Remedy
Reviewed by Melanie (MJartisian)


Technical Stuff:
P400+, 32 MB Ram
2 MB Video Card w/ 300 MB free space
Windows 98, (XP & 2000 recommended)
The game is contained in 1 CD
Beta Version 1.0 played


The Story:
You are Carol, a young Englishwoman on vacation in Sweden, staying at a friend’s apartment while she is away. You discover that Conrad, a detective friend of yours, has died suddenly under mysterious circumstances while working on a case.

Being the concerned friend & adventuress that you are, you decide to find out just what did happen to him and solve the case that he was working on when his life was so abruptly cut short.

You search for clues, solve puzzles, and meet several people, while traveling to 11 different locales. These locations open up to you as you progress through the game, with numerous places to explore in each area as you solve the mystery.

Not only is the story engrossing, but it is also educational in that you visit several historical monuments with interesting facts about them provided. I especially loved the downtown area with its absolutely breathtaking gardens that I was able to walk around and explore from all angles at my leisure. I enjoyed being able to wander the streets, visit real apartments and see how people live in a different country. This game gives you an authentic taste of city living in Norrkoping, Sweden.

I usually play 2 or more games at once, switching back and forth when I get stuck or just want a change of pace. I did not want to do that in Remedy. I was too interested in what would happen next. The story is excellent.


Game Play and Facts:
Remedy is a first person, story driven, point & click mystery adventure game by independent game makers, Mikael & Eleen Nyqvist. This is their first game & I hope we see many more from them.

It consists of over 1000 indoor/outdoor photos retouched to look like watercolor paintings. The art is a pleasure to behold. The original soundtracks are beautiful, haunting, never annoying and fit the mood nicely.

The inventory system is at the top of the screen and slides up or down following the mouse and is easy to use (drag & drop) with action cursors when an action is available. It also combines easily when necessary.

There are no timed puzzles, no mazes, no action sequences and you cannot die. You will find lots of inventory puzzles, some mechanical puzzles and a couple of musical puzzles, (Don’t worry, I’m just about tone-deaf, yet was able to solve them), all requiring close observation and sleuthing skills. The puzzles are logical, varied, numerous, fit the story and are neither too difficult nor too easy.

The movement is of the slideshow type (a la Weekend in Capri) with arrows appearing in the different directions you can move to or view. There are subtitles along with very pleasant and good voice acting, all in English. Real people are used as the actors and they fit their roles (their mouths do not move when they speak but this does not interfere with the pleasure of the game). The graphics are beautiful and there are a few special effects thrown in that are breathtaking. They give a taste of what is to come as this team of game makers gains more experience and funding.

There are many directions in which to look. I was amazed at the attention to detail and amount of exploration allowed. I counted 6-8 directions to explore by just turning around in some areas, most of them giving close-ups of new discoveries and puzzles, with loads of close-ups of goodies to look at just for ambience.

Once you have visited a location you can use a map to get back there as many times as you want. The menu is easily accessed with a right-click which brings up a top toolbar allowing you to save, load and exit. Another right-click makes the toolbar go away. Remedy is very stable and allows other programs to run in the background, with switching back and forth between programs through either alt/tab (XP) or the start menu (W98). This is a big plus for those of you who like to multi-task like I do.

I played the beta, yet I experienced no glitches in the entire game. There is one very minor annoyance after the credits, after the game is over, due to budget considerations. When the credits finish, instead of getting an exit screen one has to right-click to get to the toolbar menu or hit ‘escape’ to exit and some inventory items are left over. This did not hurt the gaming experience at all.

I would highly recommend this game to point & click adventure fans. It was a very enjoyable game and one that I will purchase the retail version of, as well. The price is extremely attractive, includes international shipping and makes for great affordable presents. Best of all, good sales will encourage these fledgling independent game makers to create more games that are even better as they gain more experience and funding, so we can all have more fun.

You can purchase Remedy from the source at:
MDNA Games
http://www.mdna-games.com/

Great review Melanie, I think you really got the feeling of the game across!!

Hugs

tig

Great review Melanie....you really did capture the essence of the game very well.

Ana

Hi Melanie

Now you've gone an' done it !!!!

Mad, just follow the link in Melanies review.. its definately worth it.

~~ Melanie ~~
An excellent review ! Thanks & CONGRATULATIONS !

One query (certainly not a criticism !! )

Some folk **HATE** musical puzzles.
I only remember ONE (not a couple) in Remedy
It is a VERY easy puzzle since it it only involves FOUR notes/color-buttons.
As you said, even a person who is nearly tone-deaf should not have much trouble.

However, if for any reason somebody DOES have a problem, there's a simple (non musical) solution at the bottom of the "ReadMe.txt (Player's Manual)" file.

Len, I suppose it depends how you use the word 'musical' Not saying any more, could cause a spoiler alert!!!

Thanks Melanie, for a great review. <img border="0" alt="[santa]" title="" src="graemlins/santa.gif" /> I got it and just finished it today. Enjoyed it very much. More than I anticipated. Just followed along with the thread on hints. Thanks LenG <img border="0" alt="[biggrinch]" title="" src="graemlins/grinch1.gif" /> Just had to use that graemlin.

Having finished the game, I must say I agree with mjartisian's review. My favorite views in the game were the ones in which sunlight streams over nooks in the gardens or flowers on a window sill. The effect is lovely.

I thought characterizations in the game were unusually strong. The characters were well-written and the voice acting was good.

I loved the glimpse into another culture. I think I found the challenges in Remedy to be a bit more difficult than others who have commented on the game. I wouldn't consider it an easy game.

I'm glad you finally got a chance to play Remedy, Becky and that you enjoyed it also.

There are some challenging puzzles in the game, so I wouldn't call it easy but I felt that all the puzzles were fair. There weren't any that made me scratch my head wondering where that came from, always a plus imo. The scenery and the way the story unfolds doesn't make you feel hurried either. I think that those factors combined might make the puzzles feel easy to some.

Melanie

I liked the way the sounds needed for the sound puzzle could be replayed---it gave me a chance to actually solve one--

Me took Looney. I'm practically tone-deaf and that really helped me!

Melanie

Melanie, I thought I was the only one--I am tone deaf and hard of hearing--completely deaf in some frequencies---so sound puzzles are usually really hard for me--thank you Lord for Walk Through--but because I could repeat--I solved that one--I was so I even sent the makers a Thank You email

I always have to resort to walkthroughs on music puzzles also, Looney. It was really nice to finish one by myself!

Melanie