Personally i haven't started the game yet although i have installed it, been busy with COD4 online. You can read the review HERE. I would like the opinion on those who have played/are playing this game on this one. Thanks.

The "bad" section comments are in the wrong place, they should be in the good comments section. Seriously them reviewers think a slow paced game 'is worthless', well they dont they are generally the best. And pixel hunting is a skill so obviously they 'are bad' at that too which made them tense and hence gave it poor score. If one of our reviewers from GB were to have officially reviewed it at GS then it would have and all adv games would have score in the 80-90 score range.

So as usual it comes down to a non adventure type gamer who reviews GS reviews. Not a die hard loves adv games reviewer.

I hate to say it, but I was very very disappointed in this game. I so badly wanted to like it. I loved Black Mirror which was made by the same people, and also enjoyed NiBiRu by them. This game had such an intriguing story line that I couldn't wait to play it, but instead I found it so boring that I couldn't finish fast enough. (I really wanted to know what happened, which is why I didn't just stop playing) I ended up printing out the walkthrough so that I could finish as quickly as possible. Visually, it was beautiful, and the music was good. The way the characters talked was horrible. I don't mean the voice acting, although that wasn't the best either. I mean that the game was made by people whose first language isn't English, and this showed throughout the game. The subtitles didn't match the words being spoken either. I understood what the characters were trying to convey, but it could've been written to be much more understandable. I think there was another post about this same subject awhile back, (maybe by SkeeterUK?) and the response to that was that the native language of the developers wasn't English. And to that I must say that if they want my english speaking dollars, then they should make an effort to use proper and understandable speech for the characters.

And I almost forgot the three timed "mini games" that you had to do. They were simply awful!! I barely got through the first one, and needed game saves for the next two. That alone made me almost want to throw in the towel.

Definitely not among my favorite games. Having said all this, I will definitely be first in line for the sequel to Black Mirror.

I know many will not agree with what I just wrote, it's only my opinion.

Dawn

Yes, Dawn, I do agree with you. I don't dislike this game, but get frustrated when I click on a person to talk to or click on a hotspot to go there or pick up something and end up waiting, and waiting, and waiting, only to find out I need to click again, then again (hey, now I'm pounding on my tracball button) or I need to wait some more for a reaction - something that tells me "I got it" and see movement by the character or a dialogue tree pops up FINALLY. I have played maybe 2 or maybe 3 other games in the past that were soooooooooo sloooooooooow to load the 'next scene' and do end up banging on the mouse, or trackball, or keyboard in frustration because nothing happens with the first 'click'. I don't expect to race thru the game, but sitting here staring at the scene and waiting forever for the game to 'get on with it' is frustrating to say the least. I can put up with the 'broken English', heck I don't speak their mother tongue now do I?, and it is the fault of the translators from ? to English who have misquoted the character's question and/or answer, and the 'gist' of the topic of conversation is understandable enough. I am going now to read that other review which I have not done yet. I won't say this falls into the worst game I ever played category, and I am not ready to give up (yet0 and will use the saved games I received from Sue for the arcade 'do-over' 'puzzles" in this one, but I don't like those type (get thru most of them in Nancy Drew but plead for others saved games when I need them). If I had known about all this before I bought the game new at that price I would have waited and BAAGed it used on our own TP.
Love, Betty Lou

I don't have much to add except to say that dmtomchick and BettyLou said it all for me. If I had to rate this game, I would give it a 2.

I have to admit I quit playing it and moved on to another game. I was bored to tears. I will go back to it when I am done with a few more more gripping games on my pile.

Ana

Whenever I'm booooored to death maybe I will continue this game. It does have some pro's but in the end the whole game is really bad. Why these terrible mini games? Just to frustrate the players a bit more?


Bernard

Sounds to me like GameBoomers are giving it a lower score than GameSpot. I knew from the screenshots this wasn't my kind of game and the more I learn about it, the more convinced I am.

When I first started this game.....I had hope's for it...

Graphics are good...the interface is not bad...Inventory is nice...

But Then ...After those stupid ball puzzles. That give not a clue how to solve..... I got Totally discussted....Did not finish the game......

Also the game was too slow...

Too many puzzles made no sense...Had nothing to do with the game...VERY Boring !!!!

lol, this game sounds awful!

I received in the mail both Darkness Within and Next Life at the same time,began both. While I am totally blown away by Darkness Within (one of the best adventures I've played in a LONG time)...I,too,was totally underwhelmed by Next life.
Horrible voice acting (why not hire some enligh-speaking actors;heck;I'm a voice over actor and I'm trained to do any accent and I work cheap) and those AWFUL timed puzzles (although,strangley enough,I was able to get past all of them after a while on each one when usually I call my wife to come in and help out...shes much better with these things).
People are saying the graphics are great? Frankly,I don't think the pre-rendered backgrounds are anything to write home about. Not awful,but I've seen far better. Tanguska,for one.
In my opinion,in one aspect only (admittedly,a big one) are the gfx good: the facial and body close-up animations. THOSE are far and away the best I've ever seen in any game,ever. Blows me away everytime. It's like 2 teams worked on the game: one for the backgrounds and one for the faces. ANd the hotspots are also tough to locate.
The SOUND backgrounds,environs and music are all well done.
I just can't get past the awful voice acting (guess I could turn the sound down,but what fun is that?).
If one doesnt care about top-notch gfx,and can deal with bad acting,the story itself is VERY clever and reminiscent of the series "Lost" (no spoilers). I found it enjoyable seeing what was going to happen next.
Based on having played countless adventure games on my PC over the years,I'd giev this one a 5/10 on the enjoyable scale.
If you do get this game,try to get some satisfaction from the story itself,the length of play (it's not short) and the fascinating facial/body work.
I really did not enjoy this game at first but,despite everythign negative I listed,it's sort of grown on me.
Rob (sorry for rambling)

Sorry to differ, but I don't think the voice acting is bad- quite good actually. The accents serve to portray various stereotypes, which may not flow as easily on the ears but helps to bring the characters alive. That and the outstanding facial graphics made each character interesting and different from the others, and I very much wanted to know more about these life like people.

I think you all might find this review interesting:

JA NEXT LIFE REVIEW

I can't comment either way as I haven't played the game yet.

Differences of opinion are great! Although the "actors" these folks got to portray the characters somewhat nailed the accents down (french,irish,italian,etc)...the acting out was pretty bad,I thought. Voice acting is more than just getting the accents right,in my opinion.
And some of the words were lost in translation and lilts...for example,the irish (scottish?) character saying "Mohn!" every so often. It may as well have been the stereotypical "hoot,mon". But instead, it was "blah,blah,blah {irish/scottish accent}...Mon..." Things like that. Most Euro games don't have good acting-into-english-language scripting down pat. Some do.
But still,thank goodness for the different accents,at least it makes the characters and the journey somewhat interesting,as do the tremendous facial and body close-up animations.

I was extremely disappointed with Next Life. I can't even compare it with Black Mirror or NiBiRu. It was so boring to go back and forth between the cabins, asking some silly questions, using mostly sticks and stones. I think this game is missing the main attractions of AG such as an interesting plot, the investigation, exploration, looking for clues, big inventory, solving the mystery...I couldn't wait to finish this game.

Marian, hi,



Over at GameRankings, 8 sites have reviewed Next Life so far:

http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages4/943123.asp

The average rating is 61%. Just Adventure's rating is 29% above the web average. So... what does that tell you?

MetzO'Magic

I read the JA review and what it tells me is that the reviewer liked "Lost" so much that it influenced his reaction to playing Next Life, but since he did say that he thought the game was a lot like the TV series I feel it was an honest review. In my own case, I didn't like the series (I tried to watch it twice but left after 10 minutes or so) and I didn't like the screenshots so I am not at all curious about the game.

That he liked the game and wasn't influenced by other reviewer's scores?

Mmm, i guess the only way to actually draw a conclusion is by actually playing the game. If there is no demo for the game it would be really unfortunate to buy the game and not like it.

Rather than concentrating on the scores, look at a bunch of different reviews. You can get a pretty good idea if the game has things in it you do or don't like in general. For instance, if I see reviews that mention a lot of sneaking, I know I won't gravitate to the game.

Yeah! I am having a first ever BAAG-less moment! After reading the comments about this game, I AM NOT going to buy it!!! Yeah! for me! note: I suspect this is indeed a rare moment, I can't imagine it being permanant.

A BAAGETO moment (Buy All Adventure Games Except This One moment).

Hi Steve,

I'm well aware that the JA review was basically a minority of one compared to other review sites. I was just trying to stir things up a bit.

I THINK THAT NEXT LIFE IS THE WORST GAME THAT I PLAYED IN THIS YEAR.I WAS VERY DISAPPOINTED IN THIS GAME, AND I CAN NOT PLAYED FOR A LONG TIME, IS VERY BORED!MY RATE OR GAME IS 3

Phoebe,

Thanks for your opinion but please do not post in upper case letters. It means shouting in internet language. Thanks for your cooperation.