Perils of Man [Game Review]
Game: Perils of Man
Genre: Point-and-click adventure
Developer: IF Games, Vertigo Games
Publisher: Vertigo Games
Copy supplied by publisher
Perils of Man is the port of an iOS point-and-click adventure game developed by IF Games and designed by Bill Tiller and Gene Mocsy, who previously worked on LucasArts games that I love like The Curse of Monkey Island, Outlaws, The Dig, Full Throttle and Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine.
STORY
After ten years since the disappearance of the scientist Max Eberling, his daughter Ana starts looking for clues of his whereabouts. The investigation leads her to discovering a family secret which involves time travel and the possibility to detect perils in the environment.
The story is probably the strongest point of the game: while most of the characters aren't well developed and many inconsistencies are present, exploring the different places, interacting with the robot companion Darwin and discovering all of the family's secrets put this story above your average adventure game.
GRAPHICS
The game doesn't look all that great, and it shows its nature as an iOS game: the character animations are really wooden, the lip syncing is really bad, the environments are small and lack detail and you can't interact with many objects. When moving from one room to the other there is a transition that usually results in weird clipping with the environment. And the pre-rendered cutscenes run at 40FPS rather than the 60FPS of the gameplay.
GAMEPLAY
The game is a simple point-and-click adventure in which you can pick up objects, use them and combine them. After a certain part of the game, you acquire some goggles which let you see the dangers in the environment. Unfortunately, they act more like a gimmick than anything game-changing. There are some puzzles which are either really easy to understand or require some incredibly unintuitive thinking, making you feel more frustrated than smart.
CHALLENGE
The only real challenge comes from the puzzles and your ability to beat them: because of the small amount of exploration and items that you find, you will most-likely try every combination possible until you figure them out. There is also a Hint system which either spits out the solution to you or stays really cryptic.
SOUND
Nothing special here: the voice acting is bearable, the sound effects are clear and the soundtrack suits the tone of the game, even though it's really forgettable.
REPLAYABILITY
Skilled players will beat the game in more or less two hours, while others will require more time to figure out some of the hardest puzzles. There are no bonuses by completing the game, and all the 14 achievements are unlocked by playing the game, so there is no reason to come back rather than thoroughly exploring the environments.
Overall, adventure game fans of modern titles like A Vampire Story, Ankh and Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island will love this game, while hardcore fans will be put off by the simplistic puzzles and small environment interaction.
Story: 7
Graphics: 5
Gameplay: 6.5
Challenge: 6
Sound: 6.5
Replayability: 4
ENJOYMENT: 6.5
FRUSTRATION: 6
