What is it?
Spin-offs are common in books and comics; they happen in TV and movies
from time to time, with variable results, but they're not all that
common in games. At this stage, it would not be wise of me to spoil the
adventure ahead by judging the success of the spinning off of Sam Peters
from the Secret Files 2: Puritas Cordis, because we have a game
just for her in Secret Files: Sam Peters, developed by Animation
Arts and published by Deep Silver, the same combination as produced the
previous Secret Files games, and Lost Horizon.
Is there a plot?
When Sam
Peters was last seen in Secret Files 2, she was stuck on an
Indonesian island with an erupting volcano set off by terrorists. And so
we begin Secret Files: Sam Peters. She's still on that self same
island, trying to get back to civilization. Of course,
it's nothing as simple as 'find a boat, and putter off into the
distance,' no you've got to repair the boat first, only then can you
'putter off into the distance.' Once Sam is home in Europe, her
publisher sends her off in search of a team of German cryptozoologists -
people who search for creatures whose existence is not proven, like the
yeti, sasquatch or Loch Ness monster. This leads Sam to Ghana in Africa,
via Berlin, where we're introduced to the legend of the Asanbosam of
Lake Bosumtwi.
How do you play?
Secret Files: Sam Peters
is a point and click adventure - there is no use of the keyboard at all.
The game begins with a very short graphical tutorial that shows you how
to use the mouse, inventory and menu buttons, but really, it's pretty
obvious once you're into the game itself. You right click to examine,
left click to use, click and drag and drop inventory items on each other
or the scene to use them. Then the four menu buttons give you the main
menu (Load, Save - with no apparent limit on save slots, Options, Exit,
as you'd expect), access to Sam's diary with a summary of the action so
far, a help function with guidance on your current objective, and a
'show hotspots' button if you need a little hint as to what you can do
in a location. In addition, you can right click to skip dialog and the
cut-scenes. This is handy if you're replaying more than half the game to
get to the second ending, having not bothered to save very often ... the
voice of experience, there, I must admit.
I have to note at this point that the story is not
tremendously long: there are only three locations in the game, although
they are each made up of a few scenes. This is not a deeply involved
story. Sam has a simple plot-line to follow, and the puzzles she is
faced with are not overly complex either. In fact, all the puzzle
solutions are to be found close by the location of the puzzle, and are
very logical. You know? Use the screw-driver to unscrew the screw-type
solutions, not use yesterday's newspaper to waft the smell of roses into
the vampire's bedroom to make him get out of bed-type solutions!
My favourite puzzles in the game were the assembly
mini-games, where you have to put more complex machines or objects
together from their components. Two warnings however: you need to catch
fast moving things at one stage of the game, so some twitch-ability
would be useful, and there is a maze of twisty passages late in the
game.
Throughout Secret Files: Sam Peters, Sam herself
does most of the talking, though there's a nun and a German scientist
who also get a look in. The voice acting is professional, but the is no
character development and only a little emotional content to the story.
The graphics in the game are similarly of a professional
standard, and there is plenty to look at in the environments, even if
some of the hotspots are on the small side - especially the 'fast moving
things' I've already mentioned. An alternate solution to that specific
puzzle would have been a good idea; one that didn't involve speedy mouse
action.
The sound track is all there - various ambient sound
effects as appropriate to location, and background music that stays
where it should: setting the mood, but remaining unobtrusively in the
background.
Conclusions
I think
my abiding impression of Secret Files: Sam Peters would be 'short
and sweet'; a bit like this review, I hope. It's a good diversion for a
few hours with some problem solving and a good little story, capped off
with a bit of a modern moral dilemma. A longer game with a more involved
plot would have garnered a better grade.
As for
the success of the game as a spin-off of Secret Files 2: Puritas
Cordis, I'll have to leave that to others to decide as I've not
played the original, but having played and enjoyed Lost Horizons
(another game by the same company and publisher), Secret Files: Sam
Peters certainly fits their style and standards.
Grade: B-
What do you need to play it?
Minimum Requirements
OS: Windows Vista, 7, or 8
Processor: Pentium IV 2 Ghz
Single Core equivalent or higher
Memory: 512 MB RAM
Graphics: DirectX 9
compatible Graphics card with at least 128 MB RAM
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Hard Drive: 750 MB available
space
Sound Card: DirectX 9
compatible 16 Bit-Sound Card (optional)
(I used
a home-built 64-bit Windows 7
Home Premium (SP1) PC running on an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual
5200+ processor,
with 6 GB RAM, and a Sapphire Radeon HD4670 512MB video card, with
on-mother-board, built-in sound card)
GameBoomers Review Guidelines
November 2013
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