Review Outcry Developer: Phantomery Publisher: The Adventure Company (in US) ND Games (in Russia, as Sublustrum) Mamba Games (Europe) Genre: Adventure Release Date: September 2008 October 16, 2009 (European Version) Platform: Review by Robert Washburne October 3, 2008		Buy this game at Trade for this game at:

I like a game with clever puzzles which make you think and have logical solutions which make sense before you know the answer. I like a story line which keeps you interested during the game and leaves you thinking about it for days after you finish. I like graphics which make you stop and want to just look around. I like a sound track which makes you want to stop and just listen. I like an atmosphere which affects you and pulls you into the story.

I liked this game.

Outcry is the first offering from a group of artists in St. Petersburg Russia. Released as Sublustrum in Russia, it won several Russian awards. You can read more details about the company on their web site (see top of page for link), but their vision is to take works of art and recast them in a technological medium. They want you to be moved by what you see, by what you hear and by what you learn.

I was moved.

The game starts off with a cut-scene intro which immediately sets the mood. You are standing in an old train station remembering the message you had just received from your brother...

«Dear Brother,
We have not seen each other for ages. I hope, you have not forgotten about me yet. In these decisive days, I am writing to you for you are more than my brother but you are also a friend and the person I can confide in. You must visit me and see with your own eyes the things that no one has ever seen...”»

Everything is old and difficult to focus on. The graphics have been sent through that old movie camera filter which makes the scratch lines and dust specs flash across the screen. And this continues after the intro.

How old are you? How healthy are you? While playing, you appear to sway a little while standing still. When you move, there is a motion blur. Are you medicated? Do you need medication? Has dementia set in?

Everything is old, heavy and not very modern by Western standards. The music is melancholy and very moving. Phantomery nailed the audio/visual and deserves the highest grades for it.

The story is a familiar one to adventure gamers: Your Brother invites you to visit and see something important and when you get there he has vanished. But he has left you a message. He has built a fabulous machine which allows one to travel to amazing places of the mind's creation. Unfortunately, a part of you is left behind after each journey until you eventually become trapped in this alternate reality. His message warns you not to publicize his work, but destroy his notes.

Yeah, right. There is nothing for it but to follow your brother into the unknown and drag him back.

The game play is straightforward and classic. The view is first person singular and you move from spot to spot where you have a 360° panorama to look around. The cursor is a simple ring which gets an “x” in it when it is over a hot spot. There was little pixel hunting, but there was one spot which I missed the first time around even though I could swear I looked there carefully :-).

Notes and inventory are kept on your screen or can be hidden with the click of the right mouse button. There were only six save slots, but it turns out that was more than enough. You cannot get stuck in the game. You can make as many wrong decisions as you like, but you won't move on until you do it right.

The puzzles were classic. Seasoned adventurers will recall seeing each one somewhere else, but they were all woven perfectly into the story line. There was no gratuitous slider or maze thrown in just to fluff it out. The difficulty ranged from easy to advanced. But even the advanced puzzles could be figured out if you paid attention to the details and thought it out.

Except for one.

The one major flaw in the game is a certain puzzle which simply cannot be solved with the clues given. There is a place where you must take four wires and first create one circuit, take advantage of the result, and then create a second circuit. The clues are all there and the first circuit can be assembled without question. But then you go to make the second circuit and you realize that the solution for the first also solves the second. The second circuit doesn't work, so you look for another solution. But nothing works. You finally break out of the game and search the forums (or my walkthrough) for the answer. There is one, but the correct answer not only doesn't result in the circuit shown in the clue, but it does not make a valid circuit at all.

Needless to say, this totally destroys the mood and any immersion you may have been enjoying.

But you put that behind you and jump back into the game. There is a feeling of timelessness as you continue to explore and work your way forward. Until you find yourself at the end of the game...

And that is all I am going to say about that, except that the ending was just as well developed and executed as the beginning (how did TAC manage to let that happen?). My personal reaction was “What the?...” And then what I had seen fully struck home and I was like “Oh wow...”

And I have been thinking about it ever since.

Final Grade

I really wanted to give this game the highest marks. It is truly a work of Art which stimulates the senses, evokes your emotions and leaves you thinking. But it has that one fatal flaw which mars the whole experience. So I am giving it a B+. Should Phantomery ever come out with a patch to change that one puzzle to a rational solution, I will happily patch my grade up to an A.

System Requirements:

• OS: Windows® XP/Vista
• CPU: 1.5 GHz Pentium 4 or Similar Athlon XP
• RAM: 256 MB
• Disk Space: 1.5 GB Available
• Video: 3D Video Card with 128 MB Onboard, DirectX® 9.0c Compatible with 2.0 Shaders Support (GeForce® FX 5200 or Radeon® 9600)
• Sound: DirectX® 9.0c Compatible
• CD-ROM: 16x
• Input: Keyboard, Mouse and Speakers