Experience 112

[thesheeep]

Heard of it today for the first time at krawall.de and immediatly downloaded the demo.

http://www.gamershell.com/download_22691.shtml

It's quite an unique experience, as you do not play as one of the main persons, but as the security system (or the person that sits at its controls. May be part of the plot to figure that out).
You have to guide and help the characters figuring out wtf happened (you are stranded with a ship on an island, and there are plants everywhere IN the ship), therefore gaining their trust (nobody would instantly trust the security system, eh?).

I've made a screenshot, showing the interface. The windows you see there are the cameras you activated, some kind of upgrade system (not everything works from the right beginning), and an area map.

Its quite dark, I know, but its brighter in-game. Here are more screenshots:

http://www.experience112.com/

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

Interesting, do want.

 

[thesheeep]

Played through the demo.
Its rather short but shows everything basic about the game.

My opinion: Great adventure, I might actually want to buy this. The story is interesting, the interface is even more interesting and there are many, many text files to read that give you a clue what this whole ship is about. Of course, most of them are optional to read.

 

[SuicideBunny]

minus points for game stopping bugs. seems rather interesting though.

 

[thesheeep]

Game stopping bugs? In the demo or in the final?

Is it even out?

 

[SuicideBunny]

demo.
after using the robot i parked it in the door of the whatever it's supposed to be chamber, the door closed and reopened, drove inside, nothing happened, drove outside again, after which the door closed, the chamber rotated, and the robot went into automatic movement mode against the now closed chamber door, and could not be in any way controlled.
meh.

also, it seems to suffer from a few mistranslations or dialogue bugs, and non-translations.

 

[xantrius]

Hmm sounds interesting check it out I will.

 

[thesheeep]

also, it seems to suffer from a few mistranslations or dialogue bugs, and non-translations.

AFAIK, there is some kind of language translation protocol you can "unlock" so this may be intended.

But I'm not completely sure, as I dont remember where I read that.

 

[The Rambling Sage]

Wasn't this that game some time ago had a bit of press and then dissapeared from the radar? I believe i read something about it on JA and then, later, thought it had been canceled or something like that. I also believe it had a couple of name changes along the way.

Anyway, the true point of this post:

Some long, long time ago - Back when CD-Roms were all the rage, if memory does not fails me - there was a similar game whose name i can't remember. It was about you being entrenched in a command room or something, and having to guide, by means of the security systems, some soldier-girl through an enemy compound, in order to save both of you and complete some mission or another.

Does some of you know the name of that one game? Yes, i know it is a bit off-topic, but since the game concept is quite similar i thought i would maybe get lucky, or that it would be of your interest at least.

 

[aweigh]

somethign similar was done on a PS2 game via voice-commands, using the ps2 headset. game was utter failure though

 

[Gambler]

Does it run on win2k? Couldn't install the demo. It doesn't even say what the problem is.

 

[Krafter]

This is the game by the same French studio that makes the Missing games, IIRC.

I liked them, but they are admittedly not everyone's cup of tea. These guys are at least trying unique enough things to know that I will be getting Experience 112 whenever I see it in a store. Probably will just skip the demo, then.

 

[Suchy]

I'm playing it right now and I'm like: daaamn, this game is something I haven't played before!
Worth trying for sure. The atmosphere is kinda System Shock-like, but it's 100% adventure, not an action game. The story is interesting, but I'm not yet too deep in the game, might still turn out crappy.

demo.
after using the robot i parked it in the door of the whatever it's supposed to be chamber, the door closed and reopened, drove inside, nothing happened, drove outside again, after which the door closed, the chamber rotated, and the robot went into automatic movement mode against the now closed chamber door, and could not be in any way controlled.
meh.

That's because you're supposed to pick the keycard using robot's magnetic arm.

 

[crakkie]

I've been looking forward to this game, good to see that it's getting a positive reception.

Note that it's titled The Experiment in the US.

 

[Dire Roach]

somethign similar was done on a PS2 game via voice-commands, using the ps2 headset. game was utter failure though

That was Lifeline.

Night Trap also featured a similar premise.

 

[SuicideBunny]

That's because you're supposed to pick the keycard using robot's magnetic arm.

it happend on my way out after picking the card up, so it's more like they set up the door trigger(s) in a stupid way.

 

[k_bits]

Wasn't this that game some time ago had a bit of press and then dissapeared from the radar? I believe i read something about it on JA and then, later, thought it had been canceled or something like that. I also believe it had a couple of name changes along the way.

Anyway, the true point of this post:

Some long, long time ago - Back when CD-Roms were all the rage, if memory does not fails me - there was a similar game whose name i can't remember. It was about you being entrenched in a command room or something, and having to guide, by means of the security systems, some soldier-girl through an enemy compound, in order to save both of you and complete some mission or another.

Does some of you know the name of that one game? Yes, i know it is a bit off-topic, but since the game concept is quite similar i thought i would maybe get lucky, or that it would be of your interest at least.

Did it also have you guiding four robots at once? I recall a game like that - a few actually. (Hired Guns comes to mind most readily)

 

[Andhaira]

Is combat a viable path or do you have to be diplomatic? I like options in my games.

 

[burrie]

I just tried it for a few minutes, and the concept intrigues me... alot. This is a concept I actually had in mind for a game, they stoles it from me

But they do seem to have gotten it right. I already felt part of the game from the start, although I have a feeling that the interface may get annoying soon. Although I never played around with the resolution...

But I'm definately keeping an eye on this one.

 

[Top Hat]

It sounds a bit like that text adventure game, Suspended I think it is called, in that you have to direct others around.

Having played through some text adventures recently, I'm just shocked at the lack of creativity when it comes to modern games' settings. It's really quite pathetic. I'd understand it more if they reused art resources from one game to the next, but they don't seem to.

It doesn't even make business sense to copy your competitors almost exactly. Wouldn't it be more profitable to try and target a different audience?

 

[Pussycat669]

Alright, I recently finished this game and thought it might be a good time to share a fair warning. That shouldn't imply that the game is bad but I kinda feel that a lot of its actual capabilities (like the rather unique control system) were kept untapped and I believe that this is a shame.

In other words: the puzzles are way too easy ('til the point of non existence). The only thing that can be called remotely challenging is to figure out the various passwords of the ship personal (example: you find a cooking book of the now deceased kitchen chef. "Oh, he marked the recipe of some-french-kinda-food. That was always his favorite" Guess what his sensible password will be like. There are also some encoded passwords but they basically come together with a mail that will provide an in depth explanation of how it works. No real brain power required except for the reading comprehension. Seriously, it was harder for me to figure out the user names than the passwords). However shortly after you found that oxygen thingy for the reluctant heroine you'll much likely have hacked all the accounts except for one or two (which for the most part only provide you with unimportant background information. The thing you'll really need are door codes and the like) from there it is a matter of time until your protégée will find some bits of paper or similar where other codes are revealed when they are required.
The second challenge is to navigate her from point A to B. One problem is that she tends to move very slowly (especially when she is climbing stairs/ladders) which makes those sections pretty dull. The worse thing about it is that she often reacts very differently from level to level when you turn the lights on and off. Sometimes she'll go through half the ship although there was no way that she could've possibly seen the light turned on and off. Then there are other areas (like a large bridge on the deck of the ship) where you literally have to dictate her from one light to another although the distance between them is minimal. That is specifically annoying for said bridge because you'll have to walk past there at least twice in the game. It is really a pretty dull experience. There is actually one large level shortly before the finale that entire point seems to be to walk from A to B with no interaction with the environment whatsoever. I still can't see the point of this section except for some sightseeing. That might be nice if it wouldn't last so long. (There are actually other pointless & time consuming things. Like the one scene where she insists to walk to the other side of a room to write a password on a cupboard before walking all the way back so she could type the same code in the computer. Dunno what this was all about).
Second problem are with the little tidbits where you take control manually over mechanical devices (like a crane or a submarine). Since the collision detection seems to be broken of sorts I had to reload on several occasion because the vehicle I operated got stuck in a wall and the like.

The rest of the game is mostly spent to 'grind' all the light sources available. That is you let the heroine go to a 'hot spot' then wait if she interacts with something and if not move on to the next one. There are only three situations where you need to return to the same spot twice so you can mostly forget the stuff you'll find and the remarks your heroine makes (except when she says something like "Can you..." which means that you'll have to dig up a code or two from someone’s account or turn on a device). In fact since there are almost none visual clues in the game you'll seldom have to activate the cameras at all since a single camera alone can already hurt the performance somewhat depending on where you are (the final levels especially) and even more so if you try to have multiple cameras activated at the same time.
You might, as myself, take more comfort in deactivating the cameras altogether and just control the heroine 'blind' on the map since she will then move faster due to higher performance (which, in a way, defeats the purpose to have such a camera system included in the first place).

At the end of the game things at least seems to become more complicated. You receive a shoulder camera for your heroine and a device that releases hormones (or something) with which you can communicate with the various otherworldly flora and fauna that you'll encounter the same as with the heroine herself. Sad thing though that it never evolves into something worthwhile. Instead you'll spent most of the time to spread some 'fuck off' hormones (just like in puberty) so some rather aggressive plants will give way for you to pass by. Then there is a trial where you have to talk your way out. But instead of actually learning what the different hormone combinations mean (and thus learning the language) you simply have to repeat what the dudes say to you and maybe adding or removing one specific hormone (although this might be an unfair complaint there is one situation where you'll have to know what you're talking about. But again you get so many hints that this dialogue puzzle pretty much solves itself. Probably the worst thing about it that it is the very last puzzle of the game so it was apparently meant to be 'ultimate badass' which it isn’t).

And that pretty much sums up everything you can write about the game hopefully. It clearly lacks any sort of challenge but also atmosphere or at least some feeling of tension. This is probably the first adventure where I wish that it would have been possible to die since the game apparently is supposed to have some kind of horror feeling to it (lots of dead guys and destruction in very dark surroundings). I believe that the experience would have been spiced up a lot if there were situations similar to the second Gabriel Knight installment where you try to navigate the heroine through a maze while she is being chased by a dangerous entity. Opening doors for her while at the same time trying to hinder the opponent to reach her. Then I would have got at least some enjoyment out of the game.

So what am I trying to express here. Well, I bought Experience 112 together with Darkness Within which I enjoyed a lot more. So if you should be forced to choose between the two I recommend the later.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

No tension, no dying, no money.