Himalaya Studios

I posted my review of Al Emmo on my Blog

http://www.jeffryhouser.com/index.cfm/2 ... ine-Review (http://www.jeffryhouser.com/index.cfm/2006/9/19/Al-Emmo-and-the-Lost-Dutchmans-Mine-Review)

 In short:

 I enjoyed it, but it was rough around the edges.  I'll buy a sequel.

QuoteCons
·   Voice Acting: To say the voice acting was horrible would be a complete understatement. Words cannot express how bad it is. Have you never heard a cat screech because you dragged its claws across a chalkboard? I haven't heard that either, but it would have been an improvement. Unfortunately, the voice behind Al is the worst offender of the bunch. I might have been able to deal with a bad voice hear or there, but turning the main character into a cheese grater for your ears was not a good idea. Next time I hope they institute some type of third party review before they record all the vocals.
·   Short Acts: The game moves along very quickly and before you can blink the act your in is finished. Many of the act splits seemed to offer no purpose other than to throw in a cut scene. Shakespeare plays have 5 acts. Today we've cut that down 3 for most popular movies / plays. This game would have been better served by fewer longer acts.
·   Game Path; The path through this game is very linear. There was never a question as to where to go next or what you have to accomplish. Once you "map out the land" (presumably in the first act) there is never a reason to go exploring again. That is one aspect where they did not stay in line with older adventures.
·   Graphics: 640x480 graphics are a little too retro for my tastes. It wouldn't fit on my 20-inch monitor without a setting change (I discovered the setting change half way through the 9th chapter).
·   Packaging: I had heard reports this game would be 'packaged' in a manner similar to games of old. I was either misinformed or delusional. The game came in a standard DVD jewel case, with only minor inserts (such as a "tell your friends" postcard). There wasn't a printed manual of any sort. (Not even the cheesy ones you find in CD Jewel case games). I suppose the packaging got saved for the more expensive collectors edition.
·   Green Ghost Skulls: The green ghosts on the cover aren't in the game anywhere. Talk about a tease.
·   No more ColdFusion: The original AGD interactive site was built in ColdFusion, but they moved to PHP.
Final Thought
Overall, it took me about 10 hours to get through the game from start to finish. I guess I got better bang for my buck than going to a movie theatre, but I'd feel a whole lot better if the price point was $20, which is comparable to most other games I buy. The game failed to evoke an emotional response in me, so I'll probably forget it. Perhaps I can play again it as if it were new in a month or so? I'll definitely buy the next game that these guys produce, if for no other reason than I have nowhere else to go to get my fix. If you remember the games of old fondly, give this one a shot. Otherwise stick with the latest on your Xbox.
Comments (0)

Seems that you request comments but haven't had any as yet.
So I'll fill the gap (and apologies in advance for being 'to the point' and quite blunt)!

I am pretty well known in the Quest/Adventure community (you can look me up on Google).

I am extremely busy on Quest/Adventure Forums (including reviews), many beta-testings, and very many walkthroughs.
Hence I have never ever had the time (or interest) in previously accessing even a single BLOG.

Your above blog justifies my aforementioned omission, and ensures that I won't waste my extremely limited and hence valuable time in the future.
   :plain:  :) @

I wasn't trying to request comments; I was merely sharing my thoughts.  I thought someone might care here.  
 
 Beyond that, I'm not quite sure what your point is.  If it is that you don't want to spend time reading my Blog (or Blogs in general) then don't.  

 If you're only interested in adventure-game-related-info then there are plenty of sources better than my Blog.

 I'm sorry if I offended you in some manner.

Quote from: "LenG"Seems that you request comments but haven't had any as yet.
So I'll fill the gap (and apologies in advance for being 'to the point' and quite blunt)!

I am pretty well known in the Quest/Adventure community (you can look me up on Google).

I am extremely busy on Quest/Adventure Forums (including reviews), many beta-testings, and very many walkthroughs.
Hence I have never ever had the time (or interest) in previously accessing even a single BLOG.

Your above blog justifies my aforementioned omission, and ensures that I won't waste my extremely limited and hence valuable time in the future.
   :plain:  :) @

We actually did read it, but I wasn't so sure whether you just wanted to share your opinion or get some sort of discussion going. All I'll say is thanks for buying the game and taking the time to play through it and reviewing it and I'm sorry to hear you didn't enjoy it as much as we were hoping you would.

(http://www.agdiforums.com/forum/images/avatars/moodpics/Nashswt.jpg)

My only intent was to share my opinion.
 
 I'probably enjoy a conversation about the good / bad points of the game; but it was not my intent to start that conversation with my review.

Quote from: "Erpy"We actually did read it, but I wasn't so sure whether you just wanted to share your opinion or get some sort of discussion going. All I'll say is thanks for buying the game and taking the time to play through it and reviewing it and I'm sorry to hear you didn't enjoy it as much as we were hoping you would.

(http://www.agdiforums.com/forum/images/avatars/moodpics/Nashswt.jpg)