Himalaya, the militant wing of AGDI, have put forward an enhanced version of their first commerical game Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine on Steam Greenlight. If it gets enough votes, it may be accepted. But the key thing for me is this:
"The major changes will be completely new Al Emmo character vocals (by new voice actor) and 2D animated cutscenes to replace the original 3D ones" "You probably heard the old Al Emmo character voice, which was quite whiny and high-pitched. His new voice is much lower, but still retains the essential comical qualities."
So, finally we're getting rid of the whiny voice! Woohoo! Its one of the things that put me off the original. For full details, and to vote, head to their Steam Greenlight page.
Gemini Rue narrates the story of two people. When the intro begins, we're introduced to Delta-Six, a male specimen, part of some experiment. Initially, it appears that Delta-Six just had his memory wiped out, because of his attempts to escape, and it is hinted that he has done the same before. We're also introduced to Azriel Odin, an ex-assassin, currently situated on Barracus, trying to find his brother .
-World/Setting
The game mostly takes place in two different settings. One being the planet of Barracus, currently ruled by a Boryokudan (a mob), and one being the facilities of Center 7 .
The settings are totally unique and amazing for different reasons.
a) The planet of Barracus, where it's constantly raining, gives this feeling of decay and film-noir, as everything is almost falling apart. Additionally it also makes obvious the presence and the rule of the Boryokudan. The game is taking place in the far future (2230 DC or so), but despite the apparent presence of technology, an approach to show that nothing comes without consequences is evident, as we have spaceships next to rotten buildings. What also got my attention is that almost everyone is either a junkie or part of the Boryokudan.
b) The facilities of Center 7 on the other hand, appear to be a great technological achievement, where everyone is happy and acts for the common good, by performing training and various tasks assigned. However everything is under surveillance and its evident early on that escape is needed. Initially due to the memory wipe, you will be kind of lost in terms of who to trust or not, which really makes this part of the game a great mixture of 1984 and Logan's Run.
-Graphics
Personally I feel the graphics are amazing and moody. I can say that the walkcycle seemed a little weird to me, but that may be just my idea, so you are free to disregard this. The animations overall are very detailed and well made, the backgrounds are amazing, and some scenes will probably take your breath away. There are one or two close-ups as well. And of course there are some other more fancy ones, like the raindrops on the ground, the rain dripping from the edges. What's also worth pointing is that I don't remember a background that felt static. There was always something moving, either a light flickering, or the rain, or a terminal's light blinking.
-Music/Sound
Whatever a person can say for Nathan Allen Pinard would be insufficient; the music is mostly ambient and fits incredibly well with the game, boosting up the immersion a lot. The soundtrack roots mostly to Blade Runner and Halo, and will certainly not let you down. As for the sound effects there's a great variety from ambient sounds to footsteps, that all fit the game quite excellent.
-Voice Acting
The voice acting is really great, and every voice fits the character quite amazingly good. I especially loved the voices from the speakers throughout Barracus, and the voice behind Epsilon-Five.
-Interface/Puzzles
The interface is very similar to 7 Days a Skeptic (by Yahtzee), where in addition, you get a kick icon. I have to say I really liked using the kick on everything and the puzzles that were related to it, were probably my favorite ones.
From the beginning of the game, the puzzles are created in order to familiarize the player with the interface and the logic of the game, so later on as the game progresses, you won't find yourself in a dead-end. An interesting element is the Terminal. Several of those are scattered on Barracus (both on streets and apartments), where the player can look up for information.
The game, except for the standard point and click puzzles, also contains certain sequences, that I found really exciting. Some of them involve maintenance duties as Delta-Six, other involve gun-fights. A lot of people have complained about those action sequences, and it really makes me wonder. I honestly really loved them, except that I would like to be able to change the controls. But regardless I always longed for them. Initially, they seem very barren, but as you progress into the game, the controls and the sequences become more complicated and difficult, without however becoming annoying.
-Conclusion
You must give this a try, it's definitely a very innovative game with a story that won't disappoint you. Disregarding the magnificence of this game, should be considered a crime.
It took me about 8-9 hours to finish (on default settings), so I'm guessing it is at least 4-5 hours of gameplay worth. The game also comes with a developer commentary and bloopers.
From the team that brought to you the first part, surprisingly enough (:P) they bring you it's glorious sequel. With a graphic style of realistic rendering of all actors, who happen to be real persons, or at least I think them of as such, and with the humour being it's best asset, it's time to have some real communist party fun. The story takes you after the fall of the great Soviet Union, where you must be save a comrade. The game's audio is probably compared to few, if not to none. With a nice collection of music and a very nice job done in the voice acting sector (II), there's really some job put there. Visit the site of the team here. A site that really has a cool style. Especially the choice of language was really inspired. Also a small review (size doesn't matter) can be found at the Gnome's lair
Dare I beg for an excuse for not posting about this sooner, comrades?!
If you've ever tried to do a voice acted game in AGS you'll know that it takes a lot of work and its very fiddly keeping track of sound files. Even if you've only use music or sound effects in AGS, you'll know that its not AGS's most friendly aspect.
Well, in AGS 3.0, there is an great editor plugin (that's a plug in for the Editor, rather than the engine, so you don't need to worry about Linux compatibility issues, etc.) which makes managing audio files much easier. You can find details in the Tech forum thread about the Audio Manager Plugin.
It's also worth noting that these fabulous editor plugins are really taking off with AGS 3.0. In 2.72 they were theoretically possible, but none of them really worked properly. In AGS 3.0, they are noe fully supported and coming into their own. Lemmy and Binky (of The Forgotten Element) are putting together an all-singing all-dancing one called AGX which will be worth looking out for, too.
Himalaya, the militant wing of AGDI, have put forward an enhanced version of their first commerical game Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine on Steam Greenlight. If it gets enough votes, it may be accepted. But the key thing for me is this:
