MINI-REVIEW: Safecracker 2

MINI-REVIEW: Safecracker 2

(Review copyright 2007, Andrew Plotkin <erkyrath RemoveThis @eblong.com>)

If you see this game in the store, or on the web, it will be labelled
"Safecracker". I am naming this review _Safecracker 2_, to avoid confusing
it with the _Safecracker_ game published in 2000 (by the same publisher, of
course, why did you ask?) When my order arrived, the *receipt* said
"Safecracker 2". I suppose it's comforting to know that Dreamcatcher's own
personnel find their name-diddling as confusing as I do.

Anyway. It is almost impossible for me to say anything about this game that
you haven't figured out from the title. You have to find an eccentric
millionaire's will. He left it in a safe. One of about thirty safes, vaults,
doors, and other locked sundries which are scattered around his mansion. By
the time you reach the end, you will have unlocked them all.

Like its predecessor, _Safecracker 2_ is made up of logic puzzle locks and
combination/key locks. Unlike in its predecessor, the logic puzzles
predominate. You will see lots of variations on familiar types: rule mazes,
sliders, jumping dots. None of these are particularly hard variations.
(Which is good, because who wants to solve a hard slider puzzle any more?)
Most of them are at least slightly creative variations. (Also good.)

(One game-mechanical quibble: if you're halfway through solving a puzzle,
and you step back or move away, the puzzle resets. Be warned.)

Do not expect to spend much time looking at the scenery. There *is* scenery
-- it's a nicely-rendered mansion, albeit a bit sparse. But nearly all of it
is backdrop. There are a couple of visual clues hidden in the mansion, but
mostly it's stuff you stroll past on your way from one safe to another. You
won't even get lost; you get a dynamically-updating in-game map. Handy, but
it pretty much kills any need to think about the environment.

A quick litany of other game elements which were not exciting: the music.
(Repetitive.) The narration. (Smug. You mutter to yourself a lot, which can
be a nice way to keep you oriented in a puzzle, but this version seemed
mostly random and unhelpful.) The story.

There is, theoretically, a story. You encounter letters and postcards
throughout the mansion, from which you learn about the various family
members who stand to inherit the loot. This does not affect the gameplay at
all. It shows up, interestingly, at the *end* -- you find the will, and
(spoiler, la la, sorry but this isn't a major part of the game) you get to
choose who inherits. It's like having multiple endings, but -- it doesn't
play like multiple endings, because it's so clearly separated from what the
game *is*. Instead, it comes off as a reward: you've won the game, now you
get to point the magic wand!

I am not disparaging the idea, actually. It *was* a reward; I got a couple
extra minutes of enjoyment trying all the choices. (Save before you open the
final safe.) Player choice can be fun even when it's not a "YOU control the
story!!" situation; this was a nice demonstration of that. But it still
leaves the narrative content of the game as "puzzles, go at it until you're
done." Which is disappointing in this day and age.

Now I have described the whole thing. *Summary:* puzzles, lots of them, not
too difficult. Go at it.

(This review, and my reviews of other adventure games, are at
http://eblong.com/zarf/gamerev/index.html)

--Z


--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
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