Still Life (PC)

Reviewed by

Ryan Davis

on 06/01/2005

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Page 2

The whole game goes about its business with a certain efficiency, giving room for enough expository and incidental dialogue for the benefit of the mood and the narrative, but rarely dawdling. All of the dialogue is spoken, usually with detectable traces of Canadian mannerisms. It's not too bad during the parts of the story set in Chicago, but when you're chatting up Turkish beat cops who sound like they grew up in Ottawa, it's distracting and breaks the mood. But, aside from the occasionally mismatched accents and some odd inflections, the voice acting is competent. Nice background music further complements the game's mood, and it ranges from a jarringly schizophrenic industrial theme to a more low-key noir vibe.

It's capable as an adventure game, which makes it suitable for adventure game fans, but unsuitable for most others.

Most of the interaction you have with other characters is in service of the game's puzzles, which are all pure boilerplate adventure game fodder. You'll have to scour environments for items to combine, play around with a variety of sliding panels, dabble in some featherweight cryptology--and yes, boxes will be pushed. Despite the constant sense of déjà vu brought on by these familiar puzzle types, they work within the context of the game more often than not. The puzzles are usually spelled out pretty clearly, cutting out some of the frustration brought on by the deliberate vagueness that passes for challenge in so many adventure games. This isn't to say there won't be times in Still Life where you'll find yourself wandering around three or four rooms, unsure of what it is you're not seeing, but a dash of perseverance is all you need to solve even the game's most challenging puzzles.

The amount of time it'll take you to solve the murder mysteries of Still Life will hinge on how many snags you hit while solving puzzles, or how willing you are to fall back on walk-throughs. Either way, though, it's a pretty brief experience that doesn't lend itself to multiple plays. Adventure game fans will be more willing to forgive the game's technical shortcomings than anyone else, but it's hard to believe that anyone who is still devoted to this style of gaming will find a lot in Still Life that they haven't experienced already.