Review Death Trap Developer: Ramey Elali Publisher: N/A Genre: Adventure Release Date: October 2006 Platform: Review by Alexander Tait February 28, 2007		Buy this game at Trade for this game at:

Well. Here's the latest adventure game from Ramey Elali, the Sydney-based game creator, responsible for Realms of Fire. Is it a step forward from his previous effort? Yes. Is it a good game? Uh, no.

Ramey is nothing if not tenacious. He is keen on The 7th Guest-style gaming experience. This is by no means a criticism. The 7th Guest was one of my first adventure gaming experiences and I will always have a fondness for the game (as well as a frustration in trying to get the game to run, but that's another story).

Here, Ramey has given us a The 7th Guest crossed with a Jigsaw-like protagonist out of the movie Saw. This sounds intriguing to say the least but unfortunately the execution is sorely let down. The game is a flash game and brings mayn of the limitations associated with that medium. The player has been trapped in a house and must find their way out. But, of course, there are traps to overcome before escape is possible. These are of one type-binary choice-choose one direction to go, pick up an inventory item, and then go the other direction and use the inventory item. The most simplistic of these puzzles is the final puzzle where it is a 50-50 choice of which cup of poisoned drink to sip-there are no clues as to which choice is the correct one. This is poor adventure game design, but in a game as short as this, it merely delays the inevitable ending.

Ramey has presented us with some competent images, static for the most part, with the occasional sprite pasted over the top. Take the TV scene-it is immediately apparent that the sprite has been stuck on the static background with little consideration for the angle to ensure that it it looks natural. For a game that only lasts ten minutes or so, I would expect some of the effort to have gone into making the scenes as realistic as possible. The graphics are better than his previous effort, though, so it is rewarding to see the evolution of a game designer.

The good news is that the game saves automatically, so even though there are risks of dying, the player does not have to replay more than a few seconds of the game. For a game as short as this however, the savegame feature is redundant, much as I was impressed by its inclusion.

The scene is set by the use of some atmospheric music, which lends a realistic urgency to proceedings. What voice acting there is is all performed by Ramey and is not bad (though nothing to write home about) considering he is putting on an American accent. He uses minimal sound effects, downloaded from Sound Dogs. Experienced gamers will enjoy the reference to The 7th Guest series in “Welcome to my house” and a similar homage is evident in “let's play a game”. This is a guy who appreciates the horror genre even if his budget and ideas are limited. It's great to see him progressing and undoubtedly his best work is still to come.

This is definitely an adults only game. The themes are not suitable for children at all. The game is dark and deals with death at every turn. Strangely, this does not match the selection of (very) few puzzles in the game, which most children could solve without batting an eyelid as mentioned above. The game is over in an instant (or, literally, 10 minutes of instants) so it won't take up space on your hard drive for too long. In fact, reading this review could take longer than the actual game. This is a free game so it's worth it just to while away a few minutes when you want a break from something cerebral. I guess.

So, all in all, this is not the best game by a long shot. It's not the worst either, but there are many aspects in which it shows its shortcomings. The author is a very approachable fellow and has obviously learned from his first attempt. It'd be great if he could get it together because it has been too long since the adventures in the Stauf mansion and I'd love to visit again...

Final Grade: D+/C- (find out more about our grading system)

If you liked this game, then Play: The 7th Guest, The 11th Hour Watch: Saw I, II & III