Point and click
Third Person view
by Future Games
Year released: 2007
Published by The Adventure Company
Total satisfaction: 72%
When i flipped the back of this game casing, i saw it is written there that the creator of Nibiru and Black Mirror is behind this game. My heart jumped with enthusiasm. Oh my Goodness! Black Mirror was such a great game and it still is! Nibiru is a great game too! So what happen if two lion is in the same den? Disaster!
Next life is NOTHING compared to the success of Black Mirror or the greatness of Nibiru.
The only thing that excel in this game is the NPCs that moves around the area, it made the feeling or effect that i was bumping into them and not knowing where they would be. In some other games, usually the characters will just stay in one place so i know where to go to find them. I actually bumped into some characters while they were taking a bath, and while they were using the toilet in this game. It is a superb idea! This setting should have been used on Agatha Christie games. Especially for the game evil under the sun. It will be great.
The main character, Adam, is the most negative and annoying computer game main character i have ever seen. He is so annoying, always saying negative things throughout the game such as 'Oh! I wont make it! I will die!' ' I cannot do it!' and so on. He also did not care if he sees someone dies inside the game, sprawling in front of him and he will just go on saying' Oh, he dies.., that's too bad' and walks away without even checking or examining the dead person's body. Or at least squat nearby to look closer. No, he just walked away. He also did not seem to make any sense when there is an emergency situation with a time limit and he just walks whenever he goes. Even if i double clicked to skip the area, he still walks. Making him run automatically would make it look more real and intense on those situations.
The vocal talents are somewhat not nice...with weird accents. All of them! All of the characters has a weird accent.
Misspelling in a computer game i think is really not forgive able.
They spelled thief as theif and hoped people to love their game. Not to mention some words are different with the subtitles. What is going on here?
The story is OK, it was a great idea, but they failed to picture it out.
The NPCs also has facial and body animation whenever they talk. It is good. Although it can still be improved. The characters did not really mouthed the words correctly. I suppose this is because the game is not originally in English? And the localization process does not include changing the whole character animations. But i sure hope those characters can open their mouth a little bit bigger. Who talks with their mouth slightly open like that? I heard some people in Chicago does, but perhaps not ALL does that.
Music is Ok. The environment graphics is OK. Inventory system is Ok.
I guess what makes this game becomes so bad is the dialogs. The dialogs and comments made by the main characters and the NPCs are so badly written, it can be nominated as one of the worst written dialogs in the computer gaming history. When Adam talks to the other characters, it is only in a very short conversation. It looked more like a small 'hi' talk rather than a real conversation. Don't want to suggest discussion here.
Adam walks fine, the others walks fine. In term of characters, the character artist and animator did a great job.
In the game, every chapter will have a different view from the same area. So the perspective is changed, or the angle is changed but it is still the same area. It is quite confusing but it is a superb trick since the gameplay required me to go around the area all over again and again in every chapter. This idea should be implemented in Agatha Christie games. Then it will be really superb.
What annoys me the most in the game is the fact that i have to climb a lot of cliffs. Is this an adventure game or a Tomb Rider action game? And what is even more stupid is the fact that this is a point and click game! They made me click like 30 times before i managed to get to the top of the cliff.
The mini games are very annoying as well and not a great mini game. Mini games should serve its purpose to make me feel relaxed and get out of the real game for awhile. Not to make me feel even more stressed out!
The energy bar is also a stupid idea. Adam has to drink and eat to refill his energy bar. It really does not serve its purpose in the game. Its just wasting my time, and it goes down too quickly. Sometimes the energy bar can go up to full by doing things such as drinking water fall water, drinking creek water or river, and it can go up slightly as well if i use the toilet. I mean if Adam uses the toilet. Not me. But still that just does not make sense! I tried to let my energy bar dropped until zero. Adam did not die, but he just refused to do heavy tasks such as carrying or lifting big rocks. With only water and a package of cookies, i think everybody in that island should be skinny. So where does Dorothy, the fat African American got her extra fat from?
I can die in this game, and there are some emergencies that require my swift action and quick thinking. I like that kinda of challenge. Next Life is a mix of adventure and tomb rider and The emergency game. The total hour of gameplay is quite long. Too bad they did not do it so well.
It just surprised me a lot and made me a little disappointed. How come two talented people who could make Black Mirror and Nibiru messed this up?
I guess it is always right what they say, two lions can never share the same den.