Sunday, September 28, 2008

The Neverhood

The Neverhood was the first game I attempted to finish. Unfortunately, there are bugs -- I'm not sure if they're in the actual game, or if they're caused by emulation, but when you save a game then restore later, all the puzzle solutions you've already seen are reset to a new configuration. This meant I couldn't finish the game with the notes I'd made and, while I liked it, I didn't like it quite enough to go back and re-play it from the start in a single session.

The game uses claymation for everything and switches between third and first person view depending on whether you're in a puzzle or a travel area. Unfortunately, there is a massive amount of dead space to cross and re-cross and re-re-cross and re-re-re-cross and it gets old quick, and then there's the hall of records, which is like 35 screens of multiple columns of text giving the entire backstory of the game, and the game requires you to traverse all those screens to the very end to pick up an item and then all the way back. If there's a more blatant filler in any game, tell me right now so I can avoid.

The puzzles usually also require travelling to some random location on the very other end of the world, then coming back. It's too bad, because the game is prettily made and funny, but there's no meat there, it's all filler.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I downloaded Neverhood from an abandonware site a couple of years ago. I remembered that it looked interesting but I'd never gotten around to buying it. The ridiculous amount of time-consuming travel that you mentioned was what made me stop playing. I never did finish it, but I'd never paid for it either.