The Watchmaker

Rating:
Summary: Needs Alot of Help
Review: As an avid adventure gamer I am always looking for a solid adventure game that sweeps me off my feet into a world that beckons me to solve a puzzling yet entertaining mystery which allows me to interact with numerous characters and an eye catching graphical environment.

I bought The Watchmaker adventure game in hopes of quenching that very thirst only to find a dry and shallow plotted game that left me wishing I'd left in on the shelf. Admit tingly I was enticed by the attractive cover on the box but the result was a cumbersome game with monotone voiced characters that left me little desire to finish the game. The beginning of the game proved very little effort by games writers to develop a mind grasping storyline hence throwing u into a hall with a partner that seems uninterested in your existence. Even worse, I could not believe how horrible the characters voices sounded (what were they thinking when they hired these people to do the voices?) during the game. The controls setup and camera angles during the action were absolutely pathetic.

Coming of the most recent Gabriel Knight adventure, I find that if the writers and designers had duplicated the controls, camera angles and voice effect quality into the Watchmaker game, this game would be palatable. In short, if you haven't played Gabriel Knights "Blood Omen" Adventure, I highly recommend you do so if you want a solid game, but I recommend you leave Watchmaker on the shelf.
Bill Negron AKA: AceFreight

Rating:
Summary: Solid Adventure
Review: For true Adventure Game afficianados, _The Watchmaker_ is a solid, puzzle- and story-based adventure with overtones of the Gabriel Knight series. The premise is that a group of religious fanatics has gained control of a mysterious pendulum device, which they intend to use to establish themselves as world dominators. You, the player, have been instructed to find the device, wrest control of it from the fanatics, and save the world. All in a day's work, literally.

To accomplish the mission, the gamer is given control of two player characters. Darrell Boone is a researcher in the paranormal; his partner, Victoria Conroy, is a lawyer. Think Gabe and Gracie, or Mulder and Scully. You are given the freedom to switch back and forth between characters at will, or even have them in the same place at the same time so they can work together. I found this immensely cool, as most other multi-player-character games that I have played have been really limited in this respect; either you can only play a given character at a set time, or they don't really work together, or something like that. Most of the puzzles can be solved by either character, but there are a few where choosing the right person for the task is important. Switching back and forth between Darrell and Victoria is really simple, encouraging the player to look at things from numerous points of view. You can also trade off items of inventory, which is helpful in many cases.

The inventory itself is really innovative. You can access it through a simple list, but choosing any item on the list brings up a 3-D representation that can be rotated and viewed from any angle. This makes dealing with inventory an active part of the game, and gives more clues as to how each item can be used. I found that this prevented a lot of the random "try every inventory item until one works" situations from which a lot of games suffer.

The interface is initially complicated, requiring that the player use both keyboard and mouse control to best accomplish many of the tasks. You can look at any scene from either a third person or a first person perspective, and a lot of switching back and forth is necessary to find hidden details. On the plus side, moving the mouse cursor over an "action spot" causes a description of the spot to appear at the bottom of the screen. This eliminates a lot of the "Look at everything until you're blind" problem of some games and also helps the player get a better idea of what's what.

One of the nicest things about _The Watchmaker_ is that it is truly non-linear. Right from the start you can go nearly everywhere -- there are a few locations that are inaccessible until certain puzzles have been solved -- talk to anyone, pick up inventory and get clues as to how to proceed. Although at points this results in the player having about a dozen different puzzles in progress, I found that the non-linearity was freeing rather than confusing. If you got stuck on something, there was always another path to explore.

The puzzles are mostly inventory-based mechanical, with a few arcade sequences towards the end. Although one or two solutions are a bit far-fetched or involve misleading deatails, none is truly illogical and all add to the story. Most are fairly easy to solve once you have all the pieces and the pieces themselves are generally recognizable -- that is, you have a pretty good idea what you need and what you're missing. So there isn't a lot or running around looking for some nebulous "something." This keeps the game from being incoherent despite the non-linearity, as you can manufacture a plan for what you need to do.

There are only two things that keep me from giving _The Watchmaker_a five-star rating. The first is that the initial portion of the game is VERY slow. Nothing much happens as you explore the castle and talk to the non-player-characters, and it took a while to find the first piece to set the clock in motion. I would have liked a simple, somewhat obvious puzzle right at the beginning, just so I had the sense that I was actually accomplishing something; as it was, I got bored. I found it helpful to play short sessions for the first hour or two, as the busy work of the game's beginning didn't keep my interest as well as it could have.

The other problem was that the voice acting was truly dreadful. One NPC sounded as if she were on heavy medication; another was trying so hard to have a funny "character" voice that he was all but incomprehensible. I advise keeping the subtitles on.

The graphics were good but not stunning and the game ran fairly smoothly. I did have some problems with the in-game movies -- they were kind of jerky -- and the game did lock up once or twice, usually when I was trying to do something or go somewhere too fast. I was playing on an older system, however; newer computers may not have this problem.

If you love puzzle based adventure and are looking for one that will keep you playing for an extended period of time, don't miss _The Watchmaker_!

Rating:
Summary: Solid Adventure
Review: For true Adventure Game afficianados, _The Watchmaker_ is a solid, puzzle- and story-based adventure with overtones of the Gabriel Knight series. The premise is that a group of religious fanatics has gained control of a mysterious pendulum device, which they intend to use to establish themselves as world dominators. You, the player, have been instructed to find the device, wrest control of it from the fanatics, and save the world. All in a day's work, literally.

To accomplish the mission, the gamer is given control of two player characters. Darrell Boone is a researcher in the paranormal; his partner, Victoria Conroy, is a lawyer. Think Gabe and Gracie, or Mulder and Scully. You are given the freedom to switch back and forth between characters at will, or even have them in the same place at the same time so they can work together. I found this immensely cool, as most other multi-player-character games that I have played have been really limited in this respect; either you can only play a given character at a set time, or they don't really work together, or something like that. Most of the puzzles can be solved by either character, but there are a few where choosing the right person for the task is important. Switching back and forth between Darrell and Victoria is really simple, encouraging the player to look at things from numerous points of view. You can also trade off items of inventory, which is helpful in many cases.

The inventory itself is really innovative. You can access it through a simple list, but choosing any item on the list brings up a 3-D representation that can be rotated and viewed from any angle. This makes dealing with inventory an active part of the game, and gives more clues as to how each item can be used. I found that this prevented a lot of the random "try every inventory item until one works" situations from which a lot of games suffer.

The interface is initially complicated, requiring that the player use both keyboard and mouse control to best accomplish many of the tasks. You can look at any scene from either a third person or a first person perspective, and a lot of switching back and forth is necessary to find hidden details. On the plus side, moving the mouse cursor over an "action spot" causes a description of the spot to appear at the bottom of the screen. This eliminates a lot of the "Look at everything until you're blind" problem of some games and also helps the player get a better idea of what's what.

One of the nicest things about _The Watchmaker_ is that it is truly non-linear. Right from the start you can go nearly everywhere -- there are a few locations that are inaccessible until certain puzzles have been solved -- talk to anyone, pick up inventory and get clues as to how to proceed. Although at points this results in the player having about a dozen different puzzles in progress, I found that the non-linearity was freeing rather than confusing. If you got stuck on something, there was always another path to explore.

The puzzles are mostly inventory-based mechanical, with a few arcade sequences towards the end. Although one or two solutions are a bit far-fetched or involve misleading deatails, none is truly illogical and all add to the story. Most are fairly easy to solve once you have all the pieces and the pieces themselves are generally recognizable -- that is, you have a pretty good idea what you need and what you're missing. So there isn't a lot or running around looking for some nebulous "something." This keeps the game from being incoherent despite the non-linearity, as you can manufacture a plan for what you need to do.

There are only two things that keep me from giving _The Watchmaker_a five-star rating. The first is that the initial portion of the game is VERY slow. Nothing much happens as you explore the castle and talk to the non-player-characters, and it took a while to find the first piece to set the clock in motion. I would have liked a simple, somewhat obvious puzzle right at the beginning, just so I had the sense that I was actually accomplishing something; as it was, I got bored. I found it helpful to play short sessions for the first hour or two, as the busy work of the game's beginning didn't keep my interest as well as it could have.

The other problem was that the voice acting was truly dreadful. One NPC sounded as if she were on heavy medication; another was trying so hard to have a funny "character" voice that he was all but incomprehensible. I advise keeping the subtitles on.

The graphics were good but not stunning and the game ran fairly smoothly. I did have some problems with the in-game movies -- they were kind of jerky -- and the game did lock up once or twice, usually when I was trying to do something or go somewhere too fast. I was playing on an older system, however; newer computers may not have this problem.

If you love puzzle based adventure and are looking for one that will keep you playing for an extended period of time, don't miss _The Watchmaker_!

Rating:
Summary: So much potential...
Review: Good stuff: fairly neat story, acceptable graphics, good ambient sound
Bad stuff: everything else...but specifically...
1)click-mapping: Terrible. If you're outside, you're probably pointing at a tree. It doesn't matter where you click, you'll end up looking at a tree. Often, clicking in front of your character spins the camera and has you running in the opposite direction.
2)camera angles: Everything's hidden or around an unnecessarily awkward corner. Camera often sweeps and spins in a rather nauseating manner.
3)doorways: You will get stuck in doorways in the latter half of the game (also a wall or two). Best advice, zoom in and hope you have a specific item to click on in the next room. A couple of times, I had to switch characters, move and warp the stuck character to a different location (you'll understand if you play it)
4)voice "acting": aka reading a line written on a page and not really giving a damn either way.
5)two characters: No need. But the woman is the lesser of two evils.
6)others...just don't buy it. Okay game, but frustrating and lazy programming and acting destroy it.

Rating:
Summary: An Average Execution of an Outstanding Concept
Review: I am an avid X-Files fan as well as an adventure gamer, so the Watchmaker looked like a pretty good bet. Victoria Conroy and Darrell Boone do indeed resemble our courageous FBI team: Like Fox Mulder, Boone is an investigator in the paranormal. And like Dana Scully, Conroy is a young professional woman with a penchant for balance and reason. Boone is a little arrogant, and Conroy is a little perturbed by that, but they manage to work together pretty well. You help them do that-you are able to control either player at any time: in fact, sometimes you must switch off in order to accomplish certain things in the game as well as trade off inventory items. While Boone has been hired by the law firm to assist in the case, the firm has Conroy as their own plant to keep the case on track-this is pure X-Files. Doubtless, the creators of the game were thinking of just that when they drew up the storyline.

The duo is sent to an Austrian castle to retrieve a pendulum device from a group of religious fanatics. The castle inhabitants are a fully developed group of characters: you learn about them through extensive conversation. The puzzles are very logical. Once I solved a puzzle, or found a hint online, I always felt like a big dummy for not figuring it out sooner-it was either fairly obvious or pretty sensible given enough brain time. The graphics are in my opinion very well done and very satisfying: sunset over Austria is quite beautiful. You can also switch from first to third person points of view to examine things closely or broadly. For an outstanding review of the details of the game, see the review below by "wysewomon," entitled "Solid Adventure."

It is not immediately obvious, but this game is a lot like Syberia. The protagonists in both games go to a European setting and deal with the interaction between the old world (Europe) and the new world (multinational corporations). So, while more than just a few adventure games take place in castles, The Watchmaker keeps it fresh by playing with the interaction between history and the future.

This game requires a lot of video memory and system memory. I can thank this game for prompting a video card upgrade and eventually a system memory upgrade. The recommendations on the box are woefully inadequate: while the publishers suggest a minimum of 8 mb of video memory and a recommended 16 mb of video memory, I would say that 32 mb is the absolute minimum video you should have in order to play this game. 64 mb is even better. Their recommended 128 mb of system memory is about right. You may have no problems with the game; nearly every system configuration is different. But I did try this game on two different computers and had essentially the same problems with it on each one.

Ultimately, I was unable to complete the game because of repeated game freezes. In the game's favor, I can say that I was terribly disappointed not to have been able to complete the game because of technical problems-the game is quite fun and very engaging. On the other hand, I was a bit frustrated to have to reinstall my operating system (admittedly, Windows Me is a weak operating system to begin with) after countless bad restarts. Moreover, the Trecision Watchmaker website is not very helpful.

The voice acting in this game is by far the worst I have ever experienced, a painful and embarrassing exercise in torture. Fortunately, Victoria and Darrell's voices are tolerable enough for the majority of the game; but there is enough character interaction to make this component of the game extremely agonizing. What were they thinking of when they chose the voice actress for the wife? Help us. But to the game's credit, the ambience created by the music is really very lovely. The grounds theme is very melodic and soothing, and it often played in my head long after I was away from the computer.

I read the reviews on this game for a long time before I bought it. I hesitated because of the overwhelming opinion that the voice acting was not only bad but nauseatingly intolerable. But finally, though, I decided to go for it because the storyline seemed too intriguing, too much of what I was looking for in an adventure game. Both of these perceptions turned out to be unproblematically true: the voice acting is utterly abysmal and the storyline is excellent.

And even though I had what were finally irresoluble technical problems with the game, to the degree that my system became unstable, I am not sorry I played it, and I might try to play it again on my new Windows XP system. Not everyone will have the technical problems I had-in fact, if my searches online are any indication, few people had such problems. The voice acting is something I got used to-but if you think you might not be able to tolerate entirely unengaging voice acting, I would not recommend this game.

Because of the wonderful graphic and musical ambience, the engaging storyline and setting, character development, and unique interface, I would like to give it 5 stars, and it pains me not to be able to do so. Sadly, because of the technical difficulties and poor voice acting, I cannot give this game more than 3 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Horrible
Review: Nice cover, Slow and shallow plot with horrible voice over effects(I cant beleive someone was actually paid to do voices in monotone!). Controls and camera view are very clumsy and user-unfreindly. What on earth where the developers thinking??? Gabriel Knight was 1000 X's better than this game. I only wish I'd left it on the shelf. PS: I wrote a longer review but I couldnt find it posted, so I shortened this up a bit.

Bill Negron AKA AceFreight

Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: One of my favorite game, Unlike many traditional adventure games, The Watchmaker frees the player from the sensation of moving along a single given path, and gives him the freedom to explore the world around him at his own pace.

The users is the true protagonist. The Watchmaker's real-time 3Dengine allows the player to choose between dynamically moving cameras in a third person point-of-view, or a subjective first person in order to examine objects and environments in detail. The use of the keyboard to control the interface strengthens the feeling of being actually inside the game, and lets the player decide what to do and when to do it, whether to run or walk, whether to look under a table or, if he prefers, to examine the ceiling overhead.

The player's strategies are significantly enhanced by the opportunity to control the two main characters independently, with each character exhibiting different personalities, traits, and skills. The two work as a team: one of them successfully distracting a member of the castle staff, for example, while the other removes certain evidence. Physical strength, charm, powers of observation, diplomacy and knowledge, are all necessary and with two professionals at his disposal, the player can get to know the characters and understand their reactions and motives.

The interface is non-intrusive, visible on screen only when needed. It is intuitive and easy to use, yet still very powerful, capable of supporting simultaneous input from both the keyboard and the mouse. The inventory system is no longer a list , but a tool to aid the player's analysis of the objects. A lawyer, Victoria Conroy, and Darrel Boone, an expert in paranormal phenomena, meet for the first time. A few hours later a taxi deposits them at the gates of a mysterious Austrian castle. Their mission is to recover a device resembling a huge pendulum. With its ability to maximize leyline energy coupled with an approaching solar eclipse, the machine now poses a serious threat to human survival. The pendulum has been stolen by a group of religious fanatics and must be located and stopped before midnight to avoid possible global catastrophe -- at least this is what our two "detectives" are lead to believe. Their task, and indeed that of the player, becomes increasingly more dangerous and complex. With less than twenty-four hours to go, the challenge is no longer a game. It's a reality.

Rating:
Summary: horrible...don't bother
Review: Save your money. It is awful and boring and a shame developers even wasted their time on it.

Rating:
Summary: Wish I could give it 0 stars...
Review: Save your money. It is awful and boring and a shame developers even wasted their time on it.

Rating:
Summary: Great Game
Review: The Watchmaker is the best adventure game this year. The fun part was directing the two main characters,among the many characters you meet at the castle. The puzzles were fun to solve. The game also allowed me to play through at my pace, which was a big benefit during the summer time. I would highly recommend this game to adventure players, and gamers looking for an interesting and intriquing story line filled with great game play.