DogDay Review

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DogDay

Review by MrLipidSeptember 2003

Note: This review contains some spoilers. Proceed with caution.

Tell Me a Story …

I happen to think that a good adventure game tells a good story.  A good adventure game story should provide players with some idea of what it is that they are trying to do and back that up with the feeling that what they are trying to do really matters. Can you fulfill your mission in Titanic: Adventure out of Time? Can you discover your identity as you recover your humanity in Bad Mojo? Can you make your way back to the physical world in Amber: Journeys Beyond? If there is no sense of urgency, no sense that the quest matters, the game is over before the opening titles end.

And Make it a Good Story!

Since the opening titles in DogDay last mere seconds, the game is over pretty quickly. Why? There is no sense of urgency in DogDay. And that lack of urgency reflects the failure of the game to tell its own story. Instead, DogDay relies on its manual to set up the story and fill in most of the details. 

It is only from the manual that you learn the following:

“Your objective is to make contact with CATS (Coalition Against Totalitarian Society) and provide them with the means to expose the true nature of government activities. You must then flee the city to avoid sharing the fate of so many brave dissidents before you.”

Put another way, you need to find and steal some information to sell to CATS in order to earn enough to buy a ticket out of the miserable place you find yourself in. No sticking around and fighting the good fight for you. All you’re up for is cashing in and bailing out.

While not exactly noble, the quest could have been fun if, as in, say, Noir: A Shadowy Thriller, there were actual clues to sift and folks to interview or eavesdrop on. No such luck. Scraps of newspaper here and there provide the only clues on offer. And no one says a word.

If You Can’t Make it Good, Make it Short …

In case you fail to look in the right garbage can, here is all the game itself tells you about your quest:

BLAB Newspaper of the Coalition Against Totalitarian Society Loose Lips Sink Chips

The latest attempt to silence ex-Sectionary Daily investigative reporter Hugo “Chips” Chompsky by Chegga heavies has been unsuccessful. Mr. Chompsky was lucky enough to escape torture at the Pound early yesterday morning and flee the section via the underground rail system, leaving behind him a substantial amount of information of the inner workings of Chegga’s empire.  Chompsky was under close surveillance whilst working at the Daily after he was discovered to be also working for this publication.

That’s It?

Based on this single fragile bit of data, your mission appears to be to find the files that Chompsky left behind. This point is so subtle (vague?) that others who have written walkthroughs erroneously concluded that the rooms a player must break into belong to Chegga, the game’s tyrannical unseen heavy, rather than Chompsky, the now-absent reporter. Hard to create much sense of drama in a story when this level of confusion over fundamental plot points is possible.

Leaving the story aside, which is pretty much what the developers did, DogDay was sold on the basis of its “real world” challenges. A player’s “real life experience” and “common sense logic” were supposed to be all that would be needed to solve the game’s “true to life” puzzles.

Really? (Spoiler Alert!)

Really.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never broken into a building by tossing myself into a newspaper vending machine. Nor have I escaped from a room by firing icicles at a balance scale in hopes of unhooking a ladder from the ceiling. For that matter, I’ve never crossed a street by jumping up and down on a canopy nor owned a sofa that provided access to the city sewers … though during my college days I had a sofa that smelled like it might provide such access. 

No Spoilers Beyond this Point

Goofy puzzles can, of course, be fun. After all, it’s a game, right?  Sadly, the goofy puzzles have been bookended by two classic Short Game Helpers™: a trio of arcade sequences and an interminable, unforgivable maze. Pull out the twitching and the slogging and the game slims down dramatically. And makes one wish there had been more to it like what remains.

Every Dog Has Its, Well, You Know …

Visually, DogDay is pretty impressive, even by today’s standards.  Prerendered animations create the illusion that one is moving through a seamless three-dimensional world. Inventory item animations work well. The sparing use of music and sound effects contributes to an ominous and oppressive mood.

As good as the good parts of DogDay are, there aren’t enough of them. And there are more than a few bad parts. For that reason I’m going to suggest a split rating of Pretty Good for what’s good and Rotten Egg for what isn’t, which amounts to the middling rating that DogDay deserves. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Eyst Pty Ltd.  Publisher: Impact Interactive Publishing Pty Ltd.  Released: 1997

Available for: Windows

Four Fat Chicks Links

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Screenshots

Click to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlarge

System Requirements

IBM PC or 100% compatible 486DX/2 66MHz processor or higher (Pentium recommended) 8 MB RAM (16 MB recommended) Windows 95 Super VGA Graphics card (640×480×256 colors) or better Windows 95 compatible sound card CD-ROM drive (4X or faster recommended) Windows 95 compatible mouse or pointing device

Where to Find It

Links provided for informational purposes only.  FFC makes no warranty with regard to any transaction entered into by any party(ies).

      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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