Lure of the Temptress

The Good
The game worked a bit like those Level-9 games were created; NPCs were living their own life, they would follow their patterns, talk to each other and so forth. You feel like you are actually 'thown' into a living, real world. The puzzles are neat and logical, and, thanks to the great interface, I enjoyed every single of one of them.

The Bad
The game was a bit too short, but neverhtless fascinating.

The Bottom Line
If you like adventure games, you can't miss that one. Captivating and absorbing.

The Good
Lure of the Temptress is the first adventure game created by newcomer Revolution Software. An evil sorceress named Serena, along with a horde of her Skorl warriors, take over the quiet village of Turnvale after its villagers lose a battle against them. Three of the villagers, Wulf, Diermot, and Ratpouch, were all captured and put in separate dungeons where they are left to die. You control Diermot, who is depended upon by villagers to get rid of Serena.

Most of the characters that you meet throughout the game are always happy to help you gather the necessary shit to complete the mission. Among the characters in the game, one that you have to depend on is Goewin, the maiden that you have to rescue from the Skorl. She can provide you will a potion that you can use to defeat the dragon. The characters have different personalities. The Skorls themselves are rude as they are Diermot's enemy. (Rather than saying “Excuse me” whenever Diermot gets in their way, they instead say “Watch it, 'uman.) Ratpouch, the character that you must save from being tortured, is the village clown and makes a nuisance of himself and follows Diermot around like a little puppy dog.

There are so many places in the game, so I always went around in circles trying to find the place that I need to get to. But I found Ratpouch an advantage to this problem. You can actually tell people to do your bidding (if they feel like it), so if I wanted to go to a particular place and can't be bothered to diddly-daddly all over the place, I can always ask him to go there, and all I have to do is follow him.

The company created a new engine, known as Virtual Theatre. This is where every character in the game walks around, speaks to people, does something, and even order a beer at the local tavern. When two characters bump into each other, they politely excuse themselves, not so with the Skorls. When it comes to speaking with people, the games operates on a first come-first served basis. If you want to talk to a certain character but one or two people talked to them before you do, then you'll have to wait your turn, but if one person happens to be Ratpouch, you can just tell him where to go and he will comply. That's another use for him.

Although the graphics are not as detailed as Revolution's newer games, notably Beneath a Steel Sky, the scenery can be admired. Each building, interior and exterior, are well drawn. In just two places in the game, Lure's bizarre interface allows you to fight monsters by hitting them on the head and torso, as well as their legs. There is one fight where there is a marvelous background showing the afternoon sun setting over a barren land.

The puzzles in the game are quite easy to solve, and should take you no more than five minutes to complete. There are only two or three, and they range from escaping from the dungeon to making your way to the dragon. To solve some puzzles, some tasks need to be done at the same time.

The Bad
There is no setup program so that you can play the game with Roland, Adlib, SoundBlaster, or internal speaker. Because of this, I was restricted to using Roland. With Roland, there is no music and the sound effects are really nothing at all. Both would be much better with SB.

The introduction acts like a silent movie, but in color. This means that a paragraph of text just appears before your eyes, and without any effects, such as fade-ins or fade-outs. I hate that. Obviously, Revolution didn't believe in effects until much later.

In the past, I found it really interesting to find out how your character dies in adventure games. Sadly for me, there is only one way that you can die: if a Skorl punches Diermot in the face.

The Bottom Line
Lure is Revolution's first game ever. It uses the Virtual Theatre engine, which means that you just don't see characters standing around as if figuring what they need to do next, they instead go about their lives: walking around, speaking to people, doing stuff, etc. As one of the major characters in the game, you can put Ratpouch to good use. Puzzles are easy to solve, often requiring you to do two things at once. Graphics are OK, though they can't be compared to Revolution's later games. Depending on what sound card you use for the game, whether Roland or SB music, sound effects are quite poor and there is no background music. If you are a fan of Revolution's games, then this game is worth a try.

The Good
The graphic itself wasn't all that bad, and opening cinematic is actually quite good. Alas, other than that, this game has nothing else worth mentioning.

The Bad
From the very start you may find the game to be interesting, but soon you'll start to uncover the reasons that'll claim otherwise. Interface is innovative to a certain degree, and idea of telling your companion what to do might work if it weren't for multitude of pointless options that will never be of any service. That alone makes you wonder if you need to try so many options if you ever get stuck... hopefully, you don't, but you can't know that, can you?

The music in this game is almost non-existent, and that little that can be heard equals none. Sound effects are slightly richer, but nothing too fancy. Considering this game came after Monkey Island and many other LucasArts' classics, one might expect developers taught how to be creative... not in this case, though. But, it was their first game so perhaps I should cut some slack... after all, their future releases in the adventure genre were just getting better and better. Broken Sword proves that quite vividly.

Game's dialogues are nothing fancy, and can be repeated over and over again, and you should figure when you triggered their change, depending if you visited some place, witnessed some scene, or picked up some object. The game can become hard as sometimes you can get stuck if miss to do exactly what the game expected you to do. Such things are unforgivable as they take so many futile hours in seek for the answers until you realize you're just plain stuck and you can't go on no matter what and have to reload... and hopefully your last save game isn't too far behind.

The Bottom Line
The game's characters are nothing to be remembered, and story is less than mediocre. I can't think of any reason why one should get this game like I did. I guess I never expected 3rd-person point-and-click adventure can get this lame. It's so bad it hurts, avoid it at all costs, but do try Revolution Software's newer adventures as they can be quite innovative and worth the time spent.