Connections Review

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            Connections

Review by Enigma

All right, I’ll confess it again. I’m an education junkie. After playing Genesys I thought I’d revisit a more conventional edutainment adventure game that follows the same basic theme, one released in 1996 by the Discovery Channel. The game is based on James Burke’s original TV series Connections, and it uses abundant video taken directly from the series. It’s a fairly traditional puzzle game that focuses on various technological inventions, and as adventure games go, it’s on the easy side. While some of the “connections” between inventions seem a bit tenuous, it’s full of humor and may even pique your interest in science history.

Although it’s a bit dated now, the game holds up pretty well.  Yes, the Quicktime video loads slowly and sometimes displays white spaces while it loads. Movement follows a slideshow style grid.  It isn’t as gorgeous as games with up-to-date graphics such as Timelapse, Myst III: Exile or Beyond Atlantis. Still, Connections presents some interesting, well-done screens and some fun, deliberately mixed-up history.

You begin in James Burke’s modern study and move into history from there. In each of the four playing areas you’ll find modern characters right alongside folks from the Middle Ages or ancient Egypt. As you’re making your way through the Sphinx during the last chapter of the game, for example, you might be surprised to meet a modern mom in a weird kitchen who wants you to help her bake a pie (or is it a “pi?”). British lawn bowlers from Elizabethan times eat lunch in a fifties-style diner. A modern appliance repairman sets up shop next door to a medieval apothecary.

The Story

Connections manages to find a slim storyline that ties everything together, and that is: someone is trying to tear everything apart. It seems that the force of chaos, personified by a jeering mad scientist character whom you’ll meet from time to time, is trying to dismantle “the web” of science and inventions that hold history together. James Burke himself explains all of this to you as he pops up in unexpected places throughout the game.

It’s up to you, of course, to make the connections that link everything back together again. Each time you and James Burke think you’ve managed it, another level of chaos appears, until you and James finally face the villain and vanquish him. Pretty simple, but it works to explain why you’re playing.

Gameplay

You play Connections as a standard solve-the-puzzle, get-the-inventory-item, straightforward adventure. Some puzzles stand alone, and some are, well, connected to others. A few of its fairly conventional puzzles might even stump you for a while. You’ll find a few logic games, such as the card game with a gambler in an Old West saloon that features a modern pay phone and the matchstick game with an archeologist outside the Sphinx. You’ll do a math puzzle involving fractions as you measure the flour for “Mom.”

Yes, you’ll find a maze and a slider puzzle in the Old West chapter.  Actually these are on the easy side, but if you hate them you’ll also find “magic buttons” that solve them for you in the “hints” section. Remember the infamous “furniture moving” puzzle in The 11th Hour? Connections has something similar, but there’s a magic button for that one too, and I confess that I used it. In fact, the game features a complete walkthrough that’s always accessible, unless you decide to avoid temptation and turn it off when you begin the game.

Many of the puzzles are of the simple “find the inventory item and put it somewhere” type. You need to fire a cannon at one point in the game, but you can’t aim it properly until you’ve found another item in a bank. A really interesting puzzle involves reading cemetery headstones, and figuring out who’s related to whom leads to that discovery. You’ll find a few “turn on the power” puzzles. There’s a safecracking puzzle with the clue to the combination within arm’s reach. In fact, you’ll find fairly obvious clues scattered about for most of the puzzles.  When you try to place an item on the screen and you haven’t yet completed a necessary action, a disembodied voice will taunt you, “Not yet,” or “unh uh.” Often you’ll get a “significant item,” such as a pencil, that will materialize in one of the links in a chain at the bottom of your screen. Fill up the chain, finish one more puzzle, and you’ll move to the next chapter.

Lights, Camera, Action

Despite the loading problems, the Quicktime videos blend into the game very well. You’ll meet lots of folks who’ll talk to you, including Galileo. Most of these are fairly well acted, although a few manage to be a bit embarrassing. James Burke himself dominates the game, and he, of course, is a wonderful narrator. You never know when you’ll find him. He might be in a desk drawer or hiding in a suit of armor, or a tapestry, or even a tomb.

One of the major features of the game is the tie-in to the Connections TV series. As you find each significant item and place in its link on your chain, you can click on it to see a clip from the TV series. Some of these are fairly extensive, and they’re all well produced. In a few you’ll find clues for puzzles, but it isn’t necessary to watch these videos at all. I enjoyed them and usually waited until I had all the items in each chapter before I watched them. They do tend to make the “connections” clearer.

If you’re not as interested in technological advancements as James Burke, you can still enjoy the game’s tongue-in-cheek humor.  A spoof of a training video for your new “Acme Drawbridge Opener” gives you a vital clue and is fun to watch as well.  A bank clerk plays her part deliberately over the top, and a policeman is a bit on the dim side. You’ll also find plenty of visual humor scattered about, such as the newspaper pictured in the right column here. James Burke provides plenty of his trademark wry comments as you go along, making the game entertaining even if you don’t care about the education it offers.

Bugs

Other than the slow-loading Quicktime videos I had no difficulty at all with the game, despite its age and despite the fact that I was playing it on a newer iMac.

The Verdict

Connections won’t go down as a classic adventure game, but it sure is cute and fun to play. I think it’s worth a couple of evenings’ play. If you’re an experienced adventure gamer that’s about as long as it will take. If you like James Burke, history, or science, you’ll probably enjoy it. If you just like puzzles, you’ll find most of these easy, but a few might challenge you a bit.

And don’t forget, only you can rescue the web from the forces of chaos! The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Discovery Channel Multimedia Publisher: Discovery Channel Multimedia Release Date: 1996

Available for: Macintosh Windows

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Screenshots

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System Requirements

PC: Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 486/33 or higher processor 8 MB of RAM 2X CD-ROM drive Hard drive Windows-compatible sound card Mouse VGA display (256 colors) MSCDEX version 2.2 or later

Macintosh: Macintosh Performa, Centris, Quadra, or Power Mac series 68040 processor or better System 7.0 or later 2X CD-ROM drive 8 MB of RAM 640×480 display color monitor with at least 256 colors

Where to Find It

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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14 Responses to Fear Factor

  • Fear Factor | Tap-Repeatedly.com | Reality Topics Blog

    […] nobody@flickr.com (graftedno1) wrote a very interesting post today.   Here’s a quick excerpt:My greatest fear is to be trapped alone in a confined space with a blind human, in total darkness. They have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and. […]

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Lewis, you made me think of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in gaming, and we’re very similar people.

    Bioshock had two moments – the dentist and the flooded room filled with mannequins.

    Thief had Return to the Cathedral, which was terrifying to me. Thief 3 had Shalebridge Cradle, which is so scary it ought to be fined.

    System Shock 2 kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was more lonely panic than true fear.

    Korsakovia was so scary that I uninstalled it.

    And STALKER. Oh, god, the haunted labs in STALKER. The latter two games don’t have scares like that. Few games do.

    It’s especially rare for a game to have more than mere “moments” – for a game to be scary from beginning to end, that’s a triumph.

    Wonderful article. As if Gregg’s review wasn’t enough to convince me that Penumbra is not something I have the courage to play!

  • DPenn

    I’m with you Lewis … I’m a bit of a puss. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dread as entertainment.

    Still, I’m drawn to dark stories when they have something interesting to say, whether it’s a game like Thief or a film like, say, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. So I’ll push through, sometimes peering through my fingers.

    The trouble with games, though, is that if you look through your fingers, you’re probably just going to have to play through the scenario again. :~)

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    I wanted to play this game. I downloaded the demo but the controls were just too wonky for me to get my head around. I liked the atmospheric vibe a lot. I think I’m a bit desensitized from an overdose of horror movies in my youth so I don’t so much get the dread thing from these games as a nice creepy vibration. If only the controls were better…

  • Lewis B

    @ Mike, what’s wrong with the controls bud? As someone who despises poor control schemes, Penumbra’s is just like any other FPS, except to examine things you right click on them.  To use things you left click.  I’m not sure that can be considered difficult 🙂

  • Gregg B

    @Steerpike: Yeah my greatest shit-scared moments were with those games too. A few spoilers below people, so beware.

    Bioshock – Haha, I remember the dentist. I didn’t really find the game that scary overall but the bit where you go into the wine cellar and notice a mannequin facing the wall and after upgrading your weapon it’s stood directly behind you motionless and quiet just for a moment before attacking you. I shat a brick. I also missed that bit originally until Lew told me about it.

    System Shock 2 – same as you really, more unremitting tension all the way through rather than specific terrifying moments. Oh actually, theres a bit where you call a lift and it breaks then you realise a service droid is coming to fix it… I do remember having sleep issues after my first encounter with the cyborg ninjas though.

    Thief: The Dark Project – The Sword and Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard and well, loads of them. The Sword made me break out into goosebumps though because there was a bit where you could hear this creepy giggling which seemed like it was following me about then it suddenly changed to this horrible throaty noise. What made matters worse was that the EAX (bless you Creative) made my foot steps sound like somebody else was there with me. That level was incredible, a bit too incredible as it seems I missed great chunks of it because I was so eager to leave.

    Thief II: The Metal Age – Trail of Blood where you end up in that opening with those damn tree beasts. God the first time I saw one of those hurtling towards me I actually died shortly afterward. Do you remember that Mechanist child walking around on one of the levels? That was a little creepy.

    Then there’s Penumbra: Overture – quite a few bits but I’m not mentioning them here.

    Oh and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – The brain scorcher lab just because it was so damn quiet. My imagination seriously got the better of me there. Those stuffed animals and heads I’d seen in various buildings led me to believe that those creatures were lurking somewhere in the Zone, specifically that lab.

    @Mike: My control setup was perfect after some tweaking (as well as the simple weapon swing fix). If you ever fancy giving it another go, give me a shout and I’ll let you know my setup.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not sure why guys, but one of my starting paragraphs had gone missing, even though I copied it straight from the original source, and It was fine earlier. 

    Incase you missed it due to some technical issue you might want to re-read just after “Well no she wouldn’t in truth, but in Penumbra: Overture you don’t want to move anyway.” at the very start for those who’ve already read the article. Apologies 🙂

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Lewis, it was the weapon swing. It had this terrible, unresponsive feel to it, like trying to hit through molasses. I couldn’t stand using it. I tried the .ini fix as mentioned in the review but it didn’t seem to help. Of course this was the demo…but that shouldn’t have made any difference. I might try the second game instead as I guess they did away with the weapons thing.

    I’m see your first paragraph just fine. It’s the dialogue, right?

  • jdeuel

    I like the argument that weapons can remove fear, but even loaded to the teeth with ammo in AVP’99 the Marine missions were frightful because the enemy was anywhere at any time.

    As for Penumbra Overture, if the controls are anything like the original Penumbra they need to hack in some Wii-Remote 3d controls. I did not like using my mouse for 3d movements.

  • Gregg B

    @Mike: I’ve read that many people avoided conflict altogether in Overture which incidentally is something forced upon you in Black Plague. As somebody who has been renovating a house over the last 6 months with no DIY experience I can safely say that swinging a hammer is significantly easier in real life than it is in Overture without the fix. The fix balanced that for me.

    I’d highly recommend completing the first Penumbra because it’s one big build up to Black Plague which spoils the ending to Overture in the intro. And it’s a great ending too. Just so you know!

  • Lewis B

    @ Steerpike, those moments you mention are all my worst too!!  Do you remember the Robot labs in SS2? Absolutely terrifying, waiting for robots to burst out on you! 🙁 oh and have you ever player Condemned?

    @ Mike, The use of weapons in Penumbra is different to say HL2, where the player is physically holding the weapon, as in Penumbra it floats slightly infront of you.  However, if you change the control method to normal weapon swing, it’s no different!  Speak to Greggi and he’ll tell you what to do 🙂

    @ jdeuel, AVP the original and its sequal were scary however what type of fear do you think it is? I don’t think it’s anything more than sheer tension.  Having a Smart Gun makes you feel incredibly powerful.  I can honestly say in Penumbra the fear is sheer unrivalled terror, where you actually have to force yourself to play on.  It genuinly is that scary! 🙂

  • Jason Dobry

    It’s so true, an arsenal of weapons and ammo rapidly deflates any sense of horror or uneasiness in any game for reasons you already mentioned. Sakey, I thought Bioshock was more “lonely panic,” while I was pretty much always terrified in System Shock 2. I really, really, REALLY did not want to enter The Many’s nursery, and my weapons were so unreliable and ammo so scarce that I never felt safe.

    Silent Hill was terrifying for the same reasons. Ammo was rare and I frequently had to rely on my pipe for self-defense.  Even when I had ammo, the game mechanics prevented my character from being anything other than marginal with any firearm.

    Fear had one moment for me: I was climbing up a ladder, and as I reached the upper platform, my guy briefly looked down as he climbed off. As my perspective looked up again, that Ring-esque little girl was RIGHT THERE, reaching for me. I screamed and she was gone.

    What else…the original Aliens vs. Predator sent me into a locker room and I could only hear the facehuggers scurrying about somewhere within. I had to go in there. I advanced about three steps before the damn thing screamed and filled up my screen with its repulsive underside as it implanted me with its spawn. My roommate made fun of me for weeks for screaming like a girl child.

    Korsakovia–meh.  I was too annoyed and frustrated by the box rearrangement/jumping puzzles to be scared. I uninstalled it after an hour of play, I think. Maybe the scary parts were later, but I doubt it.

    As for Penumbra, I did play through about half of it before other games distracted me. I remember unease and creepiness, but no sweaty fear. I think I’m to blame here, or, more precisely, my daughter, who was still an infant at the time and generally allowed me only to play during the day for 45 minutes at a time. I was denied total immersion and the fear effect suffered. Maybe I should give it another go after I finish Call of Pripyat since she sleeps through the night now. With any luck, Penumbra will keep me from doing the same.

  • Gregg B

    I played the demo of F.E.A.R. but that ladder scare is the only bit I remember. Christ, that made me jump. I’m not too good with cat scares.

    Also I felt exactly the same about Korsakovia. It was creepy at first but then it began to irritate me far too much and it just soured the experience. I stopped playing as a result. Not to mention, when I realised I could bash those smoke-things with my crowbar they didn’t bother me nearly as much.

  • Online Up

    Great article. I look forward to reading more in the future.

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