Remember Passengers On The Wind, reviewed in August? This was the game that, according to its excitable publishers Infogrames, promised 'a software revolution, the revolution of the film in which you are the hero'. Marvel at the 'exceptional quality graphics' they commanded, 'live moments of poetry and wonder'.
The trouble was, although the graphics were indeed impressive, the rest of the game wasn't. Tedious gameplay, an incomprehensible plot full of anonymous characters, peculiar dialogue translated from Idiomatic French - all combined to produce the software equivalent of the subtitled movies that Channel 4 puts out when no-one's watching.
Just about the only things which stopped the game disappearing like a pebble in a bucket of merde was an astonishing high nipple-count and a short-lived moment of glory in the News on Sunday. Well, this hasn't deterred the indefatigable French, who went right on and brought out the sequel, ingeniously titled Passengers On The Wind 2. Like part one, it's based on Francois Bourgeon's comic strip 'masterpiece', and is the continuing story of Isabeau, an 18th century nobleperson, and her attempts to regain her lost title and riches.
The screen format and gameplay remain the same, with a large graphics screen which displays the scenery of each location, onto which are overlaid comic strip frames when the action hots up. Below this is the portrait window, used for selecting the characters you wish to control, and the text window which reveals their thoughts and speech. Selection of icons is by joystick or keyboard-controlled cursor, and often entails unnecessary precision particularly at the start of each episode, where you must embark on a frustrating search across the landscape to find the single pixel which unlocks the action.
Six of the seven episodes take place in West African slave colonies, and the plot, less sprawling than that of part one, has our heroine taking part in archery contests and bloody voodoo ceremonies, trekking across the lion-infested savannah, and generally dispensing wit, repartee and a few philosophical thoughts about slavery. And there's a bit of animated snogging, baby snatching and duelling for good measure.
To complete the story you must get all the characters speaking in the correct sequence, and saying and doing the right things. But no clues are given to help you, so your choice is often arbitrary. Should Aiuan or Isa shoot the lion? Is Hoel well enough to go to France or not? Does Isa get some shut-eye or go skinny-dipping in the river instead?
Just to make things entirely impossible, some active ingredients have been hidden in the pictures, so that in episode two, for instance, you have to pass the cursor over the grubby neck of the ancient mariner. There's no earthy reason why you should even think of doing this, but if you don't then Jasmin starts groping Alihosa, Isa misses out on some juju action in episode four, and Hoel snuffs it in episode five.
To add to the confusion, each episode concludes with a wise man popping up from nowhere and asking questions reminiscent of school exam papers, and which are supposed to help you on your way: "In this story, which bird is the symbol of honour? To which Isa replies, 'A guinea fowl, I suppose can also be found in Asia'." What?!!
While some recognition should go to Infogrames for taking software into unexplored territory, all they've produced is at best an interesting but unsuccessful experiment, and at worst a muddled travesty of a comic strip of entertainment value.
I can't possibly think of who might want to buy it: owners of Passengers Of The Wind 1 will obviously stay well clear, and no-one else will have the slightest idea of what is going on.
I can't possibly think of who might want to buy this. Owners of the first game will obviously stay well clear, and no-one else will have the slightest idea of what is going on!
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