“Revenge Beyond Death; Truth Beyond Legend” Welsh development company, Aberth Studios, offers an impressive first effort with a “haunted farmhouse” traditional point-and-click adventure. Although there are some rough edges, the solid story and interesting puzzles make this visit to Wales worthy of your consideration.
“Revenge Beyond Death; Truth Beyond Legend” Welsh development company, Aberth Studios, offers an impressive first effort with a “haunted farmhouse” traditional point-and-click adventure. Although there are some rough edges, the solid story and interesting puzzles make this visit to Wales worthy of your consideration.
“Legends, myths, and magic spill into reality as an ancient battle for revenge envelops a remote Welsh farmstead, threatening the very sanity of a teenage girl.”
Using a first-person perspective you, as good friend Chris, find yourself house sitting for some friends with an emotionally sensitive and possibly troubled teen-aged girl, Rhiannon. The month is October, with dreary skies and a barren, unkept farm property, Ty Pryderi, with an interesting history. Rhiannon heard noises, saw strange things, had odd messages; all of which led her parents to feel she and they needed a break. Of course, you’re a logical fellow and will just enjoy a quiet visit to the country – or will you?
Initially, the static scenes, which do not offer panning, seem awfully dated and not what I would expect from a $30 game. Some effort is made to use 3D effects with water and reflections but the end result is a far cry from such recent titles as the gorgeouos Lost Crown or the current Nikopol, which offers stunning and detailed 3D settings. Further, without the benefit of 360 degree panning within a scene, we find the movement from side to side and up to down to often be imprecise and frustrating.
Yet, there is an involving and different kind of story on offer here. The initial progression is smooth, helped by a very efficient Inventory system. There not only is an overall mystery to be solved, one which appears complex, but also some fine and contextually appropriate puzzles along the way.
The musical themes are very well done, though there is little ambient music or even other sound effects. Voice acting is at a minimum, with virtually no character interaction, or even self-reflection on the part of Chris.
I’m about a third of the way through, I suspect, and would offer a qualified recommendation at this point. If you enjoy a “haunted house” kind of mystery (note: not horror) with puzzles that are well designed, and are willing to give some allowances to a first-time developer, then helping poor, young Rhiannon might be a Holiday you’d like to take. We’ll have the full review in a week or so.
Minimum Specifications for Rhiannon: Windows ME/2000/XP/Vista; P.1.0 with 512RAM, 32MB Video Card.
Further information, including a demo, may be found at the website: http://www.RhiannonGame.com
Re the interface – the product of a long-considered decision, I’m afraid. In the end, we took very seriously all the complaints we saw on so many forums, about games with 360-degree swivel interfaces – players suffering from motion sickness in such games – and decided that we would not subject our player to that. So we went for static frames, same as in Barrow Hill and many others.
Nonetheless, we wanted the player to get the idea of being in a 3D space. So, that means that pretty much wherever you are, if it’s not a zoomed view, you can turn left, right or back. That is not an option in many games, where usually you are presented with a scrollable window over a 2D widescreen, with never an idea of what’s immediately to your left, right or behind you.
In ‘Rhiannon’, we’ve tried to put the player in a real-life space without nauseating him or her.
What you see is not an omission, but our choice between one interface and the alternatives you seem to prefer. Sorry if it’s not to your taste, but the alternative would also have raised displeasure with and possibly physical discomfort to other players.
Best regards,
Noel Bruton
Arberth Studios
Thank you, Noel. Having read your comment as well as a recent interview on another site, I underdand better your decision. Let me say, that nearing the end of your game, my impressions are very positive. The work you and your team have put into story creation and basic gameplay far outweighs any lack of “moderninity” in presentation.
O.R.