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| | Publisher: Oberon Media  Genre: Puzzle & Trivia | | | Min OS X: 10.3.1 Hard Disk: 166 MB Graphics: 800x600 |
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Graphics: Still pretty still When I played the previous game, Peril at End House, I coincidentally happened to see ITV/Granada's David Suchet version of the story at around the same time, and was most interested to note that the game went so far as to recreate many of the locations from the film. Not only did the characters and scenes look very similar, but some of the game locations had very obviously been repainted using stills from the film as a starting-point: the picture content and viewing angle was identical to the film in at least a couple of game locations.I re-watched the David Suchet version of Death on the Nile while reviewing this game, and found that it makes less blatant use of the film as the source of its graphics, although the inspiration is very clear nevertheless. The most obvious similarity is the rendition of the Karnak, though the scenes inside the boat are much more colourful in the game than in the film and bear only a passing resemblance in terms of their content. The quality of the graphics is very nice: the 1930s look is convincing, and the objects are all clear and well-drawn. Some of these hidden-object games suffer from items that are not always easy to recognise, but that does not apply here, even for the items that are very well hidden. The problem with this kind of game, though, is the very static and sterile impression they tend to convey. The Travelogue 360 series does at least have the advantage of spherical scenes that you can pan your view around to explore, but most games in the genre, this one included, feature only fixed scenes. Death on the Nile does alleviate the situation by having a small amount of animation in some of the rooms, usually in one small area, such as a clock with a swinging pendulum. Very occasionally, a hidden object may be associated with one of these animations: for example, a cuckoo clock in one room pops out a pair of dancing figures instead of the expected cuckoo, and you must click on them before they vanish back into the clock. In another case, when you find a piece of a torn document sticking out of a book, the book flops open as you take the piece. But in general the use of animation is extremely limited, and all the artistry has gone into drawing static scenes and objects and blending the objects into the scenes convincingly. The game uses the standard 800×600 screen resolution (which I maintain is now very much too small for modern computers with large screens), and you can choose to play full-screen or in a window. Playing in a window, though, will really have you squinting. Sound: Subdued sonics Use of sound in the game is really very limited. There are suitable little noises for clicks, misclicks and important objects, and a certain number of other necessary sounds, but the only major contribution of the game in the sound department is its background music.I thought initially that I was going to find the music irritating. I didn't much like what I heard on the title screen, and it certainly bears little resemblance to any music heard in film dramatisations. However, after playing the game I found that I'd actually grown to rather like the music. On the one hand there's occasionally something reasonably memorable to hear (such as the unexpected strum of a sitar), and on the other the music is sufficiently subdued as to avoid sounding annoying or overly repetitive. So I have to conclude that, negative initial impressions aside, the music in this game is actually rather well done. Conclusion: Full steam ahead! Death on the Nile is certainly one of the best hidden-object games I've seen to date, and deserves credit for doing its best to expose the player to the Agatha Christie story as fully as possible within the game's own context. If you want to get into the swing of the story, rather than simply playing the hidden-objects game, then there's certainly plenty of scope to do so, though conversely you don't have to if you don't want to. I did feel that it was relatively difficult to keep track of all the characters and their motives, not least because all the preamble of the book and film is absent from the game, but as a recreation of the most critical slice of the story I think it works pretty well.The one rather regrettable lapse, and source of weird continuity errors, is the layout of rooms on the Karnak. If one examines the plan of the ship side by side with the picture of it, it's clear that the two bear very little resemblance to one another, with the cabins on the lower deck in the map and on the upper deck in the picture. They certainly do not correspond with their locations in the film versions. As for the strangest gaffe, in the game's Green Lounge there is a window in the ceiling showing blue sky, indicating that the room is clearly on the upper deck, whereas on the plan it's on the lower deck, below the engine room! (And having the engine room on the upper deck seems very unlikely in itself.) I'm splitting hairs now, of course. The map layout may be a bit nonsensical but it doesn't detract in any meaningful way from the game, and overall this is one of the most interesting and enjoyable hidden-object games I've seen to date. The format in general isn't exactly renowned for bursting with edge-of-the-seat, nail-chewing thrills, but this particular game has as coherent, extensive and interesting story as any I've come across in this format, and as such is to be recommended. I also found the overall difficulty level to be a positive feature: tricky enough to be a moderate challenge without ever approaching being difficult enough to cause real frustration. The game essentially just lets you play your way through the story without ever really becoming stuck, which is nice for relaxation. As a final point, if you're wondering why Death on the Nile has scored a slightly lower mark than Peril at End House, it's simply a matter of different reviewers' tastes rather than anything significant. The two games are of a very similar quality, and I'd argue that Death on the Nile is actually the better of the two. Pros • A pleasurably undemanding game containing items that aren't ridiculously hard to find
• Very generous hint system
• Ability to skip the puzzles if you get stuck
• Ability to skip the story elements if you don't want to read them again
• Generally good continuity and plausibility in terms of the objects in the game
• Probably the best story-driven game of its type to dateCons • The plan of the Karnak is rather nonsensical
• The story is, by its nature, the same every time you play
• Perhaps too easy and unchallenging for more demanding players
• Limited replay value
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