Road to India Review

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Road to India

Review by JenMarch 2002

I don’t know why I put off playing Road to India for so long. I’ve had it since it first came out. I finally loaded it up because I knew it wouldn’t take long and I didn’t have a lot of game time this weekend.

Sure enough, the whole game only took about three and a half hours, one sitting, not a single hint. It’s easy, it’s short …  so what does it have to recommend it?

Well, it’s fun.

As the game begins, a bomb explodes in a busy New Delhi marketplace and hurts a famous Indian actress. Cut to present day, a year later, and Fred and Anousha are having a lovey-dovey goodbye session at the airport. Anousha is returning to her home country, India, for a visit with her family. The TV news briefly mentions that the Indian actress is still missing, and Anousha flies away. Fred returns home. About a week later, he gets a “dear John” letter from Anousha, and he can’t believe his eyes. Brokenhearted and disbelieving, he jumps on the next plane to India to confront Anousha and confirm her intentions. He arrives at her door just in time to see her being kidnaped in front of her wailing mother.  And thus begins the game, you playing as Fred (yeah, yeah, I knew you figured that out already).

As you play, you will come to find out that Anousha was taken by some modern-day Thugs, members of a sect of Kali worshipers thought to have been disbanded and destroyed in the previous century.  They want to use Anousha as a sacrifice to Kali, and it is your job to stop them.

Road to India employs a strange storytelling device; alternating between dream sequences and reality, sometimes blurring the line.  This proved to work very well—allowing for a cliff-hanger at the end of each sequence that made me want to continue just to see what would happen next.

Not only that, but even though you can’t die in Road to India, or make a wrong move, the storytelling was done such that there was a real feeling of suspense and urgency. Not an easy feat in a straight point-and-click game.

Some of the puzzles, even in the waking sequences, were pretty ridiculous, but they did make sense within the game’s logic scheme.  My favorite goofy thing (and I hope this doesn’t constitute a spoiler) is that you go around throughout the whole game biffing bad guys on the bean with this and that, and then when you get to one of the final bad guys, you even have something to biff him with … but then Fred gets a conscience … sort of. Instead of whacking the baddie over the noggin like he did to all of the other villains, Fred has to tempt this particular goon to enter another area wherein Mr. Bad becomes gassed unconscious. Same end result, right? Why the sudden scruples on Fred’s part? And then after that Fred goes on to open up a can of whoop ass on another guy with that selfsame stick he could’ve walloped the gassed bad guy with. Only in adventure games, I’m tellin’ ya.

Puzzles are all integrated well into the game. There are some people to talk to for clues or help, and a lot of inventory puzzles.  There is a maze, but there’s also a built-in solution … if you’re paying attention. I cottoned onto it pretty quick and once I knew the trick of it, it took only about four or five moves to get through it.

In fact, you have to pay close attention to your surroundings throughout the game. There’s a fair amount of pixel-hunting for inventory items—actually not so much finding individual pixels as finding the items themselves. When you do spot one, it tends to stand out from the background so you know it can be picked up, but you really have to pan around and around, side to side, up and down, in some screens to find said items.

Movement is node-based with inside-a-sphere panning on each node.  Cursor is fixed in the center of the screen. I mention this because I know some people will not play fixed-cursor games, so I consider my duty as a game reviewer discharged.

Voice acting is fair to poor. The actor playing Fred often sounds as if he’s reading his lines out of context. His cadence and word emphasis are really off the wall sometimes. In fact, all of the characters have nice voices but they all sound as if they’re reading through the script for the first—and last—time. I suspect the game in the original French is better-acted, but I guess I’ll never know.

Music is pretty low-key and stays in the background where it belongs. Sound effects are sound effective. The graphics are nice but not spectacular.

All in all, Road to India spins a good yarn, it looks nice, and it’s fun to play … but it is most assuredly too short and too easy. I would like to see the same team come up with another game that has more meat to it—they could probably produce a gold star effort next time around.

Road to India is a recommended title for you first-person point-and-clickers, or you first-time adventure players, but don’t pay too much. It amounted to about $10 worth of entertainment.  For that price, it’s a little jewel. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Microids Publisher: Microids Release Date: 2001

Available for: Windows

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System Requirements

Windows 95/98/ME/2000 Pentium II 266 MHz or equivalent DirectX 8/Direct3D compatible 8 MB 3D accelerated video card 64 MB RAM 400 MB hard drive free space 16X CD-ROM drive DirectX 8 compatible sound card Keyboard, mouse

      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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