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From
the creators of the award winning French films, Delicatessen and The City of
Lost Children, film makers Jean-Pierre Junet and Marc Caro have teamed up with
games developers and publishers Psygnosis to bring us The City of Lost Children,
an interactive adventure game.
The City of Lost Children was produced
at the Paris development studio of Psygnosis under the guidance and artistic
direction of cinematic author Marc Caro, whose ingenious artistic style and
complex imagery go beyond imagination.
During the night, children are being bundled into vans and despatched
to the laboratories of the evil Krank. Krank is a scientist who is aging
prematurely due to the fact that he cannot dream and has designed a machine that
will transfer the children's dreams into his own mind.
The player
controls the movements of Miette as you investigate the surroundings and attempt
to thwart the mad scientist before the city is devoid of young children.
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The
City of Lost Children is a dazzling graphical adventure title unlike any other
experienced. A surreal game that combines beautifully-rendered environments with
an intriguing plot.
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This
massive project has taken almost two years to complete and graphically the game
looks very impressive indeed. Featuring realistic light sourcing, Resident Evil
type background graphics and Alone in the Dark camera angles, City of the Lost
Children is a well presented third person adventure.
Most of the
backgrounds were put together using the actual drawings from the movie. The
characters movements needed to be as realistic as possible therefore motion
capture technology was used, resulting in the creation of a virtual actor.
Because of the combination of the most advanced computer graphic techniques with
Caro's distinct artistic direction, the end result takes adventure gaming in a
new direction, delivering a unique experience that sets the product apart.
Psygnosis must be commended for actually making the game closely resemble the
movie.
In certain locations you may change the camera viewpoint, which
is extremely helpful. However, the camera angles are often positioned at a
distance that force you to view the scenery in all of it's splendor when a close
up would have been more useful. Unfortunately this detracts from the task in
hand and hinders the gameplay resulting in Miette stumbling over numerous
obstacles and missing vital clues, which in effect slows down the game to a
snails pace.
Each of the characters are well drawn and actions are
smoothly animated. Arms waving about gesticulating anger, shoulders shrug and
palms raised when confused by your questioning and Miette's's stooping walk
displaying her poverty and lack of nourishment.
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The
music is provided by Francis Gorge along with the composer of the Twin Peaks
soundtrack, Angelo Badalement and compliments the game superbly. When you
become tense and frustrated with aimlessly wandering around the town trying to
piece together the clues, the music acts as a peace-maker with it's beautiful
atmospheric melodies and becomes the perfect substitute for two paracetamol and
a glass of water.
Each of the characters voices are spoken loud and
clear with distinguishable accents. When Miette's action is incorrect she will
notify you by proclaiming "I can't do anything". Because of the
complex and strange nature of the puzzles she will constantly be insisting that
she cannot do anything and this slowly begins to grind on your nervous system.
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The
central character is the ten year old orphan, Miette, who sets out on an
adventure which will take her all around the world. She will meet and interact
with over 20 individual characters that aid her on a quest to locate the trapped
children of the world and then eventually set them free. On her journey, Miette
must solve many thoughtful riddles and puzzles to advance through the 100
pre-rendered sets which are divided into three main objectives.
You
control Miette, a young girl living in an evil orphanage. You are ordered to
complete two introductory missions for Pieuvre, the Siamese twin orphanage
mistress. Break into the cashiers office to pinch the cash and then steal the
jewels from the Loan Sharks house. You are then thrust into the main focus of
the game, to find the lost children.
The control pad works quite well
with the directional buttons used to move Miette around the set. The face
buttons on the joypad allow her to pickup/put down objects, interact with
certain characters, perform an action and open up the inventory. The shoulder
buttons allow Miette to run, change camera angles (when allowed) and stoop down
to hide from undesirables. Miette can collect up to ten items and place them in
her pockets for later use.
The game opens in the classroom with
Pieuvre balling out her orders to young Miette. "Go to the cashiers office
and return with the money or we'll throw you in the CELLAR". Just time for
a quick scout around the classroom to collect any useful items.
Here
lies a slight problem with City of the Lost Children. Why does each object not
show a slight twinkle (ala Resident Evil) to attract your attention? Instead
you must walk over every square inch of each room, courtyard, dockyard and
gangway in the entire city to hopefully stumble across a collectable item. Miss
an object by a fraction of an inch because the camera is set about 40 feet into
the air and it's right back to the start to scan the entire city again. You
must virtually step on the item for it to register on the screen. This first
happens in the classroom. Walk past an object and a little box flashes at the
top of the screen and then disappears again. Back up a little, a touch to the
right, an inch forward, back a little more, oops too far, forward a touch, got
it! By the time you pick up the object Pieuvre will throw you in the cellar for
hanging around too long.
The first time you visit the cellar the door
will remain open, the second time it will be locked therefore you must work out
an alternative exit, a third time will be game over.
Once you have
spoken to each character for clues and scanned the entire location for objects
you must then decide what to do with them. This is easier said than done as
some of the actions are strangely bizarre, to say the least. During the game a
Cyclops will block your path and you must work out how to pass him. How about
finding a paint brush, dipping it into a pot of paint and then painting his eye
to blind him. He will then fall in the water and drown. Hmm, is that peculiar
or is it just me?
The gap between the first two missions and the main
one is huge, and seems fallacious. In fact, much of the game seems illogical.
It is never quite clear what you're supposed to do next, and more often than not
you'll find yourself completely baffled with no idea what you must do to
proceed. Even if you have seen the movie you may find yourself bewildered and
confused.
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This
is a strange game to call. I tried playing it on my own for a couple of days
and became completely frustrated with going back and forth over previously
covered ground. I then asked my mates over and we completed the game in an
afternoon by simply throwing outrageous ideas around.
The graphics are
impressive, the music is brilliant while the gameplay sometimes gets bogged down
with vague missions played at a slow pace.
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MARTIN |
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GRAPHICS: |
Brilliant |
The
game features beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds and gameplay that tries very
much to copy Resident Evil in terms of interaction but somehow it just doesn't
succeed. The music and graphics are very good, but they don't help when you
become totally lost with the idiosyncratic puzzles. I must also mention that
this game uses all 15 blocks of a standard memory card. |
SOUND: |
Excellent |
PLAYABILITY: |
Average |
VALUE: |
Average |
OVERALL 7/10 |
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DAVE |
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GRAPHICS: |
Brilliant |
A
game that will appeal to those who enjoyed Broken Sword. The graphics are
stunning and I was impressed by how smooth the game ran. I didn't have too much
difficulty in completing the game and felt that there were insufficient tasks to
attempt in each area. |
SOUND: |
Good |
PLAYABILITY: |
Average |
VALUE: |
Average |
OVERALL 7.5/10 |
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