Alida

Rating:
Summary: Didn't Like It as Much as I Wanted to...
Review: Fifteen years ago in game history, the Australian band Alida was an international sensation. Their debut album broke all sales records by over 200% and overnight the band members became wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice. They decided to spend the money building an island theme park shaped like a giant, fully functional guitar. As the project neared completion, inner stresses tore the band apart and the whole thing was abandoned. Now, fifteen years later, one of the band members has gone back to the island and disappeared. His wife has asked you to go after him and bring him back. But to do so, you'll have to solve the mystery of Alida.

Rating this game was difficult for me. I had been looking forward to it for a long time and I really wanted to like it a lot. I kept looking for reasons to like it a lot. I've heard it compared both to Rhem and to Riven, both of which I like a lot. But something in Alida didn't grab me.

It's a beautiful game, to be sure. The graphics are very well rendered, if a little dark in places. The soundtrack is appealing, although I have to say I would have liked to hear more of that "brand new music" the band was supposed to have invented. Gameplay was smooth and intuitive. The plot was coherent. Even the installation, which confused some PC-users, struck me as simple and straight-forward.

But the process of the game itself failed to delight me the way I wanted it to, even though the mechanical puzzles featured were the kind I typically like, with elements and clues spread over a wide area. When these puzzles made sense, they were satisfying in a dim kind of way. But often there was some twist to the solution that was not immediately obvious, making a good deal of random searching necessary even when the logic behind the puzzle was clear. I find this incredibly frustrating, and it wrecked a lot of my enjoyment of the game.

The game world also seemed very hollow. It was a big world without much in it and a long way to go between puzzles. I don't mind unpopulated game worlds as a rule, but something about this one really bothered me. It's just, for such a big place, there wasn't a whole lot to see or do. I think the game could have benefitted by a few more in-game movies, more journals, more insight into the people who had allegedly built this place. You got to know two of the characters a little, but the remaining three were an enigma.

Also, I had a problem with the fact that even when you solved all the puzzles, the giant guitar WAS NOT IN TUNE. Please!!! If it was some weird alternate tuning, you should have made that clear!

A lot of thought went into this game, which was pretty much designed by one person. Putting together puzzles of this sort-well, you can see the effort and tell it was a labour of love. I kept wanting to realy, really like it, but I just didn't so much.

Alida took me about 20 hours to play, and I got quite a bit of help, which is unusual for me. There are no timed puzzles, you can't die, and saves are unlimited. The five-disc game installs completely to your hard drive and no disc is necessary for the game to run. From the ending, I believe there will be a sequel. I'll certainly play it, but I may not leap on it as soon as it's released.

Rating:
Summary: A musical Rhem
Review: If you liked Rhem, with its acres of lovingly rendered enigmatic machines set in gorgeous scenery and no people around to fool with, Alida will most likely set your heart aquiver. If, however, you preferred Myst, with the same baffling machines and gorgeous scenery but with an essentially human mystery at the center, Alida might strike you the way it did me: beautiful, but oddly lifeless. "Art and technology," as the cover blurb says, are all very well, and Alida does them extremely well; but without people in it, without human interaction, why bother?

Interface and loading were seamless, though nonstandard. Graphics are stunning, though my 3-year-old machine had difficulty handling water motion in some locations. The problems are difficult, but not insoluble, though a fair amount of backtracking is required, and that can get a little irritating. Many problems rely on sound and music, so if you have a hearing deficit (or are tone deaf) this game will be difficult to impossible for you.

A lovely game, best for those days when you're just sick to death of PEOPLE.