Paradise mini-review: Junk

Paradise review

Title: Paradise
Company: Ubisoft / Benoit Sokal

Copy Protection: Securom (US). A no-cd crack is available in the usual
places.

Game summary: Set in Africa... erm ... I didn't make it more than the first
area, three puzzles in. It was that bad.

Plot and Story:
The hero is the daughter of some king, only at the beginning she has lost
her memory. And she is trapped in a harem. There's a leopard character to
play as well, but I didn't get that far.

It didn't make any sense to me why the character was trapped in the harem,
was expected to behave like a member of the harem, but wasn't expected to
be one of the harem girls. She's just in some sort of limbo. She can't
push the favorite wife down a set of stairs either, which would be a quick
solution to the problems.

Puzzles:
The first puzzle was incomprehensible. There are conversations options
about some scales, but I didn't actually see any scales. You have to talk
to the favorite wife (who is a bitch) enough for her to move to a new
location ... so you can talk to her again. There are some sweet cakes
around somewhere, but it's unclear where they are, how to get them, or even
why you would want to.

The second puzzle isn't any better. There's a small mud-brown object
sitting on a mud-brown background which I didn't see. It's unclear what
the mechanisms do, and how they operate. There's an elaborate sequence of
use A on B to get C to use on D (and so forth), culminating in a small slot
that's fairly invisible. It's never clear why there is such a complex
process when someone could have just writen a note instead.

I was consulting the walkthrough heavily by this point, and glanced ahead
at the next puzzle, and it was just as bad. Do x, y, z. Give up.
Cutscene. Pixelbitch to find the missing piece after the custscene.

At this point I quit the game, and don't intend to return to it.

Graphics:
Fixed background with 3d characters. Nicely done, but the camera position
changes dramatically from screen to screen so it's a little tricky figuring
out where the hero went.

Sound:
Good enough

Interface:
The interface was adequate. Not enough descriptions of inventory items.
No quick travel option - double clicking makes the hero run, but still too
slow if I just want to get somewhere.

Overall:
Incomprehensible junk. Not worth your time or money.

JSwing

"JSwing" <JSwing.TakeThisOut@no.spam.please> wrote in message
news:Xns98D9E82D5EEE5threeMusketeers@216.168.3.50...
> Paradise review
>
> Title: Paradise
> Company: Ubisoft / Benoit Sokal

<snip>

> Overall:
> Incomprehensible junk. Not worth your time or money.

Thanks for the review. After Syberia I and II, "Paradise" seems to have been
a letdown for many if not most people considering the popularity of Syberia
I and II and quite a few people liked his earlier game, "Amerzone". But I
haven't seen much praise for "Paradise" which is a shame considering what
Mr. Skokal has shown he is capable of. Too bad really! I'm glad I didn't buy
it.

Mary