Technical Overview

My system configuration:

Athlon 1800xp, 512mb ram
ATI Radeon 8500
Creative Labs Soundblaster Live! Value
WinXP Pro

Installation was a breeze. I didn't encounter any technical problems at all while playing the game.

Gameplay

Road to India is officially the first adventure game I have played and completed. It's very different from games like The 7th Guest (my 'introduction' to the genre - but obviously just a puzzle game with a loose plot thrown in for good measure). Road to India really is an adventure-game-for-dummies sort of game. I'm a *terrible* puzzle-solver, but completed this game in a few hours.

The interface (first-person point-'n'-click, node-based navigation), game-saving mechanism and inventory design couldn't be simpler. In general, I was pretty impressed with the mechanics of the game. I didn't have to think about how to do anything, which was a pleasant experience.

Graphics

A mixed bag (due to a personal bias). The environment is quite beautiful. However, save for the few characters with whom you interact, the streets are somewhat desolate. I didn't feel as immersed in the world as I think I could've because of this.

3d people in games are still pretty horrible-looking. I guess if they were to approach a higher level of photo-realism, the game's system requirements would have to be raised considerably. I find the rather overly-fluid motion of 3d humans somewhat... ooky. My aforementioned personal bias for 2d people (err.. hand-drawn or computer-generated) aside, the characters in Road to India are done well.

Sound

Another mixed bag. The translation of the game from French to English wasn't all that bad, but the voice-acting was terrible. The music was pretty (some sort of fusion thing going on, me likes), but extremely repetitive. A little variety would've been nice.

Replay Value

None, really.

Final Thoughts

I can picture veteren gamers scoffing at this title. My only real gripe with it is that I was spoon-fed a little too much, and I'm a newbie. On the other hand, however, I'm very happy that this was my first real adventure game. Easily solving most of the puzzles gave me a nice little ego boost, and got me psyched to play the next game.

I'd pick this one up in a bargain bin. Pretty logical plot, nice graphics, pretty music, cool dream-to-real life thing goin' on, mostly easy puzzles. It was quite an enjoyable experience, albeit entirely too short.

.gita

Nice overview of RTI - Gita.

I even thought it was a bit on the short side - but there are apparently multiple ways to do a few things in the game - like get through the maze. I did like the dream world versus real world split in this game.

Probably my only complaint was with the look of Fred. I thought he was kind of skanky. I kept thinking about the missing girlfriend and thinking - "Girl - you could do better than Fred" Oh well - I mean he was trying to save her and all Still I had fun with the game and thought some of the puzzles were different. I also enjoyed the animals in the game.

Laura

Thanks, Laura
Me too. A lot, in fact. My only quibble with it is that the dreams were so long, and I accomplished so much, that when I'd wake up and not have actually done of that stuff yet, I was sorta disgruntled.
LOL!
Agreed

gita

I agree with Laura, if I find the main character unappealing, it lessens the gaming experience for me, and the main character in this game was...uh, unappealing. You hit on the good and bad points very well Gita, nice review!

Hmmm...I've been trying to figure out what "skanky" means. Fred didn't exactly ripple with muscles, I agree. And he wasn't an impulsive "Today is a good day to die" type.

Still, I don't think Fred was unappealing. I actually liked the way his dreamquests showed him to be courageous and daring, while in real life he was umm, somewhat cautious. Still, when it came to the true test of nerve, he got the job done. You would have to have been a bit crazy (or desperately in love) to go in that creepy mansion.

Nice review Gita, congratulations

Definitely a good game for beginners and me. I like short games to play between brain busters. I had some glitches with it but it is a keeper.

Also thought it was nice to see an average looking person as a main character, whether they meant him to look average or not. And, he was trying to save her so he can't be all that bad

Very nice Gita, I found the game a littlet to shallow too. I liked the rats better than Frank.