MINI-REVIEW: Faust / Seven Games of the Soul
Andrew Plotkin
(Review copyright 2002, Andrew Plotkin <erky...@eblong.com>)
Yes, I finally got the new computer -- a 933 MHz Powermac G4 -- and you
know what that means: I can finally play the big adventure game releases
of two years ago!
(Emulation. It's not a way of life; it's just kind of slow and cranky.)
This one really *will* be short. 'Cuz it's midnight already, and I don't
feel like writing a full-up, all-aspects, many-to-many comparison
review. I want to talk about style.
_Faust_ is a strange and surreal little game. Now surreal is practically
a cliche in adventure games -- _Myst_, _The Dark Eye_, _Obsidian_,
_Morpheus_; the odd dreamlike scenario is a long-time friend to
adventure gamers. (Not to mention *horror* adventure gamers; the console
action-adventure market is particularly prone to the nightmare side of
the surreal.)
But _Faust_ manages to get away with a much lighter touch. Most
commercial computer games are, let us stare it down, clumsily written.
The point is well pounded into your head by the end. Even if the authors
manage some subtlety in the ending (_Morpheus_ comes to mind), the body
of the game is overdone -- pumped up, sketchily attached to the plot,
and generally managing to outweigh the story with a welter of puzzles
and clever scenarios.
And _Faust_... okay, it's pretty clumsily written too. (Or clumsily
translated -- but I suspect both. I'm used to games that are badly
translated from Japanese; a game badly translated from French is a
novelty, but it still furrows my brow every so often. Not so much the
sense of the language -- that comes through fine -- it's the, the tone.
I don't know. Something cultural goes badly wrong when you translate
text, even if you get the meaning right. Gosh, I'm profound tonight.
Translation Is Hard. For my next lesson, I will investigate how many
splendored things love is.)
(Also, the guy who did the voice for Marcellus Faust gave me perceptual
whiplash. The character is described *by the game* as "an old black man"
-- this in Savannah, Georgia. His accent was not that. I'm sorry. Do
better next time.)
I wander. _Faust_ simply has a defter touch than I expected. Matters are
unexplained... and then perhaps they are explained, but not painfully.
The story touches the point and goes on. You may follow or not, as you
will. Nothing is belabored.
I cannot but think that Cryo, that Arxel Tribe -- these European forces
of computer adventure gaming -- are a good influence on the industry.
Everyone assumes Americans are such *idiots*. It's nice to play
something written not quite for idiots.
(Avert, avert, I have had my little cultural bigotry moment for the
month. Just let it pass. It's late.)
This is not to say that _Faust_ is uniformly graceful. It's an odd mix.
One scene ends with a sudden and beautiful image of a sketched goddess,
a haunting implication. Another ends with a two-frame cheapo animation
of two tigers fucking. What? What?
But the story moves from image to image, story to story, each with its
own angle and cast. There is no moral. You are, generally, left free to
make up your own mind. Nothing is left quite unmixed -- and the Devil?
Well, this *is* a game about the Devil.
The Devil puts in an appearance as late-night call-in radio host.
I liked it.
(This review, and my reviews of other adventure games, are at
http://www.eblong.com/zarf/gamerev/index.html)
--Z
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
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