Adam’s Venture: Episode 1 – The Search for the Lost Garden: Review

Dear ladies and gentlemen, never believe the written. This is how you will see a game that directly shouts something in the spirit of “Advent I, Adventure!” – spit in her eyes. She is not adventure, but the most ordinary arcade with some adventure raid and a couple of symbolic puzzles. At least for Adam’s Venture: The Search for the Lost Garden This statement is true.

Developers from Vertigo Games succumbed to several fashion trends of recent years at once. Firstly, c Adam’s Venture The story canvas was originally divided into episodes – hello for Telltale. Secondly, we again observe the “something at the junction” of various genres. Well, so, all advanced developers already know that pure arcades and quests were boring to players. The players themselves, perhaps, are not in the know, but who will ask them.

Archaeological relapse

For a long time, we did not accompany the brave archaeologists in traveling to the center of the Earth/to the Egyptian pyramids/behind the treasures of the Templars/to visit Lucifer (emphasize you like). Never beaten and completely unconnected topic lies in wait for us around the corner. The protagonist, together with his useless partner, Evelyn and obviously a “left” professor is looking for paradise. The real Eden is the one from which some Adam and Eve were already kicked out for a brawl. Search leads our adventurer to the mysterious gates. Naturally locked. To open the doors, you need to collect seven fragments of an uncomplicated puzzle, and for this you will have to drive into gloomy caves, recall quotes from the Bible and outwit the dark forces following the path of an uninvited guest.

As you can see, the plot is original. Everything in it is harmonious – and the hefty gates, on which not a single humanoid has stumbled upon, and the lightest puzzles instead of normal barn locks, and a classic set of “auxiliary heroes”. By the way, neither the professor of unknown sciences, nor the girl is by no means eager to run after Adam and help him with the dangers of the cave. Because the functions of the “associates” others. The beauty should build eyes and, on occasion, be an innocent victim. And the unseemly intentions of the scientist are generally demonstrated from the first minute, so everyone except the hero himself and his friends understand perfectly who we have the main traitor.

In many knowledge ..

Yes, we have to admit: the introductory part of the game looks terrible because of the fresh dialogs, stilt characters and the evidence of the situation. However, from the moment Adam is left alone with a cave, waterfalls and traps, we suddenly begin to feel some interest in what is happening. Half -dark transitions, a hero with a torch in his hand, mysterious voices are priests, but here, it turns out, there is an atmosphere! Which is very sudden.

So you have to eat this atmosphere with spoons for lack of gameplay. Judging by the complexity of the tasks, Mr. Adventure would fully deal with all his affairs on his own. Most of the time we just make our way forward in different nooks, bridges and crevices. It is rare when you need to bend and crawl under the low arch of the next grotto, you have to jump over the abyss even less often. So there is no hint of full arcation here.

The adventure part looks even more strange. It seems that the developers counted on an audience consisting of alternatively gifted religious fanatics. In the end, you can collect a biblical quote from rolled discs on a column with the simplest selection. And it is not at all necessary to run to the highest original in order to urgently refresh your knowledge. A normal person usually understands where the beginning of the phrase is and where is the end. And even if not, each verse is divided into only three fragments. Not so many options for error.

There are also light and musical riddles. In terms of complexity, they are quite comparable to sports orientation on three -centenary areas. The most difficult type of “puzzle” is running around. She is the most boring.

Overseas developers have recently been allowed to allow themselves to be allowed to cram their creation with abstruse quotes from nowhere, then they torture the poor localizers indescribable … Ah, excuse me, an unequivocal game of words. Here’s how you order to decipher the name of today’s object for the Russian ear – Adam’s Venture: The Search for the Lost Garden?
It is not surprising that specialists from “New disk” They transformed the poor Adam into a Ventura, thereby giving the main character the phonetic similarity with the unforgettable detective Ace Ventura performed Jima Carrie. Freshly baked namesakes are not only not twins, but not even relatives.
We understand that Adam is not Ed, if only because Adventure is encrypted in the name Adventure is not the only “nominal” surprise from developers. It is no coincidence that the hero’s girlfriend is called Evelyn, and not Mary or Betty.

Egg in a chest, chest – here it is

It seems that before starting to create your imperishable, creators from the studio Vertigo long and carefully studied all the signs of a good game. Probably someone told them that Advenchur should certainly be easy and unpretentious. And another evil genius, perhaps, assured that “Easter” are mandatory in the real masterpiece. Developers – people responsible. Want “eggs”? You have them! As a result, chests with rotten surprises are scattered across the cave.

Of course, they stand in the most prominent places, and even illuminated by flickering lights. Inside – wise sayings that give us an additional hint. In case we can’t orient ourselves in three pines in three pines.

But the caves look colorful. Here are the usual sinister corridors, illuminated only by torches, and waterfalls, and very fantastic blue crystals on the walls. Immediately, nearby – rusted elevators and bridges, trolleys of clearly technogenic origin. Some kind of symbolism: images of lions and snakes on the doors, “singing” wind. And life would be beautiful if not for people. Very angular figures of characters, too much lack of movement. Maybe it was better to make a reserve zone out of a paradise?

After passing, there are many questions for the developers. Perhaps the most important thing is why to make another nasty archaeological epic, if on the basis of the existing material it was possible to create a quite good first -person horror? Why so rudely destroy the finished atmosphere with your own mistakes? Nightmare dialogs, ugly models of heroes, the standard introductory … and creators Adam’s Venture Never to go to heaven for developers, where profit is calculated by billions, and crowds of fans dream of an autograph.

Pros: good atmosphere;Colorful cave landscapes.
Cons: Template plug;stamped characters;no dialogs;Posterly simple puzzles.