Customer Reviews

Traitor's Gate

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

 

 

I wanted to like Traitor's Gate. Really. After all, it offers a brilliant recreation of the Tower Of London, with photorealistic graphics that provide a downright eerie atmosphere. And it is great for anyone who's ever wanted to explore the parts of the tower that are normally shut off to the public (or anyone who can't fly off to London at any given time.) But as a game, it just falls flat. There's precious little character interaction (aside from the occasional guard you'll have to shoot), and the slow, prerendered 3D movement from node to node will grate on your nerves after about fifteen minutes. On the plus side, the puzzles are well integrated (but a little too tough at times), and the gameplay is nonlinear, which is a rare treat for anyone who's ever played a first person graphic adventure. I enjoyed Cyberflix's "Titanic: Adventure Out Of Time," and I hoped this would offer a similar, historically accurate thrill. It had all the potentional, but just fell short.

There were a lot of things wrong with this game by Dreamcatcher. It seems to me that they spent a lot of time on graphics, but no time on plot development or movies. The basic plot is that you, as a secret agent, have to break into the tower in London that holds the Crown Jewels and replace them with fakes so that this other guy that is planning on stealing them, cannot. Even though I finished the game successfully, I was still told at the end that I didn't remove all of my traces from the towers and that the United States was dissapointed in me. This game has a terribly dull ending, many puzzles and concepts that do not make sense, a maze of sewers that will drive you insane if you don't use a map from a walkthrough, and on top of that: When I contacted Dreamcatcher Interactive for support on how to properly finish the game they told me that I did something wrong at the very beginning of the game and that I would have to play it all over again to win the game correctly. Furthermore, they were extremely rude. :o) Please buy a game with a better plot, unless you want to spend your time lost, looking through a walkthru, and at stupid re-creations of the famous museum holding the royal crown jewels. Dreamcatcher game designers need to put the focus of their games in a better place, and learn how to deal properly with their customer base.

Not sure why some of these reviews that were written didn't like the game. OK, it was a very challenging game, so maybe they couldn't figure it out. The box says (and many reviews I had read before purchasing) that this is the most realistic game out there. And they were pretty close. The graphics were splendid and the gameplay was extraordinary. You are Raven. A secret agent sent in to get the Crown Jewels and replace them with fakes. You have many gadgets at your disposal and several, several rooms to explore and each room is done in high detail as you have the ability to look around you a full 360 degrees. You will encounter some guards and you will either work your way around them or take them out with your "sleeping" darts. Either way, this game will pull you in and make you really think about what to do next. You will probably die many times and will have to try this and try that, but stick with it. You will eventually figure it out and reach Traitor's Gate.

This was probably one of the best Adventure games that I have ever played and I have played many. First of all, this game does not treat you as some sort of 'bonehead'. You are treated as a bright, intelligent individual who does not need 'pixel' guides to aid you in finding clues. You are actually there and it is really up to you to be able to find the items that you need to accomplish your mission. Were this real and not just a gaming simulation this is exactly what would have been required of you. However, because it is a game, gamers seem to have the attitude that if the game does not help them in locating clues then the game must not be any good. I would say rather that the gamer has become so hypnotized by games that treat them as being less intelligent than they are that they forget they are perfectly capable of solving a game that does not give hints. I think if these individuals would give this game another chance and play it the way it is intended to be played: as if you are really Raven and as if you are really there on your own and must solve it on your own then they would find that they would enjoy the game ever so much more! Vive le Traitor's Gate and give me more like it!!

Being a major fan of Dreamcatcher, I was very excited when Daydream and Dreamcatcher released this game. This is the first Daydream game I've played and am VERY imppressed. MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIRMENTS Pentium 100 MHz (166 recommended) 32Mb RAM (64 recommended) 100Mb free hard disk space 8x CD-ROM drive SVGA monitor (16-bit color at 640x480)

Before We go on, I must say that if you want to see the cutscene properly and the game to run faster, you MUST have 64Mb RAM. I learned that the hard way.

GAMEPLAY: The gameplay is very realistic. You can tampering with a lockpick when out from nowhere (that's what it seems like anyway), appears a guard, rifle loaded. You have to always be on the alert, observing the smallest detail, making fast but smart decisions. It can be tedious in a fun sort of of way. The only frustrating part is mapping the sewers. But it's not cheating THAT much if you print off an already made map from the internet!

GRAPHICS: It's hard to decide whether gameplay of graphics are better. The Graphics are as good as (if not better than) MYST's. The only difference is that in TRAITOR'S GATE you can freely look around you using the mouse or keyboard, whereas MYST's form of looking around is click...click...click. Just to make my point clear, the graphics are GREAT.

MULTIPLAYER: This is an adventure game and no advenuture game that I know of has multiplayer.

I can't believe that this game would get a one star rating...

If you a spy stradigy game fan this game is right for u of course you might have to get some pacthes here and there but ather wise its great.

Five stars would be too much for this game. Sure, if you like walking through dark sewers and corridors, this is your game, but overall I found the surroundings quite dull. Nothing like the dreamy landscapes like Myst, or even the eerie cityscapes in The Longest Journey. Not the haunting atmosphere of Journeyman, just corridors, chambers en sewers. As a secret agent you must replace the crown jewels in the Tower of London, and, well, the tower is a castle with lots of corridors, as it seems. Gameplay is very straightforward and easy. Definitely print yourself a map of the sewersystem, to save yourself endless wandering around - not funny at all. Don't consider this cheating, because this is just a not well thought-out part of the game. So overall, this is not the worst game in this genre, it's funny for couple of days, but definitely not in the same category as Myst, Journeyman, Fandango or some of the other highflyers. So, if you can get it at a cutprice, buy it. If not, don't get your expectations to high up.

I thought games like this died out several years ago. Maybe if this were an average game letting you move around freely, it would be good, but it's not. With all the technology put into games now-a-days, this kind of game is just boring. It's like "Myst" or, if you've even heard of it, "Congo". You have to click the mouse to move. It was the same with the "X-Files" game, but I actually enjoyed that because you were investigating, not dodging guards and avoiding alarms. If you make one mistake, that's it, you're done. You can't run or hide, you just stand there and get captured. Save you $20.00

Perhaps the best aspect of this game is its visuals - an expansive and detailed visualisation of the Tower of London, right down to the souvenirs on sale in the gift shop. I've never been to the real Tower and so can't vouch for its accuracy, but the game certainly provides a realistic graphical environment. Most of the locations you can visit are not essential for completion of the game, but add to colour. There are secret passages and rambling corridors galore.

The game is also far from straightforward. Some may see this as a plus, others a minus. Your mission is to steal - well, actually 'borrow' - three of the Crown Jewels, and replace them with fakes fitted with tracking devices so that another operative cannot steal them. There is a time limit, so you have to make your moves count (keep saving your game, and replay key scenes if necessary). You start with a small inventory but quickly pick up a large number of items - both tools of the trade, and various keys and items lying around the Tower. This can sometimes lead to long sessions trying many different inventory items to see which one works.

From soon after the start you can visit most places in the Tower. This can be irritating as the Tower is filled with information (literally dozens of tourist information boards, books, paintings, items etc) and a couple of these contain vital information for completing the game - but which ones? It's a laborious process to photograph and read all the information boards in the hope that you will strike it lucky. Similarly, despite you having some interesting equipment (such as a grappling hook and ropelift) there are only a couple of limited locations where you can use it, which it will probably take you a looooong time to find without a walkthrough. This means the game is not open to creative solutions, despite the Tower location potentially providing many opportunities. There's a lot of guesswork rather than deduction involved.

Unfortunately for such a potentially exciting story, gameplay is ponderous. I found new locations slow to load, and although there is much tracking back and forth there is no 'zip' mode to enable you to navigate quickly through scenes. In addition, the game comes on four CDs which need to be swapped often throughout as there is no full install option.

The game will keep you occupied for a while but although the locations are well detailed they lack the wonder of (say) the locations in Myst or other more fantasy-based games. There is also a lack of much action (you can't let yourself be seen by any of the guards) and the plodding pace of the game engine is irritating. I often return to the Myst series just to marvel at the astounding visuals, but I can't see that happening with this game.

My biggest complaint about this game is the totally abysmal mouse movement. I found myself wanting to throw it at the screen, so lousy is the navigation. This game is the winner of the worst navigation plan ever conceived. I give it the Golden Blind Mice Award, only given to games that cannot figure out how to illustrate to the player any visual clues to where they are supposed to go without a cane. Even with one, you will be "tapping" your mouse so frequently without any results that you might as well put on tap shoes and dance across the keyboard waiting for something to happen. The PDA console takes up too much of the screen, the inventory methods are sloppy. This is an awful game.