidnapped and if I want her to
live, I must recover treasure from this tomb," but noooooooo, he’s all aloof
and vague. Now some people would say that he didn’t tell her because what kind
of a game would it be if she let him waltz out with the treasure. My point is
the dialogue isn’t what a person would say in these types of circumstances.
The game would still be the same if Beni HAD stated that, and Dormeuse replied
"I’ve heard this before" or "I was designed with no empathy" or any other
number of replies. So in the end, my beef is that I feel the dialogue could
have used something extra.
|
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Gameplay: 8.1
A Myst-like adventure with FPS
controls. Now if they tuned up Beni’s innate abilities, I would have been
blown away. The uniqueness of the puzzles and how they work get big ups from
this reviewer.
Graphics: 9.0
Stunning, absolutely stunning. I
hope you have a decent graphics card so you can take in the game’s beautiful
environments and stunning effects. Wow.
Audio: 7.5
Emotion was conveyed when needed
and the conversations came across well spoken, so I had no problem with the
voice actors, I just feel the dialogue needed more cleverness to it. Or at
least have it be a conversation that would actually occur given the
surroundings.
Difficulty: Hard
Oh, I’m sure somebody out there
will have an easy time with this one, but they’re going to be a card-carrying
member of Mensa. I had a real hard time with some of these puzzles. Some
weren’t too bad, but there’s this one, and if you play the game you’ll know
exactly what I am talking about.
Concept: 7.0
It could literally be the next
chapter in the Myst series, and I doubt anyone who plays this one won’t think
that the developers weren’t heavily influenced by Myst.
Overall: 8.0
I really did and am currently
enjoying this game. There’s no real violence, and it’s based mostly on your
ability to solve puzzles so I would say it’s a good game for parent and child
to try and tackle together. It’s nice to see a game that doesn’t need excess
to be well done and enjoyable. Give it a shot.
