Next Life (Reprobates) Review

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Next Life (North America) Reprobates (Rest of the World)

Review by Old RoosterNovember 2007

Next Life, also known as Reprobates, has been out for a couple of months in Europe. It comes from the developers who gave us one of my favorite adventure titles—The Black Mirror. They also brought us the intriguing NiBiRu: Age of Secrets. So it was with some anticipation that I entered into the world of their latest creation. Unfortunately, my impressions are quite mixed, as will be explained.

“This Must Be a Dream. It’s Impossible. Where Am I?” —Adam

Adam Raichl, our Bohemian “hero” and the role you play, has a very nasty accident on his way to work. He awakens in a small tin hut on an island. Initial exploration reveals some water and cookies, as well as several other huts populated by folks apparently in a similar situation to his. A good part of your initial journey is to get acquainted with your neighbors.

They’re a strange bunch, from all over the world. Most of them seem not only as puzzled as Adam as to “where” and “why,” but also seem to be from various times. Not only that, the last thing they remember before arriving is typically quite horrific. Dorothy worked in the Twin Towers, exclaiming: “That was just a fire, wasn’t it?” Boris talks fondly of Breshnev—but as a present, not past, leader. Another suggests that Nixon might find himself in trouble because of Watergate. Still another is pleased he survived a 300-foot-fall from a plane and wonders when his friends will come to pick him up.

Then we have the mood of the inhabitants, which borders on depression and a sense of resignation. Most of them seem to have been there for a while, and they brief Adam on some of the peculiarities of the island. There’s a bell tower that gives three slow chimes every night, putting you instantly to sleep wherever you may be. During this sleep, you will likely have realistic and frightening nightmares. Then we have colleagues, most of whom are odd, to say the least. Edwin prays all the time, convinced God will rescue him; Danica seems to have given up and won’t listen to encouragements; Hermann is very down—”Damn, they are all fools here, lying to themselves.”

Our Adam, however, is determined to probe the mysteries of the island. He cajoles and pleads with his roommates to help him in his efforts to answer questions and unlock secrets.

“What If Things Are Different Than They Look?”

Technically, Next Life is an English translation of the European Reprobates. It also is version 1.2.16, which is a good thing since it includes the patches that were much-needed for Reprobates.

It comes on three CDs, takes about 4 GB of hard drive space, will play without a CD in the drive, and takes about 25 minutes to install.

Using a third-person perspective, Adam moves in classic point-and-click, mouse-driven fashion. Double-clicking will speed him up. Screens are static, with no rotational panning, though there is some motion within them, particularly of water and rain. Within a scene, you’ll find inventory items to accumulate, people with whom to talk, places to go. The mouse cursor is small, and hotspots are often hard to find. Fortunately, the “E” key will show exits to adjoining screens. Right-click brings up inventory and options, including the ability to save anywhere.

Sticks and Stones, Water and Cookies

For a good part of the game, your inventory is very simple. You’ll constantly be accumulating sticks and stones, which, as you’ll discover, have multiple uses. There’s no searching here through 27 inventory objects to find two that work together! I very much liked this approach.

In addition, we find an unusual twist for an adventure game. Adam has a health bar. As he moves, runs, simply passes time during the day, this bar goes down. It can only be replenished by drinking water and eating cookies. If you forget to do these things, as I once did, Adam can die, and it’s game over. I found this a peculiar and unnecessary “feature” of the game, one of several, I suspect, included to try to appeal to a “wider audience” (action gamers?).

As the bell tolls and each day ends, you’ll wake the next morning to a fresh start, which means no carry-over inventory items, different perspectives for the same general island locations (confusing), some fellow travelers missing, and maybe a few new ones added.

“You’re a Reprobate; You’re All Reprobates” —Edwin

A reprobate is a person rejected by God, beyond hope of salvation, typically depraved and unprincipled. But don’t be too distressed by this definition. Remember, it’s the delusional fundamentalist, Edwin, proclaiming the doom of all, except himself, of course!

For me, the primary attraction of the game was the presentation and delineation of the characters, and I do mean characters! As we get to know them through multiple conversations, we find they’re anything but plastic cutouts. You’ll hear and explore such statements as: “The only thing that can help me is death;” “I think this is a joke with Candid Camera;” “We must be in purgatory; your soul is waiting.” Of course, we do have our determined Adam: “I won’t be like a sheep—I have to do something!”

You’ll often need to return to a person for followup. Fortunately, the conversational tree will show a highlight if a new item can be addressed. Otherwise, you’ll get a dismissal of some type.

“Are You a Transvestite, or What?” —Edwin

The graphical presentation of the cast is a particular highlight of Next Life. When speaking with a character, a closeup occurs with quite incredible facial detail, including composition, lip-synching, changing expressions. Together with the intriguing script and decent voice acting, you get much more of a sense of personality than with most other titles.

Next Life has an “R”-rated written dialogue option to accompany the spoken “PG”-rated word. Be sure to check out what the North American censors have done to clean up the European lines. It’s very funny to see several expressive “f— it” expletives in writing translated for the actor as something like “my goodness.”

This is a game where the acting may be criticized by some. But I think the actors did a fine job, with accents seeming appropriate to the many countries from which the characters are drawn. The lunatics sound loony, depressives sound depressed, the hopeful sound full of hope.

As to graphics and sound beyond the cast, more distant views, such as of Adam and the island, are satisfactory if not brilliant. We do have occasional birds, very realistic fire, lapping water on the shore, nicely done rain in some episodes. All of this is accompanied by unobtrusive and fitting background themes plus good ambient sound—the rain and wind, for example.

“Calm Down, Breathe, Just Don’t Look Down” —Adam

Would you believe it took me 13 tries (!) over two days to solve the first arcade puzzle? I was ready to give up at that point, and I suspect many of you will be as well. There are inventory and code puzzles in Next Life, but, most unfortunately, there are also several of these minigame stumpers, of which the first is the worst. Not only is it hard in the first place to move a ball into holes around a clock-like wheel, but also the whole thing and every hole in it is timed and, further, has interfering balls that can deflect your intended path. It’s one of the worst I’ve seen, and it made me a bit angry since, I think, like the health bar, this kind of “feature” does not need to be included in an adventure title.

“What Secrets Does a Desolate Island Hold?” —Adam

The premise and the promise of Next Life led this reviewer to really look forward to spending some hours with these “reprobates.” Unfortunately, I can only give a mixed rating to a flawed title. On the one hand, we have very appealing and colorful characters caught up in a bizarre and puzzling situation. They are depicted well, both graphically and in terms of acting and script.

Yet, on the other hand, we have dated third-person movement in stick-like fashion, with hard-to-find hotspots and a good deal of redundancy with regard to conversations. Backtracking in performing the game’s tasks also becomes fatiguing. The graphics are a mixed bag, almost seeming like one group of artists worked on the bland Island environs and another on the wonderful facial depictions. The presentation of the script is quite odd, with what is said not always matching what is written.

We also have the dreaded minigames, typically occurring during well-named nightmares. These and the odd health meter are completely out of place in this game, bringing my overall rating down a big notch. As the Masks suggest, Next Life (the game) is a toss-up for adventure game lovers.

Finally, without giving anything away, the ending is ambiguous, suggesting the possibility of a sequel, although one has yet to be announced.

What I Like Most About Next Life

  • Intriguing premise and cast of characters;
  • Detailed facial features and mannerisms;
  • Fine voice acting;
  • Inventory usage is well-done;
  • Most puzzles are sensible and contextual.

What I Didn’t Like About the Game

  • Hotspots often too subtle, hard to find;
  • Dreadful, potentially game-stopping, minigame;
  • Scenes are fixed without panning;
  • Health bar seems an unnecessary “feature”;
  • “R”-rated written script often doesn’t match “PG” vocal script. The End

 

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Future Games Publisher: The Adventure Company Release Date: November 2007

Available for: Windows

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System Requirements

Windows 2000/XP/Vista 1.5 GHz Pentium 4 768 MB RAM 64 MB DirectX 9 compatible video card 4 GB free hard disk space

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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