Half way through Still Life
Shaun Bell
borish, at the begining it looked prommising with the murder and crime scene
but Im getting bored with all the dialog and very little adventure gaming
like puzzles and inventory based puzzles.has anyone else found this about
this game too? So far I have had to use a cheat walkthrough for the cookie
making and a lock pick on the barrel lock I feel so dirty for doing so!!!
Shaun B.
MP
> Hi all, I'm currently playing Still Life and have found it to be a bit
> borish, at the begining it looked promising with the murder and crime
> scene
> but I'm getting bored with all the dialog and very little adventure gaming
> like puzzles and inventory based puzzles. Has anyone else found this about
> this game too? So far I have had to use a cheat walkthrough for the cookie
> making and a lock pick on the barrel lock I feel so dirty for doing so!!!
You are not alone, Shaun. I didn't like Still Life. Beautiful-looking game;
some fabulous puzzles - but the character models and the game style? More
like a geeky interactive movie with one severely frustrating
non-Adventure-type puzzle - one that requires more than a small amount of
dexterity and sense of timing.
I'm sorry - I just didn't like it. Nor its StarForce copy protection.
I didn't like the story. The "artist" was an ass, the heroine was dry, Daddy
was a wimp, the pictures (the "art") were ugly - but the game overall had a
beautiful look in spots, especially during foggy, snowy, rainy night scenes.
Interiors were nice, too. The "statues" puzzle was absolutely brilliant -
stylish and beautiful - and not too hard.
The one frustrating "timing and dexterity" puzzle? I liked the concept and
it was kind of fun, but seemed to be merely added to throw off an Adventure
quest.
Forget the "baking" puzzle - that was fine. The "robot" puzzle I plotted a
plan of action and made it after several tries.
I used a walkthrough solely on the "lock" puzzle because it became so
tedious and boring.
Towers of Hanoi puzzle-lovers should adore the "lock" puzzle (although they
are not the same puzzles "strategically" - they both just bore me), and if
you didn't use a walkthrough for this - you certainly are a genius at making
notes or extremely patient.
Beautiful game, but stiff 3rd Person 3D models, hateful characters, and
punk-gore subject matter - just not my cuppa.
I love horror, murder mysteries, drama, fantasy, Sci-Fi horror, etc., but
Still Life was more like watching an episode of C.S.I. - you just mostly
watched stuff happen in between running around, talking to characters,
finding clues, and solving puzzles - some that that seemed terribly
arbitrary.
However - I can see why many people find Still Life "a work of genius". I
would be more likely to call it a work of unfinished promise and truly an
example of a 3D Adventure Game graphics card and CPU glutton - to its
credit, I suppose.
Mark
Iain McCracken
And at least Post Mortem had an ending. Still Life just stops without
resolving anything, like a medieval morality play, but at least those
had a point to make. Maybe they were hoping to make a sequel...
It reminds me of someone who knows nothing of story, character, or the
visual arts trying to make an artsy-fartsy ripoff of the film "Vidocq"
starring Gerard Depardieu. This includes the weird costume of the
killer, the chase scene where the heroine chases him up on the roof and
nearly dies (this is the opening scene in Vidocq), and the fact that the
villain is impervious to bullets.
And the idiot cop the heroine is partnered with is exactly the idiot
newpaperman Etienne from Vidocq, who turns out to be the killer in the
movie.
djin
> Yes, this was much less engaging than Post Mortem, the previous game. And
> at least Post Mortem had an ending. Still Life just stops without
> resolving anything, like a medieval morality play, but at least those had
> a point to make. Maybe they were hoping to make a sequel...
>
> It reminds me of someone who knows nothing of story, character, or the
> visual arts trying to make an artsy-fartsy ripoff of the film "Vidocq"
> starring Gerard Depardieu. This includes the weird costume of the killer,
> the chase scene where the heroine chases him up on the roof and nearly
> dies (this is the opening scene in Vidocq), and the fact that the villain
> is impervious to bullets.
>
> And the idiot cop the heroine is partnered with is exactly the idiot
> newpaperman Etienne from Vidocq, who turns out to be the killer in the
> movie.
>
How did the movie end? Maybe it's the way the game was supposed to end.
The game ended like it did because the developers ran out of time and
money. Microids Canada no longer exists and the developers now work for
Ubisoft. One of the developers described something about how they'd
originally meant to end Still Life over at Adventuregamers. Check post #55
from "Seven" on this page.
http://forums.adventuregamers.com/showthread.php?t=8038&page=3&highlight=still+life+ending
Here's an excerpt: "There was the entire part in LA 1954 and 2005 and
Chicago 1932 and 2005. We played Gus again but in Chicago of the 30s; Gus
chasing Mark. This part would introduce LA 54. The LA 54 part would
explain the link between the murderers..."