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The UKFF Retro Gaming Thread


patiirc

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Simon The Sorcerer II - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

 

I've always enjoyed adventure games, some more so than others. I'd been sad to see the genre fall into nothingness in recent years, with games like Monkey Island, Grim Fandango and, of course, Simon The Sorcerer II delivering fantastic writing alongside fun gameplay. The iPhone has led to a bit of a retro revival of the genre, and I'm hoping decent sales may see some of the better games revived in new incarnations.

 

One of the better games wasn't, however, the original Simon The Sorcerer. The writers were gagging to write for the character of Guybrush Threepwood, and tried to do it with Simon, but failed miserably. The character wasn't anywhere near as endearing, he's not as funny, warm or likable. Did they sort this problem for the sequel? Not really, but it doesn't matter. The game is fantastic, and well written - possibly the biggest improvement I've ever seen from one game to the sequel. Simon's a cock, but it isn't much of an issue. You spend a great part of the game hoping he'll get his c**t kicked in. It's obvious the intention isn't to make him dislikable, but he is, and ultimately it doesn't matter to me.

 

The general writing is of a very high standard, and that's obviously very important in an adventure game. A good story is told, with a lot of laugh-out-loud moments. The puzzles can be a bit hit and miss as far as logic goes, and I have to confess I had to resort to the internet on more than one occasion to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do. Sometimes the solutions are ridiculously obscure, other times you feel like face-palming. Even when the logic is perhaps...well, not there I still find the whole "finding and using items" thing great fun, or figuring out just how to get past puzzle x. It's the most satisfying feeling when you manage to solve things by yourself.

 

I don't feel Simon the Sorcerer II has dated, unlike other games on this list. You might not like it, but if you don't I wouldn't say it's because it's aged badly, it may be that one of the faults I've described bothers you more than it does me. It may be that you don't particularly enjoy the genre, or find the puzzle solving too frustrating.

 

It seems a little odd that I've spent a good deal of the review talking about the faults in this game, given that I like it. But like it I do.

 

8/10

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Via Game - you can get a twin pack (Simon 1 & 2) for less than a tenner.

 

Cheers for the tip dude! It's rare to see a game of that age on general sale so it's perfect for those who dont want to play it under emulation.. Do you wanna come and play and nominate games? You are more than welcome to.

 

Cheers

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Simon The Sorcerer II - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

 

I've always enjoyed adventure games, some more so than others. I'd been sad to see the genre fall into nothingness in recent years, with games like Monkey Island, Grim Fandango and, of course, Simon The Sorcerer II delivering fantastic writing alongside fun gameplay. The iPhone has led to a bit of a retro revival of the genre, and I'm hoping decent sales may see some of the better games revived in new incarnations.

 

Not that I wasnt to ignore your review, But there is a bit of revival all round for adventure games of which Telltale games are the leaders (http://www.telltalegames.com ). They've just completed their 2nd Season of new Monkey Island adventures (each game is episodic), 3rd Season of Sam and Max, but they're just about to launch a back to the future season (22nd December confirmed date), and they have the rights to Jurassic Park (although I'm not sure if ths will be an adventure game)..they've also done adventure games for wallace and grommit, and Strongbad also.. and they're all bloody enjoyable..

Edited by Verb
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Cheers for the tip there. I've not been big on the telltale games to be truthful. What I'm kind of wanting to see is something that will probably never happen - a retro style adventure game. Not the twisted shitbag that Monkey Island has become. I like the old style pretty, colourful graphics.

 

And yeah, there are a few good modern adventure games - but nostalgia is keeping me from properly loving them, dammit!!

 

And pat, Simon is a horrendously annoying protagonist. It didn't bother me too much, I just looked at it in a Peep Show kind of way. Or It's Always Sunny in Philladelphia. Odious main characters, but the shows are actually good enough for that not to matter.

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Unfortunately I've been unable to get any version of Simon The Sorcerer II to run on my system, so I wont be able to give it a review :(. Apologies guys, but I have trouble getting old PC games running at all on this thing, and I tried the Amiga version, but WinUAE just refuses to accept an ISO file (which is what the rom comes as).

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That got it. Shame it only does the Point And Click type of games really. Anyway... somewhat of a review:

 

In short... not a fan.

 

Oh, you want more than that? Okay.

 

Basically, while graphically it's not bad for the time it came out, rather nice backgrounds in general, the actual characters look very blocky, which lets the graphics down.

 

Sound wise it's a bit too annoying for my tastes. It just feels bland and uninteresting as background music. Not quite soft enough to just be decent background noise either, it's like it actively tries to make sure you hear every note even when the characters talk...

 

and oh fuck do they talk... and don't shut up. At all. Ever. I don't mind some point and click games, the Discworld ones are phenomenal, and hilarious. This is annoying with the voice acting before we even get into the game itself.

 

And before I get into the game itself, the intro... is just too damned long, get the hell on with it. I want to play a game here, if I want to watch a video I still have an entire DVD of "Do Not Adjust Your Set" to get to, along with about two dozen movies I've yet to watch. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for entertaining intros, again, Discworld II has one of my favourite game intros yet. But it's entertaining, and it's funny. Simon 2 tries to be entertaining and funny with it's intro, and fails majorly, to the point I was just willing it to hurry up until I gave up and began trying every key to see if it would skip the damned thing (turns out it's Escape guys).

 

Onto the game... and my biggest annoyance is it's sooo dammmmnnnned slooooooow.

 

I mean for fuck's sake, get a move on! It takes an age to do anything, when I was in the tent with the wizards it took about 5 minutes just to work my way around them all, despite the fact only one of them had anything worthwhile to say. The others I could have lived with if something slightly funny came out of any of them, but it didn't.

 

As for the main character himself, I already was expecting to take a disliking to the guy due to the comments in here, but the second I walked into the town square and spoke to the morris dancers I actively wanted to see Simon fail. That's not the way to write your lead character. Rincewind is great because he's sarcastic, but still the guy running away from things. Simon feels like a z list celeb's take on Rincewind, and they couldn't get the rights. Instead of making sarcastic comments, he seems to just be a jackass for the sake of being a jackass. I don't care about him as a character, and I don't want to know more about his story. And that's after 10 minutes of playing.

 

It's possible if I had tons of free time to spend playing the game I would get some enjoyment out of it, but when I have so many other top quality games that I still have to get round to playing, fighting my way through the slow plodding gameplay of Simon 2, and getting more and more annoyed at the fact that for every 30 seconds of gameplay there appears to be 5 minutes of talking with piss poor attempts at humour does not feel like a good way to spend my time.

 

So for that being said, I'll grant them a point for the background graphics, and a point for actually turning up to make the game to begin with.

 

2/10.

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Unfortunately I've been unable to get any version of Simon The Sorcerer II to run on my system, so I wont be able to give it a review :(. Apologies guys, but I have trouble getting old PC games running at all on this thing, and I tried the Amiga version, but WinUAE just refuses to accept an ISO file (which is what the rom comes as).

 

 

Bummer to hear that

 

If you want to pick another game and we can review that next week if everyone is in agreement?

Edited by patdfb
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