Druuna

Rating:
Summary: Could have been so much better
Review: Your first clue that "Druuna" is going to be a problem is in the box. Mine arrived in a box that proclaimed itself to be "en Francais," and I almost sent it back unopened; but the game inside was definitely in English, and there wasn't even an option to load it in French.

Second clue: The documentation starts off with a portentous "IN THE BEGINNING..." page. Is it about the post-apocalyptic world Druuna inhabits? No. It's about the efforts of the publisher to write and publish this game. Oh dear. An ego project.

"Druuna" is based on a heavy-metal-type Italian graphic novel (nee cartoon), and you can see some of this in the gorgeous graphics, the massive sweeping drawings of huge abandoned factories and so on. Also, Druuna herself is built along Italian lines -- generous rather than svelte of figure, that is. The voice acting and the writing are also better than I expected.

But the interface is clumsy and the action difficult; Druuna moves awkwardly and gets stuck in corners if you're not careful. She also tends to die a lot, which is to be expected, but the game usually gives you no indication as to what killed her -- she's just dead, and you can start over or not, depending on how much patience you have left. The plot is minimal and confusing, and the ending is just baffling. Is this a translation problem, or do these guys just not know how to write a coherent story?

As a final irritation, the Microids' walkthrough (which seems to be the only one out there) is terse to the point of unusable, besides being outright wrong at points. Feh!

Sorry, but this is pretty much a waste of time unless you just like the box.