UFOs Review

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UFOs

Review by OrbJune 2003

Can anyone explain my fascination with the odd and forgotten titles of H+a? This may indeed be one of life’s true mysteries.  What’s even more interesting is the diversity in the style of games they published: Gord@k, a first-person point-and-click adventure; Mortalus, an action game; Gems of Darkness, a pure puzzle game later bought by Dreamcatcher and in Dreamcatcher’s characteristic style renamed Jewels II, and this final one: UFOs.

UFOs is again different from the other H+a games—it is a third-person cartoon adventure. It seems to me, after many years of playing, that not all cartoon games are created equal.  At the high end of the scale, we have classics such as Sam and Max Hit the Road, and at the opposite end of the scale, noxious tripe such as Toonstruck, Asterix or Virtual Springfield give us a mental game-playing wedgie.  I’m happy to report UFOs falls into the former category.

UFOs is the story of an alien named Gnap who crash-lands his spaceship in a pigsty somewhere in the Ozarks. He must find replacement parts for the ship’s broken engine so he can get home.  That’s pretty much the entirety of the story of UFOs, a third-person game most similar to Spaced Invaders, Sam and Max or Day of the Tentacle.

Along the way Gnap picks up a platypus that acts as a sidekick.  The platypus does Gnap’s bidding with the push of a button on Gnap’s tiny pocket alien transmitter. The platypus also give the player a “platypus mode” where the little sucker can be used as an action to be taken to solve puzzles, most similar to the “use the bunny” feature in Sam and Max.

The game’s design itself is really outstanding. The backgrounds are rendered in surprisingly intricate 3D detail, and over this are laid 2D line-drawn cartoon characters. This is a really engaging look, and it gives UFOs a design depth many other similar games drawn fully in 2D lack.

Puzzles are all inventory-based and are logical, albeit with the fairly silly objects that are de rigueur for a comedy game of this ilk. The inventory is stowed in a small handheld device, the same one used to move the platypus. Inventory use is tightly controlled; once used and no longer needed, items disappear (a design flaw in numerous other inventory-based games that’s not present here), and there’s maybe one time in the game that the number of inventory items exceeds six, which means no inventory scrolling either.

The humor in the game is a bit sardonic and twisted, something I quite enjoy, but some may not. When Gnap crash-lands his broken ship in the pigpen, the pigs dogpile into one shaking, squealing corner. If they are clicked on, Gnap raises his transmitter and hits the button; one squealing pig rises into the air and messily explodes, an eyeball bouncing off the ship. I laughed—you may be grossed out. But at least you have been warned.

The biggest minus to the game is its brevity. There are only five areas Gnap travels to. Each contains multiple areas to explore, but given the quality of the rendering and the clever writing it really made me wish that more money had been given to the designers to make the game longer. Don’t get me wrong, you’re not going to finish this in one sitting, it’s just that it’s well made enough that it would be nice if it were bigger.

This is a great straight adventure game for the adventure game fan, especially those folks that look forward to a cartoony game.  The design is really clever, and the puzzles and overall gameplay are a lot of fun. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Artech Studios Publisher: H+a Release Date: 1997

Available for: Windows

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System Requirements

Windows 95/Pentium 16 MB RAM 1 MB free hard drive space 4X CD-ROM drive 256-color display Sound card and mouse

Where to Find It

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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17 Responses to First Impressions: Heavy Rain

  • Toger

    I hate QTEs, but Heavy Rain is sitting in my Amazon cart waiting for me to push the button. I don’t even own a PS3, but I plan on buying the game anyway. I do have a good friend who’ll let me play at his house. Of course, I’ll have to drive 100 miles, one way, through the snow to get to his house. His chat-happy birds will cheerfully chirp thereby completely disrupting any atmosphere, but I can play.

  • David

    What!?  Heavy Rain is full of QTEs?  I totally did not see that coming.

    The whole dad experience thing sounds intriguing.  I’m already getting odd looks from my girlfriend for exclaiming over cute kids on the bus or at the mall, something like what you described might send my biological clock over the edge.

  • Lewis B

    My sentiments exactly David!

    Mat has been playing the Heavy Rain demo for a while now, and although he admits he is intrigued by the story, he does constantly complain about the control method.

    R2 + Analogue stick to run? *scoff*

  • Gregg B

    @Lew: DEMO?! PS3 DEMO?! *runs off to PS3*

    That sounds like the Batman: Arkham Asylum controls – Crazy Bonkers Design. The sort of design that puts pull handles on push doors.

    @Steerpike: “I despise children. They are disgusting and annoying. They knock things over. They interfere with everything. They’re not useful until they’re at least 13, when you can get them to mow the lawn and stuff. But you can pay a service to do that for just a few hundred bucks a year and the service won’t vomit on you, shit in its diapers, grow up to resent you, or otherwise suck. Don’t flame me and don’t post comments to the contrary: kids are repulsive. Why anyone would want them is beyond my feeble imaginings.”

    HAHAhahaha- I er, – hahahaha – you’re as outspoken as me about demon spawn children.

  • Lewis B

    Yeah its been on the internet for weeks and weeks Greggi.  I think you have to do a couple of online puzzles etc to get the appropriate code or something.

    Search on Kotaku, they first ran with it IIRC.

  • Mat

    The puzzle code was for early access before it hit the PSN Store. It’s been available to all since last week.

    Regarding the demo, it took me around 3 or 4 attempts at it to appreciate it. First time around I couldn’t have been more dissapointed by it, but after the 3rd or 4th I decided I wanted to stick with it. I don’t think the demo is a particularly great example of what the game supposedly does best either – choice. I also HATE the control scheme and some of the voice acting is so wooden. Creating an immersive, realistic game is fine but having characters stumbling into tables and fridges because of the ham fisted controls, and listening to French voice actors impersonate Americans does remove that realism a little!

    Still, I rushed out to buy it this morning and will rush home from work to play it in about an hour!

  • xtal

    @ Toger: I don’t own a PS3 either, and it’s not like Heavy Rain seems to be “that” game which makes you run out and buy one– like Bioshock made me run out and get a 360– and it’s also not like this game looks groundbreaking in any way, because it really doesn’t. It’s just got me curious…and people tend to do crazy things the week after they get their yearly bonus. Soooooo yeah, who knows; maybe I’ll own a PS3 soon, but like hell I would admit that it was for Heavy Rain. Psh. I’d tell people it was because I wanted to watch BSG on blu-ray; though anyone who knows me would see right through that lie since I am an avid non-format-upgrader: I’ll switch my BSG collection from DVD to blu-ray the day I upgrade my copy of Jurassic Park from VHS to DVD. (Hint: never)

  • Toger

    @xtal: I’m in no hurry to upgrade my meagre DVD collection to blu-ray either, but I have to say the movies I’ve watched on my friend’s PS3 are absolutely stunning. Blade Runner was simply breath-taking in blu-ray and it made me want a PS3. I don’t think Heavy Rain will be a system seller for me, but I’m betting the game from the Ico team will.

  • xtal

    A game from the Ico team, you say? Hmmm. I’ve been making rounds on Kijiji and Craigslist looking for a copy of Ico (eBay prices are so shudder-inducing) for a few days now. I really need to play that game after my experience with the indescribable Shadow of the Colossus.

    It’s good to know they haven’t died some Interplay-esque death in the meantime.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Nope, they’re a small team that works within Sony. Fumito Ueda is the lead and he’s got like ten or so people who’ve worked with him on all his games. Sony pretty much lets them do what they want.

    The Last Guardian is the game that’s coming up from them. It looks more like Ico and less like Shadow of the Colossus to me, which is to say it appears to be focused on platform elements. If I didn’t already have a PS3, it’d be the game that sells it.

  • Gregg B

    @Toger: Ooh, Blade Runner on Blu-ray, gorgeous in all its gorgeosity. In 5.1 it sounds incredible too.

    I bought my PS3 for Team Ico’s unnamed-at-the-time game, Heavy Rain (back when it was just a teaser), LittleBig Planet (yes, yes, I know), Dead Space and Motor Storm: Pacific Rift which sort of pushed me off the fence.

  • Toger

    Gregg, oh yes. The surround sound was spectacular. Did I mention my friend’s HDTV is 72″ (obscene, isn’t it)? It’s like being at a high-class theatre: better food, pauses for bathroom breaks and no one talking through the movie.

    Is Trine up on PSN, yet? If so, that might be my tipping point: Last Guardian, Heavy Rain and Trine.

  • Gregg B

    *spits tea out, despite not drinking any*

    O_O

    72″?! I’m speechless. I can only imagine how awesome that is. Size does matter.

    Not so sure about Trine… hang on. I think it is.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    I think it is too, Toger. I’ll check.

    To be honest, though, I doubt you’d be disappointed with the purchase even if Trine’s not there yet. I’ve been way happier with my PS3 than with my 360. Demon’s Souls, Valkyria Chronicles, Uncharted, Folklore, even little games like Flower – I’ve had more concentrated fun with the PS3 than with Microsoft’s console, which tends to gather dust for months between game releases.

    72″???? I thought size didn’t matter!

  • Toger

    Size doesn’t matter. 😀

    In my friend’s defense, it was a great deal: opened box, itty-bitty scratch on the case, not a dead pixel to be seen and it was less $$ than the 60″ he originally wanted.

    Thanks for checking guys. I’ve played a tiny bit of Uncharted, but I’m horrible at the combat. Flower intrigues me. As does Demon’s Souls, but I know that game will crush my soul.

  • Gregg B

    There were certain moments in Flower where it just totally succeeded in conveying a feeling that I can’t say I’ve had in many other games, usually when rushing across a field through the grass or through a canyon or just skimming a pond, but it was never anything to do with collecting bloody petals or fulfilling some rudimentary puzzle. I think my problem with it was that it felt like it was trying to be this deeply emotional piece but in the end there seemed to be too many concessions to being a game rather than just running with the emotive side of the experience. One thing I am sure about though, is the trophies. Don’t get me started on the fucking trophies…

    One of my favourite little games on the PS3 is Everyday Shooter. It’s got a brilliant soundtrack that suits its raw visual style and I love how each level requires a certain tactic or strategy to survive it. It’s a very satisfying game in small bursts.

  • Hanover

    Unfortunately Cage mucked up the ending yet again.  The problem is that the mechanic of the game forced them to have to cheat in order to prevent spoiling the mystery of the game.

    There is also a red herring that makes no sense and is obviously put there to misdirect the player.

    90% of the game is awesome, the last 10% while not as bad as the indigo prophecy, is still sloppy.

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