Customer Reviews

The Experiment

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This game is definitely different than your typical collect your items, point and click adventure game. It tries to bring something new to the table. However, whether that "new" makes a good game or not, it's probably going to depend your patience level.

The game is somewhat original, has good writing, and its story is definitely mysterious enough to give you an urge of continue playing; so you can find out what this is all about (since, you don't even have a clue who the protagonist is at the beginning). There's also a lot of details to the game, I don't mean graphically (although they are pretty good), but about its characters and the technical enviroment the game takes place in; making it believable and interesting.

With all the good things said, there is one BIG problem. Which is the "new" I mentioned initially. "The Experiment" plays very differently than anything else we are use to; not just adventure games, but games in general.

First of all, Lea, the main charater you see in the game is not you (the protagonist). Your character commands her behind video cameras by utilising the enviroment around Lea. Confused? Or maybe even more interested? Yeah, that's pretty much going to decide whether you are going to like this game or not.

If you are interested behind the idea of playing almost like a voyeur, then you'll probably overlook the painful control scheme. The basic idea is that you look at Lea through the video cameras, and you tell her where to go, or what to do, by start operating on something around her; for example, the lights. As you progress in the game, you will learn more system functions in the compound that the game takes place in, therefore giving you greater control of the mechanical environment. Sounds fun? Right. Except the game makers didn't include an easy interface. There's too many controls and sub-controls, making the learning curve ridiculous. The camera angels don't help things either. You will struggle at times to choose the right view to see what Lea is doing, and where she should go next.

I know I probably wrote more about the control scheme than the actual contain within the game, but that's really what makes "The Experiment" unique. But it is an aquired taste. You will either enjoy the game due to this uniqueness, or hate it because of it.

Now, this what I call a different adventure game. You control the main character using cameras. Very different from what you usually do. Because it is different, I really enjoyed this game. I liked the 3rd person view from the various cameras.

The graphics used in the game are excellent and very pretty - especially the intro cut scene. The puzzles used in the game were not overly hard and matched the story line.

The best adventure released from TAC in quite a while and I hope TAC releases more games of this quality in the future.

Well worth playing by anyone looking for a good adventure game that is a little different.

Cool and so clever in many ways, but with a few flaws.
The Good. - Very clever interface, deeply immersive interesting interactive world. Nice realistic feel. Quite good deep puzzles. The science ship makes a cool interesting environment.
The Bad. Can be frustrating. Still mostly not that difficult. Puzzles could be deeper still. A few minor bugs - get caught in doors, one or two crashes (in same place). Puzzles can be somewhat rigid in order structure forcing you to wonder back and forth etc - but this is a very minor problem.
Overall I like this game a lot - very good.

I LOVE the concept -- that your PC is really part of the game. But for my taste there's too much moving windows around, and waiting for wots-her-name to move about. And the voice acting is pretty bad. I'm probably too much action-oriented -- more puzzle-loving players might love it. I'd put it somewhere between Tomb Raider 1 and Rhem for action.

No, this is definitely not the typical point and click adventure games. You aren't actually even moving a character...you basically control a ship and the main character moves through the ship as you turn on lights and open doors for her. The interface is strange, with an overabundance of separate windows that exist on your screen, including the cameras you are controlling. I found this game to be frustrating and cumbersome, with none of the actual interesting aspects of adventure games, such as exploring an area, solving puzzles, interacting with characters, and beautiful scenery/graphics.

If you want enjoyable game play with interesting visuals do not play this game. If you like to figure out how to program your new television or other software set up, then you might like this game. It's very cumbersome to try and get the main character to go/do want you want. You have to move a alot of windows around to see anything at all. Not fun at all. Very slow paced.

The Experiment is one of the most unique and immersive games ever made. Any other stand-alone product pales in comparison to this game's ability make you feel like part of the story.

Coming from Lexis Numerique, a veteran developer of alternate-reality games (the sort of game that calls your real-life computer or IM account ala' murder-mystery role-playing), The Experiment puts you in the role of yourself, using the security interface of a mysterious ship-borne laboratory, guiding a survivor through the ruins to find out what the hell happened to everybody.

All you can do is operate the ship's computers, using security cameras to keep up with Lea, your companion, reading files and personal emails to find passwords and puzzle solutions, and flashing nearby lights or objects to draw Lea's attention. Unable to speak or communicate directly to your charge, you have to "nod" a camera to answer yes-or-no questions.

Unfortunately, the lenses are smudged a little. The interface takes a while to get used to, and the translation has a few potentially puzzle-breaking mistakes. Keep a walkthrough bookmarked in case you get stuck. It's also a challenging adventure game, so it might not appeal to some Halo-trained run-and-gun enthusiasts. Still, if you've ever loved adventure games, good writing, or unique gameplay concepts, you owe this game a try. Demos are available at the website.

Yes, the interface it kind of bad. Yes, it is an intriguing style of game play. Unfortunatly for me, it is too damn buggy to actually play. It doesn't play well with Windows 7 x64. After putting it into XP compatibility mode, running as Admin, and turning off compositing and visual themes, it worked. I started up and got stuck trying to find the night vision add-on. I searched and searched and couldn't find it. By accident I quick-loaded the game and the items magically appeared on the map. Key items not loading is a HUGE bug that will always keep me questioning whether I am not seeing the solution to a puzzle or if the key items didn't load. Also I got to the robot and after unlocking the controls, it would not move. The wheels would go but it would not move. Restarting would not help either. Worst of all, there is no place to get support. The Adventure Company has been bought by JoWood who doesn't even list the game for support.

I wanted to like this game, but when I can't even complete the first half-hour because of bugs, it makes it damn hard to recommend it. The concept is great, but the implementation is horrible.

This game is different from everything else out there. You are not the main character - but you have to try to lead her around by manipulating her environment. The story was really interesting and I enjoyed the puzzles where you had to figure out everyone's passwords.

The bad - while the interface was cool and different, there was not much space to have the map and several cameras up at once, and the cameras tended to be difficult to operate. I tended to ignore the cameras and just follow the girl on the map. Sometimes it was really unclear what to do or how to get her to move to a certain area. In these times, try MOVING THE MAP UP OR DOWN A LEVEL. Also, my cinemas didn't work - the sound was fine but the video was jumpy. A shame b/c they looked like they could have been really pretty. The most frustrating part was at the end, it seems like you missed a scene and you have no idea what is going on. This may be due to translation problems from the French... I had to watch the end several times read some message boards before I put together what had happened. I will post my opinion below.





***SPOILER ALERT***
112 and the tyriades gave her an IV with the chemical in it that kept her young for 30+ years and in a coma. They wake her up when 112 has mutated enough to bridge the species. You are 112, leading her to you. She gets to the cave with 112 and has some sort of breeding thing with him/you (and possibly a threesome with the Tyriade) to create a third race. This was probably really disturbing and 112 has changed so much that she doesn't know him any more and decides to get the heck outta dodge.
***SPOILER ALERT***

Had some complicated areas, but over all great game. Leading the woman with cameras was alright but some times turning the lights on wouldn't make her walk to certain areas.