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The year: 1936. Exotic locales, diabolical traps, cliff-hanging situations and the onset of World War II. Yes, it's the further adventures of ... Robert L. Ripley! Sanctuary Woods has transmogrified the real-life Robert Ripley of Believe It or Not! fame into the Indiana Jones of PC gaming. If you lived and breathed for Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers or Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, then this is the game for you. Lee Sheldon and Francois Robillard have written, designed and produced a richly detailed game that is going to keep net groups humming for months with requests for tips and puzzle solutions. The plot line is not original, and the thematic element--world domination--has been seen many times before, but this undertaking is a joy for the experienced adventurer. Why? An almost perfect blend of humor, puzzles and storytelling has been intricately woven together to create an unforgettable gaming experience. You, playing in the third person as Robert Ripley, must traverse the world in an attempt to find the "key" that will unlock the secret of Master Lu's tomb and obtain the world's most coveted treasure. Along the way, you must be on a constant lookout for bizarre exhibits to display in your Odditorium, keep your cartoon series updated by sketching interesting objects in your journal and stay one step ahead of the nefarious foes who are intent on taking your life and the "key" you have discovered that will open the door to eternal life. A blockbuster of a surprise ending awaits those whom solve the riddle and the knowledge that the world can again sleep in peace thanks to your vigilant efforts. Unfortunately, there looms a major obstacle in the completion of your quest. It is the bane of my gaming experiences, the reason I gave up role playing games. The maze. The dreaded maze. The game stopping, sleep inducing, highly unoriginal maze. Why any game designer feels that he or she must put a maze in an adventure game is beyond me. It brings the game to a complete standstill. It is a simple matter to plot and replot your course. To draw a map and follow it to completion. But it is boring. It is not a puzzle to be pondered and solved. When the labyrinth is finally completed, it is more a matter of relief than satisfaction. The maze in the game leads you through the Hidden Way to Master Lu's book, which is necessary to finish the game, but why have a maze in such an otherwise excellent game? Couldn't the Hidden Way have been found by solving a series of puzzles rather than blundering through a 99-room unrealistic maze? Real-life characters, environments and historical situations greatly strengthen the appeal of the game and even, dare I say this, make the game educational. I often found myself searching the dictionary and encyclopedia for more information on prayer wheels, steles and Danzig, Germany. In fact, the excellent instruction book included with the game goes to great lengths to detail what is and what is not historically accurate in the game. It also includes a fascinating short biography of Ripley. This is definitely a man with the potential for further adventures. One thing that will stall the adventure, though, is if you attempt to run this game from Windows 95. Sanctuary Woods has included special installation instructions for Windows 95, but even after rigidly following their directions, I was experiencing lock-up during gameplay. Once I quit being so bullheaded and decided to boot, install and run the game from DOS, I had no further problems with any of the technical aspects of the game. In fact, the only problems you should have after the initial installation is with some of the harder puzzles in the game. The puzzles, for the most part, are self-contained. Everything you need to solve them are usually, with a few exceptions, in the immediate vicinity. Many of the puzzles are multi-layered, so, just when you are patting yourself on the back for solving an exceptionally devious one, such as getting the Romanov Emerald out of the glass jar in the laboratory, you must then solve an even harder puzzle, such as getting the heck out of the laboratory so you can continue your quest. The majority of the puzzles are fun to solve and fairly obvious after some experimentation and thought. The aforementioned laboratory scenario is the brick wall puzzle that will separate the experienced adventurer from those who buy a hint book. Puzzles: A. The interface is exceptionally easy and unobtrusive. Objects are picked up by clicking on them and, after a brief close up of the object, added to your inventory by a second click. Almost every "hot spot" is easy to locate, unlike the pixel-by-pixel searches of Prisoner of Ice. There is a Take icon (hand with palm down), a Use/Manipulate icon (hand with palm up), a magnifying glass Look icon and, of course, your inventory, which in this instance is represented by a steamer trunk that Ripley takes along on his globe-hopping adventures. Take heed, Sierra, the trunk adds that small touch of believability that other games neglect. A left click on the mouse will take Ripley to your desired location on the screen. At times, Ripley will seem to be leisurely strolling across screen, especially after you have been to the same location at least a dozen times. In these instances, left click on the location you are going to and then right click to skip the animation frames and arrive at your destination immediately. Ease of interface: B. The graphics and animation are beautifully rendered. The backgrounds are lush and detailed, and the movement of the characters is extremely fluid and lifelike. The screen scrolls smoothly to follow the advancement of the protagonist. But this is an area where I felt the game could have been greatly improved. Some different "camera" angles could have greatly heightened the suspense of the game. For example, crossing the chasm in Mocha Moche on a water-slicked log is supposed to be a treacherous journey, but you never quite feel the danger as much as you are told you are in danger. The flatness of the screen and the scrolling give the situation a sameness to every other screen in the game. An occasional shift of viewpoint, maybe viewing the character from above so that we could appreciate the depth of the chasm, could have made it easier to identify with the danger the character keeps telling us he is in. A little innovation in this area would have been a vast improvement. There is some full motion video interspersed throughout the game. It is usually in the form of a close-up of one of the main characters during an important conversation. At first I found these to be obtrusive in such a beautifully animated game, but as gameplay progressed it seemed to add a touch of realism and made the characters seem to come to life. This integration of live video and animation is ultimately performed so seamlessly that you actually envision the animated characters as their "live" counterparts. Sanctuary Woods also seems to have gone the politically correct route by having the live video characters portrayed by their appropriate nationalities; i.e., Feng Li is portrayed by Tony Eng. But the audio cast listed in the credits seem to have been done by professionals who could mimic different accents. Mike Donovan is the voice for the Chinese Feng Li, the German Wolf and the Sikkim Posh Express agent, among others. What this has accomplished is some nice voice acting attached to realistic looking live actors and animated personalities. There is no chewing of the scenery by unprofessional thespians to distract from the game. Animation and graphics: B. The sound effects and music are also so wonderful as to not be noticeable. Listen for the sound of muffled car horns from outside when you are in the New York Posh office. The sound of a cue ball rumbling down a ventilation chamber gradually recedes in tinny volume. The eerie Chinese music that opens the game evokes memories of a 1930s "B" movie, as does the cut scene of the airplane that transports you over a map of your journeys. All minor details separately, but together they combine to form a pleasurable gaming experience. Sound effects and music: B-. Finally, in the nature of any good suspense game or movie, there are some deft touches of laugh-out-loud humor interspersed throughout the plot. Ripley's initial meeting with Dr. Twelvetrees is frothy, and chalk one up for poolroom humor as Ripley professes a secret love for pocket billiards. If you are an experienced gamer, you will love The Riddle of Master Lu. If you are a novice, you will find the going tough at times and may need help in one or two spots, but will ultimately find it a rewarding experience. I have to admit, though, that, regardless of the maze, this is one adventure I would truly like to see a sequel to ... Believe it or Not! Final Grade: B+ System Requirements:
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