First visit?
Welcome to the premiere destination for adventure game news, reviews and discussion!Getting started: What Are Adventure Games? - Top Games - Common Questions Updates: Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook
archived preview: Juniper Crescent - The Sapphire Claw
A lot can happen in a year. Although still early in actual production, the game's conceptual development is well underway, with completed story and design, character profiles and dialogues, plus location and character designs, so there's plenty to talk about already. Offering a hint of innovation along with an intelligent, engaging story and the very best features of old-school adventure gaming, Sapphire Claw looks poised to deliver what so many jaded players currently crave. With these promises will come great expectation, but based on the prototype demo of the game, the anticipation is well deserved. Okay, stop... slow down. I can hear the onrush of obvious questions from here: 2D or 3D? Point & click or direct control? This was inevitable, with Ince's last major project at Revolution being the controversial Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon. There will be no such controversy with Sapphire Claw, however, as the game will be completely rendered in 2D, using an intuitive, mouse-driven interface. Merely saying "in 2D" does the game no justice, though, as the few screens I've seen border on jaw-dropping. The locations will all be hand drawn and coloured, using a rich, saturated palette. The craftsmanship is instantly apparent, and even the characters and animations will be drawn by hand. For the technical-minded out there, the game will feature anti-aliasing which takes full advantage of the 1024x768 resolution. For the less technical, one word will suffice: sweeeet! (Yes, I know that's not really a word, but I bet you'll be saying it, too.) Although the demo includes no ambient animations, the gorgeous background graphics make wonderful use of faux-3D depth-of-field, and the game truly does feel like a drawing come to life. Surprisingly, I found myself favourably comparing Sapphire Claw more to Curse of Monkey Island than anything by Revolution. If the artists can maintain this standard throughout the game, players are in for a visual treat. The game's interface is so natural that even genre newcomers (and I suspect this will be a game to draw plenty of those), will grasp it in no time. Many tried-and-true genre conventions are used here to good effect. Left clicking moves your character, while right clicking over highly-visible hotspots (no pixel hunting, I'm told) brings up a context-sensitive icon menu, allowing you to choose the appropriate action. The inventory is easily accessible, where you'll use and combine items to progress through the game. One great twist on standard inventory use is Blinky, a chatty, bespectacled mouse that Scout is persuaded not to munch for lunch early in the game. It's a good thing Scout wasn't hungrier, because Blinky plays a vital role in Sapphire Claw. In addition to being a "usable" inventory item, he'll also become a playable character on occasion, when being tiny comes in particularly handy. While not being actively used, however, he can also provide a wealth of information. If, like me, you begin each gameplay session with a glazed, vacant look in your eyes while you vainly try to recall where you left off, Blinky is the cure for what ails you, as he'll offer a tidy summary of the current events and goals. Even better, he'll also provide hints to your current obstacles when requested of him. Sure, it's a little embarrassing to admit that a mouse is smarter than you, but I won't tell anyone if you don't.
Article continues on the next page...
0 Comments
Comment posting has been disabled at this archive location. You can view the live site here.
Affiliate advertisement - Click here for more casual adventure games from Big Fish Games!
|
Loading...