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My early review copy of Adam's Venture 2: Solomon's Secret provided by the publisher was unlocked today. I've completed the first section involving an escape from a airport outside of Jerusalem. So far I like what I've been seeing.
(This is almost exactly where I've left off)
Speaking of seeing, the graphics are definitely a highlight. The animations of the characters aren't as fluid as AAA titles but the world detail is aided by fullscreen bloom and depth of field effects. I'm not sure what the budget for this episode was but the attention to detail is noticeable.
The pacing and the cinematography of the storytelling has improved greatly from the first episode. Cornball banter abounds as usual, but it's purposeful so if you're into that type of dialogue you might find it humorous. The cutscenes are spread evenly though the game as to keep the story moving.
As a hardcore gamer the only knock I have against the game so far is the gameplay...it's far too simplistic! That was the primary complaint I had with the first game. The puzzles were interesting but the overall difficulty was so low that it made the game feel like a training area that many games use to introduce gameplay concepts. The first section at the airport used colors to highlight objectives. For example, the pipes were red and items of interest had glowing green sparks. They even used animated textures to point out what to do at certain points. It's like the developers took extra effort to hold your hand the whole way through.
So far the episode is entertaining but I'm not sure what target demographic Iceberg Interactivve is aiming for. Many PC gamers with the hardware to run an Unreal 3 powered game tend to be hardcore gamers. I suppose the genre should be considered akin to puzzle/adventure games like Myst. But those titles tend to have some stumpers that take quite a bit of thinking. The problem is that since this game is broken up into episodes I feel that the diffulty of the second episode should be significantly higher than the first.
In any case I hope to finish my review over the weekend. Stay tuned for the continuing adventures of Adam and his sidekick Evelyn...
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