Traitors Gate Review

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Traitors Gate

Review by Orb

Pass me a ciggie, Miss Moneypenny

Traitors Gate is a rarity in adventure gaming. It’s not set in Egypt, Atlantis, or an old house. There are no spaceships or aliens. No murder mystery to solve. So what’s left? How about a good old-fashioned thriller set in the Tower of London? Honestly, what this game reminds me of is the old American TV show from the sixties starring Robert Wagner, It Takes a Thief. And just like the series, it is urbane and fun, never taking itself too seriously. (Come to think of it, I loved that show. How come they don’t show that on the TV Land channel?)

That show followed on the heels of the enormously popular spy movie craze, of which the head honcho, James Bond, has managed to stay hugely popular for over 35 years, and Traitors Gate is an adroit homage to that brand of entertainment. It is a game of the sneak and recover variety, popularized by the likes of Eidos’s Thief series, and despite that game being more of a action title, one could arguably say we could have another subgenre on the horizon.

The game is Daydream Software’s followup effort to its popular Safecracker title. The design and look of the game, while sticking in the strictest of fashions to the actuality of the Tower of London, is extremely similar to Safecracker, but this is where the similarity ends. Traitors Gate is expansive and ambitious, nonlinear, with almost no straight puzzles, although there are still some safes and codes to find and get into (and you just know what safe company the Tower of London is using these days, now don’t you, class?)

The story is that a Major DG Anderson, head of the European desk for ORPHIA (sorry, I never got straight what the acronym stood for) has defected, taking with him files containing detailed blueprints of the location of a number of priceless treasures, the most famous of which are the British Crown Jewels. The Pentagon has launched a covert operation (rather than risking an international incident) code-named “Traitors Gate” to capture the jewels for safekeeping and replace them with traceable copies. You are a top operative for a secret department within the Pentagon who has been given this unlikely task. There are a lot of historical facts regarding the Tower of London smoothly woven into the game, available but not demanding attention.

The player explores and picks up items, with the occasional guard to stumble upon and deal with. Your character can be killed in a couple of places or stupidly caught by the guards and thrown face-down in quite a few more. In other words, save often.

As far as the graphics go, I feel like I’ve now been to the Tower of London and don’t need to fork over the dough for a plane flight to the British Isles to gaze on it, ’cause I’ve already seen it.  That pretty much explains the detail of graphic translation between the reality of the Tower and Traitors Gate. This is definitely more than you’d get to see on the guided tour. It has been faithfully recreated from photographs of the site, and the attention to historical detail really puts the player inside this oft-referred-to historical locale. The player is treated to 360-degree views anywhere he/she lands in the game, which really forwards the immersiveness. The game itself is played first person, with very nicely done third-person cut scenes.

The puzzles are pure inventory style, using at times inventory items in conjunction with information from the game environment itself. These puzzles are not always … well … simple. In some instances you either need to Get Smart (okay, I admit it, that was a pun aimed at fans of the sixties spy-spoof sitcom, for those of you paying attention) or get a walkthrough. It is also played in real time, which means a lot of trekking around and no clicking on a map and going poof to a previously visited location.  In other words, learn to love the Tower of London, ’cause you’re gonna get to know it, up close and personal. There is also a 12-hour time limit, which is, believe it or not, plenty of time. There is a small and well-designed maze in the sewer underneath the Tower, and this can be easily mastered to move between gaming locations. My advice is in using this is to save your game, map it, then reload the previously saved game like I did so you don’t lose any of those 12 hours.

The interface is reminiscent of the Journeyman Project series, with lots to carry around and manipulate and a well-designed and clean-looking repository for it. There are many inventory items; however, the game does not allow you to discard any, which does clutter up an already bottom-heavy inventory. There is much equipment to manhandle and get familiar with: a camera, which the player can freely use to take pictures that can then be sent off for analysis and helpful game advice in return, a decoder, notebook compass, map, video and audio recorders—basically a gadget nut’s dream.

Sounds are appropriate, where placed. The player is moving as the character Raven for the most part on the sly, so you certainly have no brass band following you around. The soundtrack fires up only in certain locations, which actually heightens the dramatic effect, as you don’t know if it’s occurring because there’s a guard around the corner ready to jump you or what. The brassy, full orchestral music from opening credits and straight on through the game does well to evoke the feel of good, old fashioned spy-movie music. Otherwise, the player is left with minimal yet appropriate ambient sounds, including his own footfalls, a small point of accuracy I always look for (she sniffed).

I found the game fussy about extensions on an iMac 333 MHz, but it ran smoothly (albeit with lags before cutscenes) with its own set of extensions rustled up, and it also ran well on a 6400/200 Power PC. My review copy didn’t come with any game docs (she said in a whiny, nasal tone), causing quite a bit of reviewer hair pulling. (And since my hair’s so long, this got to be quite …  festive.) Also, you should know that to play this you’re going to be shopping at Disk-Swappers-R-Us because there’s a lot of it.

Traitors Gate is nicely designed, having all the best elements of adventure gaming, detailed prerendered scenes, stunning and accurate looking cut scenes, a well-developed storyline, and puzzles that are thought through when devised so that they carry the story forward rather than bringing it to a grinding halt. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Daydream Software Publisher: Dreamcatcher Release Date: March 2000 (North America)

Available for: MacintoshWindows

Four Fat Chicks Links

Player Feedback

Screenshots

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

System Requirements

PC: Pentium 100 MHz 100 MB free hard drive space 32 MB RAM 8X CD ROM drive SVGA video card Thousands of colors

Mac: 133 MHz Power PC 32 MB RAM 100 MB free hard drive space Thousands of colors

      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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