Monet and the Mystery of the Orangery Review

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Monet and the Mystery of the Orangery (aka Monet and the Mystery of the Orangerie Museum)

Review by Jen

I loaded up Monet and the Mystery of the Orangery thinking it would be an educational title dealing with Monet, something along the lines of Night Café, merely a dry discussion of Monet and his work with maybe some limited degree of interactivity. So I was taken by surprise when it turned out to be a straight adventure game.

There is a conflict revolving around the use of the Orangerie building in Paris. One faction wants to use it as a museum to house the works of Monet, and the bad guy, Derrick, wants to extract oil from the site. Get it? Oil? Derrick? The museum option is chosen, and you play as a young architect who has been hired to do the renovation work on the building. But Derrick hasn’t given up, and he and his two henchmen hatch a plot to blow up the Orangerie building so that they may take the oil after all. It is up to you to foil their nefarious plans.

The game is linear, but within each segment, you have total freedom of movement (it’s a realtime 3D game) and can complete many of the tasks out of order. The gameplay incorporates two elements: inventory puzzles and timed sequences, and sometimes a combination of both.  I know we all hate timed sequences, but these ones all provide ample time as long as you have figured out what to do. There is, however, a lot of dying in the figuring-out part, so if you play, save early and save often. The puzzles are pretty simple, and the game is not difficult—I’d estimate I got about six hours of gameplay out of it, and that was with writing a walkthrough at the same time and repeating a lot of sections to make sure the walkthrough was accurate. You never need to combine inventory items, and the game’s segments never incorporate very much area to cover. Monet is advertised as an “adventure game for all the family,” and while some of the puzzles might be a little difficult for younger players, older children would probably enjoy the game.

Control is combined keyboard and mouse, keyboard for movement and mouse for working with inventory and interacting with items on the screen. This can be awkward at times, but after a little practice, it doesn’t really get in the way of the game. Perspective is first-person.  You get unlimited saves, and you can have several sets of saves with each player having his or her own game. The mechanics of the game are straightforward and don’t merit detailed description here.

In one of the segments, you meet Monet himself and get a chance to look around his studio. Here you can click on several of the works to hear the Monet character talk about them, but that is the extent of the educational value of the game. There is an option from the main menu where you can look at several of Monet’s works, but these are pretty much there for your delectation only; there is hardly any text attached to them and no description whatsoever.

The characters are modeled after those in some of Monet’s paintings, and the game locales appear to have been chosen to match up with one or more of Monet’s works. This is where the game really shines—throughout the game, you really feel as if you were playing inside the paintings themselves. There are some funky things as a result of the 3D rendering, like trees and flowerbeds that look like painted cardboard cutouts, but overall, the graphic designers did an absolutely masterful job, especially for a game that doesn’t require a fancy computer to run.  There is one part of the game where you can row a boat around the pond with the water lilies, and this is probably the most gorgeous piece of animation I have seen in any game. The reflections on the surface combined with the transparency of the water exactly capture the flavor of Monet’s work.

I really enjoyed playing Monet. It is a surprisingly unpretentious little game that revolves around what could have been a pretentious subject. The only reasons I didn’t give it a Four Fat Chicks Gold Star rating are its short length and the extreme amount of dying, never a favorite gameplay device of mine.

Later, much later (May 2002): I played Monet on Windows 2000, trouble-free. It subsequently came to light that many, if not all, Windows 95/98 players hit a bug at the end of the game that caused them to be unable to complete the last little bit. Thanks to Henhouse member LadyLinda, we now have a savegame available.  Click here (it’s a very small file), save the file to your Monet savegame directory, and restart the game and load from this save. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Wanadoo Edition Publisher: Wanadoo Edition Release Date: 2001 (English)

Available for: 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

System Requirements

Pentium 200 MHz 3D acceleration video card with 4 MB memory compatible with DirectX (8 MB recommended) 16-bit sound card 32 MB RAM 8X CD-ROM drive Windows 95/98 (I played it in Windows 2000, and it ran flawlessly)

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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