Review Mode Developer: Jeff Green Publisher: Corel Genre: Adventure Release Date: 1996 Platform: Review by Alexander Tait March 17, 2004

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I was reading a review of Counterstrike: Condition Zero, where they referred to Soldier of Fortune 2, released in 2002 as “old”. If that is the case, I hope we have some keen amateur archeologists because Mode, released in 1996, must be considered an uncovered relic. It’s no wonder that with attitudes like this that games like Mode never really get consideration by adventure-phobic journalists.

Picture a party-the party of the millennium. Now picture at this party a mysterious but charismatic recluse, a sexy woman with uncertain loyalties, a native American mystic, a fortune teller, a cop with bisexual undertones to his conversation, and a desperately unfunny clown. These are some of the characters you will meet, interact with, and possibly get to know better. Some, much much better. Every interaction depends on the “mood bar” a spectrum of colors that reflect a range of responses from green (strongly positive) to blue (neutral) to red (strongly negative). Interact in a way that matches their philosophy and you will learn more about them or others at the party. Interact incorrectly and you may have to forego getting in their good graces and will have to forge alliances with others. This, of course, results in a plethora of endings, many of which are good. Obviously, this allows the opportunity for replayability such that the game could be played several times with vastly different outcomes.

This simple interface makes the game easy to play. Save, load, help, and quit functions are accessible from the other icon on the bottom of the interface. The game can be saved anywhere, even in movies, though reloading the game plays the video from the beginning rather than the point at which the game was saved. Just be careful not to save the game when it requires another disk or the game is corrupted. Every other instance of saving was error free but consistently the game corrupted these save games. In addition to this, the tutorial for the game is amongst the best I have ever seen. The help is interactive and comprehensive-other adventure games with multiple functions or differences from normal functions could really benefit from a tutorial like this.

Mode is not a “true” adventure game, but certainly well within a liberal definition of adventure. As Jeff Green, the writer and creator of Mode, explained to me in a recent email, he sees this game and its precursor, Midnight Stranger, as “experiments in socializing”. Mode reminds me in many ways of Bad Day on the Midway but it contains the adult themes of full motion video (three CD-ROMs, no less!) format of Tender Loving Care. Similar to the latter title, subtle differences in conversation propel the story forward in radically different ways for every player and every replay of the game.

As Jeff Green says about the uncertainty of interactions using the mood bar, “You can't tell this by looking at the bar, just as there is no handy visual meter of a person's mood in the real world”. A full tutorial and explanation of the mood bar can be found on Jeff’s site: http://www.achilles.net/~jgreen/multimed.html.

On first play through, the game will not give up many of its secrets nor will the story be fully clear. It’s possible to complete it without having achieved any significant interaction with others (which was certainly the case for me!). Play it through several times and subtleties of interaction and you may find the secrets that hold the key to both more complex interactions and the overarching story. Although more superficial than Tender Loving Care or Point of View, this game is worth some exploration. There are some pretty sinister themes, sexual overtones, and mysticism pervading parts of the game as you strive to get a dome, a requirement at the party. Once you have the dome, the story unfolds.

Voice acting is generally excellent and it is refreshing to hear Canadian accents in a game. Interaction is almost solely through the mood bar and video consists of grainy QuickTime movies that are standard in mid-90’s multimedia games. Players may initially find these off-putting, as they are somewhat different to most QuickTime movies. The screen consists of an image of the character you are interacting with but only a fraction of the image actually changes-usually head and upper chest only. Because the characters move, there are times when the chest doesn’t quite gel with the static lower part of the chest but it is no more difficult to adapt to than were the mouth movements in Titanic: Adventure Out of Time or Dust.

Mode’s a trip. As a social experiment, I give this a B. As a game, it’s more like a C-. Even though it isn’t as deep in its storyline as many of the titles mentioned in this review, it certainly has enough adventure to hold the interest of most readers if only for its novelty. The plot divergences had me wondering long after I’d finished the game about what it all meant. Play it for yourself and see if you can get to the bottom of the mystery behind Mode.

(15)

Final Grade: C-

System Requirements:

• 486/33 or equivalent
• 8 MB RAM
• 2X CD-ROM
• Sound Card