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Everlight
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Graphics & Sound:
Ingame, I have recently professed my appreciation for the return of the point and click adventure. In a day and time where most gaming is progressing to the point where you need neural implants to be able to keep up, a slower game like Everlight helps balance you out. Now, my appreciation aside, I have to say I was not expecting the game to be the experience it was. When I think of offbeat, nonsensical games, there are tons of Japanese game examples that come to mind. I think that due to saturation, we have come to know what kind of game you're going to get when it comes to Japanese humor or English humor or even American humor, for that matter. I was not expecting this game to be the cultural insight into German humor that it was. Or, such that it is?
Everlight has a decidedly older look to it. The animations are very constricted and are extremely robotic. The overall look of the game holds very true to what you expect old point and click adventures to look like. The focus of the game's art is consistent through the entire world, giving it a uniform and polished environment. Even with the older look and the constricted animations, it is an appealing visual experience.
Though the main character is supposed to be in his early teens, the voice is played by a person far older than the character. Reminds me of another popular story about a boy wizard and a magic school. The name seems to escape me. The music is subtle and appropriately placed. Throughout the towns, the standard pan flute can be heard. Like I said, everything about the music's placement feels right, even if it is slightly repetitive. |
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Gameplay:
In Everlight, you play an oddly familiar boy who looks to be missing his scar. Harry, I mean Melvin, finds solace from the rain by entering a magic candle shop. Once inside the magic shop, you discover you have a propensity towards magic and could one day be a great magician. Thus begins your quest into a magical world. Your instructions seem simple enough. Travel to the world of magic and find your spirit guide and learn to let go of all of your fears.
Your spirit guide is a fairy named Fiona, I mean elf named Fiona. She just has every physical attribute that the English world has ever conceivably categorized as a fairy, but it's not clear from the title she is an elf. I think she may have been Legolas' cousin. So there are a few localization issues that pop up throughout the game. A word, sentence, or section may occasionally pop up in German. On top of our differing ideas about what elves and fairies look like, then there is the "humor."
One thing that I really love about this game is that I get absolutely no pretentious vibe from the game at all. The game's designers knew full well that a storyline as simple as it is first presented is a bit worn down as it is. They knew well what the preconceived notions of the game would be, and they embraced it with open arms. There are some truly off of-the-wall moments in the game that you wouldn't see done anywhere else. As I mentioned in my intro, I can only imagine that these instances are decidedly German. I will give examples, but first I will recognize this was a first in my varied gaming experiences. Where else will you see an S&M granny all geared up in a bed with a heart on it. As if that isn't enough, and if you are not really expecting it, might let it slip by, but there are also wrist and ankle restraints to go with the heart comforter. To top off the image, they had to go and throw in the cat of nine tails to make sure you got the direction they were going. This isn't the only place, but I really do not want to spoil any more experiences for you, because it really does evolve into an interesting experience. |
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Difficulty:
Everlight bases its difficulty around your necessity for cheats. There are four levels: Unlimited Help, Easy, Normal, and Difficult. Unlimited Help allows you to get cheats and tips from Fiona's journal any time you need them. Easy limits the amount of information you are given. From there, it boils down to how many times you are allowed to go into Fiona's journal for help and how much help is provided. They want you to play this game and make it all of the way through. You can lower the difficulty as you move along to ensure you make it through. To make things even easier, there is the "H" hot-key that highlights all of the available explorable actions on the screen. The instruction book included also gives you a few hints to get you started, should you need them.
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Game Mechanics:
The majority of the control in Everlight is executed with your mouse. There are some hot-keys you can, and will, use but for the most part, this is a one-handed game. This allows you to sit back and enjoy the game. I have played a ton of games where the character would only walk along when you asked to move to a location, so I am glad that when you give the order to move here, Melvin will break into a run. There is plenty of clear, on-screen information. I was never wondering what my next task or action was supposed to be. They wanted you to explore the screen with your mouse, just like any point and click, but they did not make the informational "highlighting" obscure or hidden. When your mouse was near anything that had an action, you could see its action clearly.
The magic of Everlight was in the quirky characters and interesting cultural differences. The strength of the game as an example of the genre was a little less than it could be. The localization issues with German text and other differences make the transition to English feel very rushed. Not that I expect games to be perfectly translated and homogenized for American consumption, but there were some things that just pulled you out of the story and the game to have to process for meaning in English. |
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-WUMPUSJAGGER, GameVortex Communications AKA Bryon Lloyd |
Minimum System Requirements:
Minimal: Windows(r) 2000/XP, Pentium 4, 1.4 GHz, RAM 512 MB, DirectX(r) compatible 64 MB RAM graphic card, 650 MB free disc space, DirectX(r)9 compatible sound card
Recommended: Windows(r) 2000/XP/Vista, Pentium 4 2.8 GHz, RAM 1024 MB, DirectX(r)9 compatible 128 MB RAM graphic card, 650 MB free disc space, DirectX(r) compatible sound card |
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Test System:
Dell XPS DXP061, XP Pro, Intel Core Quad, 2GB Ram, Gforce 8800GTX |
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