The Messenger Review

|Tap-Repeatedly|FFC Archives

           

The Messenger

Review by Orb

The Messenger takes its player through centuries of history and tradition in the Louvre, the august eight-century-old building in Paris, once the host to heads of French state and now housing one of the greatest art collections on earth. One of the highlights of this game is that the player explores the building in different time periods, getting to enjoy the feel of how it has been used historically, how the architecture has changed and been added to, and how people of these times looked and interacted with the environment. From this viewpoint, playing The Messenger is a rich historical experience as well as a game.

This is an aspect in which this game truly shines. The building itself has been carefully reconstructed using plans and historical documents, and the attention to detail shows. This unto itself makes it fun to explore the Louvre, and it reminds me of some other games that have lovingly recreated historical sites, such as Titanic and The Legend of Lotus Spring.

The story of The Messenger is actually quite minimal.  You play as Secret Service Agent Morgan Sinclair, ordered to infiltrate the Louvre and recover four artifacts known as “Satan’s Keys” in five time periods. These keys, when brought together and joined, will bring about Armageddon. It is the dying wish of Morgan’s father that she halt this.

The graphics are well-done. Environments are richly detailed, well-designed, and completely appropriate for each time period the game moves through. Some of the rooms seemed rather empty, however, with only one or two pieces of furniture and the walls to explore. This may or may not be an accurate representation of how the Louvre has been maintained over the years, but it definitely lessened what there was to explore. There are really nice transitional animations that give the game a further lush look.

Characters are cleverly designed, and they really keep the whole look and feel of each time period fresh and very realistic.

Now to some of the more problematic aspects of this title. The game is designed in such a way that saving becomes like a compulsory itch—the player can accidentally surprise guards and die, and there is absolutely no way to anticipate when this is going to happen. Yuck.

Another weakness with the design is that the inventory system is just way too complex and not at all intuitive. There’s just a lot of “figuring out” to do. For some explicable reason, the inventory was designed to only hold a limited number of items, and the others that are given to the character at the opening or found during gameplay are stored in a chest. The chest appears in various rooms throughout the gameplay, and all items can be stored in any chest anywhere to be accessed from any chest anywhere—highly unrealistic. There is a mapping system that will take the player to any area already explored during gameplay, normally a wonderful thing, but because of the onerous task of loading and unloading and rearranging inventory, even this task becomes practically as arduous as having to walk back and forth from locations to the closest trunks. Traitor’s Gate, which this game most resembles, does the big inventory system of tools mixed with things found much more smoothly.

All of the puzzles are inventory-based, and so this necessitates a lot of this “inventory shuffle,” especially since you are given tools to get in and around and through things, such as a flashlight and knife and gas mask. But you also have a whole separate set of items that must be combined and used in each time period to solve puzzles that have to do specifically with that portion of the game.

The endgame sequence is pretty short and sweet. This is not really surprising, as the character you have been playing is minimally defined and spends the majority of the game acting as a Sigourney Weaver/Lara Croft superhero, rather than an in-depth character study. However, the extreme brevity of the endgame may be surprising and disappointing to some.

The soundtrack accompanies the environment nicely. It runs in short loops but does not get overly redundant. The soundtrack does not play throughout the game; instead, there are periods where the player enjoys the ambient sounds of the environment of the Louvre and the people in the structure.

At one point about three-quarters of the way through the game, it dumped me out inexplicably, which of course heightened the compulsive save twitch just that much more. This did happen only once. Other than that, there were no bugs or problems—it installed smoothly and ran without a hitch.

The Messenger is not a bad game, it’s just that there are design elements that make sections of gameplay laborious rather than fun. And with that in mind, there are quite a few more recent releases worth the time spent, such as Dracula Resurrection, from the same developer and publisher, as well as games that are similar in nature that have some elements most frustrating here worked out better, such as Traitor’s Gate. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Index+ Publisher: Dreamcatcher Release Date: 2001

Available for: MacintoshWindows

Four Fat Chicks Links

WalkthroughPlayer Feedback

Screenshots

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

System Requirements

Mac:G3 or iMac System 8.5.1 32 MB RAM (64 MB RAM from Virtual Memory) (64 MB RAM recommended) 6 MB 3D video card, Open GL compatible 8X CD-ROM drive

PC: Windows 95/98/ME/XP Pentium 166 MHz (200 MHz recommended) 16 MB RAM (32 MB recommended) 4X CD-ROM (8X recommended)

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.