Mata Hari the game
View: Third person
Total Satisfaction: 98%
Mata Hari are Indonesian words which has two meanings, the first meaning is Mata which means eyes and Hari which means day so if Mata and Hari are two separated words but used together as in Mata Hari, it means Eye of the day, another meaning is if the word Mata and Hari is combined together as in Matahari, then it means the sun.
However the game translated the meaning wrongly. She said that Mata Hari means Eye of the dawn, which surely is wrong. I can guarantee that it is not correct.
However, Mata Hari is not just an imaginative character created by the people from the gaming industry. She actually existed, and she was really a spy!
More information about her you can check it here: Mata Hari
Now, about the game, the idea of making Mata as the main character is brilliant already. Not to say that i adore this game since the game designer did not try to be a smart ass by combining adventure games with action or even shooting thinking that he actually make a superb breakthrough. While actually he did not! Duh! Why people play adventure game in the first place? Because they do not like to WAR! or use hands more than use their brain! Adventure gamers like to use their brains more than muscles! Think about it. We love the adventure, the story, the excitement is in the storyline, the character, the plot, and enjoying beautiful scenery with nice music, reward us with beautiful graphics! Do not punish us with shooting bandits! Or jumping up and down again and again trying to get a piece of paper inside the game!
Sorry...i get too carried away sometimes when i complained about how they changed the adventure gaming style. But i am so lucky this year that the last 3 games that i played, hey...all have been good! (I have finished playing Memento Mori where i will review it next)
Including this Mata Hari, a great great game. It is fully 100 percent adventure with little puzzle and mini games, even if there are mini games or puzzle, it is completely forgiven because they give me the clue on how to solve it.
Adventure games nowadays also realized the annoyance of finding one item in the game, so they add this feature where i can press a key in the keyboard and it will show me the items that is on the scene so i wont miss those items that are so tiny like a microscopic amoeba. I exaggerate a little. I mean tiny as a dot.
They also have the skip feature where i can skip any mini games or puzzle that i do not feel like doing it.
I guess this two are the best feature for year 2009s adventure games where we do not have this on the year 1990s adventure games.
Adventure games was so popular on the 1990s, and then some changes were tried to made to it without much results of success, and nowadays i can see that they realized this and tried to go back to the original plan of making adventure games, that is without any action at all!
I am happy for it, my friend! My tears of happiness are flowing!
In Mata Hari, they do exactly that. Pure adventure games but with the technology of 21st century. Whenever the character talks, there will be a character animation. Although i must say that this is a brilliant idea, but the animation is not believe able. Because some of them move too much! I can see that it looked real a minute there, and then it looked dolly fake again just because he cannot stop moving! He moved too much, people do not talk and move his body like that! And what makes it looked fake is also because when those two people are talking, they hardly looked at each other, one of them seemed to look at nothing in particular, his or her stare is blank, like a doll. The only guy inside the game that did a great job is the security guard in the British embassy. He looked believe able and moves naturally. He looked....normal...
Another minus of the character in Mata Hari game from the graphic side is that, the male characters, looked pretty much the same with that same mustache style. Ok, Ok, i can understand that perhaps that kind of mustache is on style, is on fashion on that time inside the game, but can't you at least make one man who does not fall for that fashion crime? Because of that same mustache and kinda same dark eyes and hair and facial bone, i almost mistaken who to whom the first time. I need to really remember their names and looked hard before i can differentiate Rupert from Simsonet! Man!
The vocal talent has no doubt been best. Like most adventure games i know, usually the vocal talent and audio guys has no problem at all. But not ALL games are like this. I know some games that their vocal talent is so dull and their audio guys made some big mistakes like cutting the voice too fast again and again.
The storyline of Mata Hari game is also intriguing, interesting, nice! This is REALLY NEW! Usually the storyline of adventure games is murder then occultism, satanic group, and so on, but a woman spy, and not just a spy but a double agent, with bed stories and flattery, none ever was out there like this one over here!
The design of this game is also nice, especially the idea of the inventory system. This game is basically more into plot and story, having a conversation rather than combining one object with another. Its like a political kinda game.
Movement is not bad either, Mata moves fast, not robot like and slow but firm with confidence and fast, so i don't have to wait long before she moves to the next scene. Of course there is the double click feature to skip to the next area fast, but sometimes it does not work, even though Mata still walks to the other end of the screen, it still within my patience limit since it does not take too long.
So altogether this is a GREAT GAME! I cannot move my own body away from my computer because of this game! I love this kind of adventure games! Please make more of it!
Adventure lovers really should try this game!
I nominate this game as one of the best game EVER made!