Genesys Review

|Tap-Repeatedly|FFC Archives

            Genesys

Review by EnigmaJanuary 2002

What is the greatest possible adventure? The story of a heroic strongman, or woman, involved in intrigue, mystery or combat, perhaps?  An ordinary, unsuspecting commoner trapped in a haunted house? How about, simply, the advancement of civilization? That’s the premise behind Genesys. Its only storyline is the technological progress of mankind from the stone age to the modern day. As a self-confessed history nut, that indeed is the kind of stuff that gets me excited, but Genesys isn’t going to have that effect on everyone. 

Genesys boasts lavish production qualities. Index+’s Wanadoo Edition obtained a grant from the European Community to develop the game, and that money shows all over. It stars the great French actress Jeanne Moreau as the narrator, has the most entrancing original music I’ve ever heard in a game, and will dazzle you with its movie cutscenes. As an “edutainment” game it heavily emphases the “edu” rather than the “tainment,” and, like Vikings and Crusader, the gameplay occurs through inventory-based “riddles.”  I liked it fine, although not as much as Vikings and Crusader, which follow distinct and highly adventurous stories yet manage to focus on history at the same time.

The Story

Well, there isn’t one, really, at least not in the sense of most adventure games. The game starts with a bang—literally, the Big Bang—and lands you in the time of Homo Erectus. From there you’ll move into ancient Mesopotamia, with side trips to Egypt and China. After quite a bit of time there, the game skips the Roman Empire completely and moves you into the Middle Ages for a brief stop. Then you’ll skip the Renaissance and jump to the Industrial Revolution and finally to the modern age.

Of course, with such a vast timeline it would have been quite jarring to superimpose a single character over all of human history in order to have a more conventional adventure game storyline. That would have moved the game into the fantasy realm. Genesys remains resolutely realistic from start to finish. The idea is to get the player to participate in building the major innovations of history, thereby learning about how we achieved our present technological success. I came away with the distinct impression that it’s intended for schoolchildren. Indeed, classroom teachers or homeschooling families might find the game quite useful. For those who don’t already enjoy history, however, the game might look more like a glitzy, interactive textbook than entertainment.

Gameplay

The game’s entertainment comes in the form of puzzles, called “enigmas,” in which you find objects and characters and place them, usually in strict order, onto the Enigma Screen, just as in Vikings and Crusader. You’ve got a beautifully done in-game encyclopedia for clues, inventory items, and learning, always available to you.  You’ll visit one or more playing screens, where you can click on characters to hear what they have to say and pick up objects for solving the riddles. Your major problem will be to figure out what you need to do in each puzzle and especially to find that last elusive item.

Finding those missing items can be one tough job. Enigma number five nearly stopped me. It involves learning about ancient metallurgy by firing up a furnace and smelting ore to produce various objects.  The problem is that your furnace goes out every time you finish an object, and you can only use one certain pile of fuel to fire it up again each time. I could not find that one missing pile of fuel. I was convinced that I’d encountered some kind of terrible bug, even though I’d played the same copy of the game about a year earlier. Yes, the fuel was there all right, and I finally found it, but on my final attempt. I very nearly quit.

Most of the riddles involve technological advancements such as building stone tools, or connecting a town to electricity, or assembling a computer. A few focus on trading routes, and several have you find characters and objects and put them in order in a timeline.  Genesys’s enigmas, while often challenging, actually are much easier than those in Vikings and Crusader. In Genesys, you’ll find almost all of the necessary objects on the playing screens and on just a few encyclopedia pages to which the game guides you. Just click on the highlighted words in the instructions that pop up with each enigma and you’ll find everything you need. With only one exception late in the game, you don’t have to surf the whole encyclopedia looking for elusive items.

I looked around the web for a walkthrough and found several links to the official one at www.genesysgame.com, but the link didn’t work for me. In case it doesn’t work for you either, I made a new walkthrough for you. If you enjoy the game it would be a shame to get stopped over something simple.

Lights, Camera, Action!

With absolutely superb production qualities, Genesys will have you glued to its cutscenes. These all star Jeanne Moreau, who narrates the successive civilization advances over a backdrop of ever-changing photos from the relevant time periods. The music, created for the game by Yan Volsey, kept me enthralled, especially the catchy little jingle in the Modern Age.

Yet, how I wish I could speak French. While we see Jeanne Moreau on the screen, her voice is dubbed by a British actress. It’s a good acting job, but it just isn’t Jeanne Moreau (unless I’m wrong and Jeanne Moreau speaks English with a British accent). Of course, that makes the movie like, well, a dubbed movie. Still, it’s wonderfully well done.

Now for the really bad news. At least in the English version the voice acting of the characters on the playing screens is just plain awful. These can’t be professional actors. I don’t recall hearing one speech from one of those characters that didn’t make me grimace mentally, sometimes physically. The voice acting quality declined drastically from the at least adequate voice acting of Vikings and Crusader, and it seriously lessened my enjoyment of the game.

In fact, I give you fair warning. Wait until the third riddle before you click on a speaking character. The figures in the first two riddles don’t have language yet, so their “speech” sounds like a child imitating a gorilla. It had me cringing.

Back on the bright side, another bonus in the game are the panels about religious beliefs that are accessible for each time period.  These are very well narrated by a male actor. The game doesn’t focus on religion, so these panels and some beautiful encyclopedia pages are accessible for people who have an interest in the subject. The panels feature symbolic items from the different beliefs that light up when your cursor passes over them. It’s a very nice effect.

The Verdict

Genesys can be involving, frustrating, fascinating, embarrassing, or, for some players, boring. It was possibly my most eagerly anticipated game. I liked it but was disappointed in the lack of plot and especially in the bad voice acting. I wanted to hear Jeanne Moreau as well as see her. Yet, I found it satisfying to complete the puzzles and would have bought the game for the gorgeous cutscenes alone. So for me, a “thumbs up” is in order.

Is Genesys really an adventure game? Maybe not. Certainly it’s a puzzle game. It might even be an interactive encyclopedia.  If you love history it’s probably worth the money for you. It was for me. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Index Publisher: Wanadoo Release Date: 2001

Available for: Macintosh Windows

Four Fat Chicks Links

WalkthroughPlayer Feedback

Screenshots

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

System Requirements

PC:Pentium 166 (200 recommended) 16 MB RAM (32 MB with Windows 98) Video card—thousands of colors 16-bit sound card 4X CD-ROM drive (8x recommended) Windows 95/98

Macintosh: Power PC or G3 16 MB free memory required for the installation Video card—thousands of colors 4X CD-ROM drive (8X recommended) System 7 or greater

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.

Pages

Top

Category Archives

Top

Blog Posts

Top

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.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.