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| | Publisher: Virtual Programming  Genre: Puzzle & Trivia | | | Min OS X: 10.4 CPU: G4 @ 1500 MHz RAM: 256 MB Hard Disk: 350 MB Graphics: 64 MB VRAM |
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It seems to be a fad these days to resurrect classics from the MS-DOS and early Mac graveyards. Lemure, today's topic, is a remake of Lemmings, an old game that focused on controlling the streams of little people towards a specified exit. It was widely considered a masterful puzzle game with high-quality controls and an easy-to-understand interface. Lemure, as its successor has a lot to measure up to. The question is, does it?Gameplay wise, Lemure and Lemmings are almost exactly the same. They both have the same tools, plus or minus one or two, they both involve controlling the stream of small creatures towards an exit, and they both require a certain number of those creatures to survive in the journey. The concept is still just as fun after all these years. Lemure adds a few new tools to use, though, like cement bags, rocket launchers, spinning lemmings, different angles for digging, and jumping. The levels are designed almost entirely to take advantage of the new tools, so you'll probably get used to using them in a level or two. They do spice up the old formula a little bit, although it's extremely obvious when to use them (particularly so for the cement bags). However, Lemure definitely is not as polished as Lemmings. The first and most obvious example of this is how the two handle the bridge building. In Lemmings, the bridge tiles were layered on top of each other, but even with the slightly higher layer, the lemmings could walk on it just fine. In Lemure, the layers can easily and quickly get high enough to cause a wall. This can be very annoying when trying to continue one of the bridges, as you can end up with your horde of lemurs stuck and have to restart the level. Also, there are way fewer levels in Lemure, so the game tends to be over quite quickly once you get the hang of things. Getting the hang of things is quite easy. First, you just wait for one lemur to enter the map. Second, you slow down the arrival of new lemurs to zero. Third, you use that lemur and possibly one or two more to clear the path to the exit. Voila! The level is complete and all you have to do is turn on the hordes of lemurs. You're generally given exactly the tools you'll need to finish, so it's not particularly hard to figure out a strategy. It just comes down to timing and whether or not you break the game during the level. Which isn't that hard, actually. In one of the ice levels, for example, there are two snow-blower sculptures. When they're activated, they fill up pits you have to walk on. However, if you hold down the speed up button, they squirt the snow only half as far as needed and create a wall you can't walk past. Considering that the speed up button is the only way to make waiting the three minutes for your lemurs tolerable, that's a rather large bug. There are others, like the bridge walls, so you're guaranteed to run across at least one while playing through the four themes. On the plus side, Lemure looks quite pretty and sounds very good. It's definitely an upgrade from the pixel-based graphics of the original Lemmings, and its soundtrack does work very well as an atmospheric background. It is hard occasionally to figure out what is foreground and what is background, but that's a minor annoyance. However, Lemure is probably not worth your money. It's a short puzzle game with no multiplayer, no real plot, only about ten to twenty hours worth of levels, and noticeable flaws. This would make sense when priced at around $15 or $20, but not at its $30 price tag. If you liked Lemmings and you're swimming in money, it's probably worth the purchase. Otherwise, you're better off leaving this one be. Pros • Shallow learning curve
• Good presentation
• More LemmingsCons • Annoying bugs
• Few levels
• High price tag
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