Intrigue at Oakhaven Plantation Review

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Intrigue at Oakhaven Plantation

Review by EnigmaNovember 2006

Here’s an indie puzzler produced by friends of adventure games.  It’s a cute and fun little effort that has the potential to while away a few hours of time in pleasant fashion. Its story features voodoo, forbidden love and mystery. The artwork, while limited, is nicely done. The game engine is primitive enough to place it back in the dawn of graphic gaming, but that doesn’t matter if the story and puzzles are involving enough to keep players engaged.

The story begins as you, Daphne, arrive outside an old plantation manor house in Louisiana with an invitation from your Grand-mère to come for a visit. She has something important to tell you. Enter, and you’ll learn that you and your adopted cousin Dominic will be competing at solving puzzles to determine who will inherit the entire estate when Grand-mère dies, an event expected in the not too distant future. Daphne and Dominic are the only possible heirs, as Daphne’s mom disappeared years ago under shocking circumstances.  You will play both characters, alternating between the two at your discretion as you tackle those puzzles and try to ferret out the events of the past.

Why puzzles? Because Grand-mère likes ’em and wants to find out who’s the cleverest. It’s a straightforward enough excuse for a puzzle game. You’ll spend the majority of your time solving those puzzles as either Daphne or Dominic. When you’ve solved 11 for Daphne and 10 for Dominic (his 11th takes place just a bit later), off you’ll go into the Louisiana swamps to hunt down that mystery: what happened to Daphne’s mother way back in the murky and distant past, the 1970s?

Back to the Old Days

This game has a primitive presentation—no bells and whistles, just a collection of rooms, gardens and swamp. It pleasantly reminded me of the first adventure I ever played, the ancient Uninvited.  Slideshow-style doesn’t really describe it, as you get only one view of each room. At the lower left corner rests a little doorknob icon, and that’s what you use to back out of a room, or you can enter other rooms through visible doors. Despite that limitation, it features pleasant artwork: the rooms are quite pretty, very nicely detailed and decorated, although characters you meet are portrayed by static, unmoving cartoons. By painting the screen you’ll find objects to take or use, with large enough hot spots that the painting isn’t at all a tedious process.

There is no voice acting, for which I thank the Gaming Gods after recent experiences. You click through all dialogue and read it on the screen. You’ll find books to read, as usual, and you can return to those. You cannot, however, revisit the dialogue.

A plot does build and gets interesting too, although nine-tenths of it is delivered in a journal and in a long, long, long “dialogue” sequence near the end of the game. Players are allowed to solve the mystery; however, the plot continues long after gameplay is finished. I should add, however, that the writing style is pretty good. The writer is actively literate, always an appreciated and unexpected feature in gaming.

The inventory is primitive—usable, but really, really primitive.  Navigation is a lead-pipe cinch. You won’t be getting lost in this game, not even in the maze.

Puzzles and Plot

Like Uninvited, Oakhaven Plantation really does get interesting.  I couldn’t care less whether a game has a primitive look. Okay, I enjoy eye candy, and actually this game has those picturesque rooms to gaze upon as well as some fairly well done night-scene effects, but I’m mostly interested in being interested.

The game has pretty good sound effects and music. Each room has its own theme, and these range from classical to blues, with the themes changing for Daphne and Dominic. Sound effects include fires crackling, stairs creaking, and waves lapping.

More interesting than most of the puzzles actually is finding them, which involves seeking items, sometimes combined items, and clicking these on various hot spots, thereby producing the puzzle. It’s necessary to switch between the two characters to get to all of the puzzles, which adds a little bit of complexity to the game. Also, you get to have your tarot cards read, and you can keep doing that as long as you like. You can ask questions of an Ouija board as long as you like and satisfy any superstitious impulses you may have. References to voodoo have been well-researched. Players familiar with Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers may become nostalgic.

A few of the puzzles were truly well-done, especially an excellent logic puzzle that involves arranging some colored stones. The first puzzle I found is a sentence anagram made of double letters that also took a bit of thoughtful arranging. Nifty.

There are two music puzzles, both of which easily can be solved visually if necessary, and one has a lovely tune, “Men of Harlech,” the Welsh national anthem. Several memory puzzles at least require focusing the mind a little bit (one is the other music puzzle, with drums). There’s a literature puzzle—yes! You match titles of classics to cryptic “illustrations” from the books. Bookworms will enjoy it even though it’s a cinch to solve. Another matching puzzle has all of the necessary clues but not in one place. Easy to find, but you still have to put it all together. There is a multiple-choice quiz on local history, also requiring a bit of thought. A little catch-the-mouse game is too easy but cute.

However, one whack-a-mole puzzle involving chasing voodoo dolls around the screen requires some dexterity with your mouse. If you are movement-challenged, be warned, because you can’t skip any puzzles.

Keep it Simple

In Oakhaven Plantation, the puzzles, while numerous, are mostly so simple that they’d barely challenge a child. They’re so simple, in fact, that I considered the possibility that the game was aimed at children, but no, the plot clearly targets adults.  I can’t imagine anyone needing a walkthrough for this game. Few puzzles are integrated with the plot—most are there merely because Grand-mère likes ’em.

A torn-up postcard is such a cinch to reassemble that it takes far less than a minute to do it. A “light-the-candles” puzzle actually took me about 10 seconds to solve. There’s a slider puzzle with only nine panels. There’s a maze, but you really can’t get lost if you remember that first anagram puzzle. I deliberately made one wrong turn just to see what would happen. I simply went around in a circle and emerged at the screen where I’d made the wrong turn. Not much of a maze if you can’t get lost, although the artwork and lighting effects are good in this area.

That’s the only real problem. These puzzles could have been much more complex. Still, it was kinda satisfying to solve this stuff in a zoomy manner.

A Fun Little Diversion

I enjoyed it. There’s enough to keep players busy for a few hours, along with a fairly intriguing plot. Had more puzzles been up to the level of the plot and better integrated with it, Oakhaven Plantation would have been better, but it’s still entertaining.

Hey, it’s a little indie game, made for fun. I know some folks argue that a game’s a game for a’ that, and all should achieve an equally high mark no matter what. I disagree. As long as you know you aren’t dealing with folks who have budgets and serious bottom lines, I say cut ’em some slack. It’s just for a little bit of fun.

It’s cute. It’s pretty. It does some things well. It keeps you playing, and is enjoyable throughout. That’s okay by me. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Cindy Pondillo Publisher: Cindy Pondillo Release Date: November 2, 2006

Available for: Windows

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Screenshots

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System Requirements

Pentium 500 MHz 32 MB RAM Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP DirectX 5 or above Supports all DirectX-compatible sound and video cards

Where to Find It

Mystery Manor $14.95 (plus shipping)

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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