The Gift is a ridiculously difficult game and a weak attempt in originality...
This game was published by the french adventure game company Cryo Interactive (now part of the Microids brand) and falls into action adventure (or rather platform) genre. It was suppose to be a completely original new franchise and even the heads of Cryo (and a comics artist) were involved in it's design. The idea was to combine the classic platform elements (run, hit, jump, carry, throw) with original game levels that would parody a cult movie (Aliens for instance) or a cult game concept (like a castle level). Add a charming game hero who was even suppose to surpass the Rayman and original gameplay elements like light and darkness as a part of a gameplay. The hype was big, even the demo (which can't be found anymore) was released and every single magazine and site was buzzing about it. And then it came out and nothing happened. In fact, not only that the game was published only in France and later silently got an English release, but no one even got around to review it (except in France). There is not a single english site today that has a review of this game. Just the news how awesome it will be when it gets out...
If you tried the game most of you will understand why. It was (maybe) a good idea on paper, but got horrible wrong somewhere along the way...
First of, the character Gift. He is the main hero, but he does not talk (except in a couple of CGIs), he doesn't have any unique ability or move and he looks very bizarre (like a talking red chihuahua monkey). Whoever thought this is the way to make a memorable hero was probably trying to make a parody of a hero, but failed. Gift's not funny, or useful, just uninteresting, clumsy and annoying.
Now the story. There's a game that game heroes (a viking, some superhero guy, etc.) can't beat. They find a bartender (The Gift) and send him. The goal is to save a princess from some lord of darkness or something.
Spoilers...
Few short animations (less than 10) explain the "story" and represent the only interesting thing about the game. There is no end boss (which I guess should also be a parody) and the lord of darkness is soon forgotten about. There is no twist at the end. Some people don't even get the credits. It just wraps up the story in the most obvious way and that's it. Great intro is just a trap for a next-to-nonexistent and nonsensical story. You can't play the animations outside the game so you'll have to beat it to see the last one (it's 100 percent fairytale cliche and it's not worth it).
Spoilers end...
Design. The game has 10 levels and 2 hubs (game testing station and, near the end, the forest with mushrooms). Levels are mostly parodies of usual level mash in a platform (space ship, temple, snowy level). All the references to a movie or a tale are random and superficial (there's a glass slipper in a castle level, which is a reference to Cinderella; in the same level you stumble across Ash's chainsaw from the Evil Dead trilogy and you take a look at it and... move on). This is not how parodies work. You'll go through a standard level, then Gift will (rarely) see a small reference to something and then you move on. This has no purpose or charm. Every level is just "push the button (or more often several buttons) to open a door", "do something to get to a button" and "find the magic power for that something to be done and use it". Repeat this 10 times and you get this game. Design is bland uninspired and dull. Nothing stands out. There's a "copy an item" (like the random woodpile in almost every room of the snowy level) "paste an item" all over the place. Objects are mostly squared except for the characters and pickable items. The game has nice light effects. In-game animations are repetitive, pointless and unskippable (Gift finds a gun, gets gitty, jumps, falls, gets up).
Gameplay. You pick a level in an exact order (no non-linearity here) and you play 10 of them, with the tenth being the very short parody fake level that just leads you to a second hub where the real last level is. You need to pick-up seven dwarf statues (a pointless joke on Snow White). If you finish the level you automatically pick them up. The other three levels are actually empty (you beat them and get nothing).
Enemies. You battle some sort of dog-like, penguin-like, rugby footballer-like and bushfire-like things (and that's it) by beating them up with two or three blows. There are also shadow enemies (small light and dark shadowy creatures), that you can't fight. Instead you need to (usually) move or push an object or throw a spell to cover them with light or darkness so that they disappear. They are extremely fast and you always have to get rid of them through a repetitive puzzle to move on. One enemy that you also can't kill is a "monitor". A big cloaked spook whose eye kills you if you come across the straight path of it's sight. Another indestructible enemy is a swordsman.
Weapons. You have a staff. With it you can hit regular enemies or you can empower it with six crystals. You pass near a crystal and the staff gets charged. Then you have to find yellow balls of light (sometimes you have to hit an animal that makes them to produce one) that powers the staff so you can use the crystal magic. Crystals are huge and you can't miss them. you don't collect them, just pass by them and you have the power. They can't be moved or picked up. They are there 'cause you need their power somewhere in that level. Red Crystal gives you the ability to leave gunpowder on a designated places so you can burn it and blow up doors. Yellow-one gives you the power to make a glowing yellow ball that lightens your path when the dark lord turns off the light in a certain part of a level (just two or three times needed). If you don't turn it on the darkness kills you. This light can also destroy one type of small shadowy creatures. Purple one gives you dark glow that destroys the other type of little shadowy creatures. Green crystal takes away your current power. Blue Crystal gives your staff the power to freeze liquids and hot items (like metal doors on fire) that will then break. There is also a special red crystal that flattens you automatically, so you can go under something (or acts as a red herring like in level 2). There's also a non-crystal green light (in only one part of one level) that sucks out your yellow staff energy.
The second weapon you have to find in a level (not all levels have it) is a light gun. It has ammo that you also need to pick-up. If you shoot it at the enemy's shadow (or a shadow of some object like a falling block), you freeze this enemy (or the object) for less then 10 seconds. Again, you shoot at the shadow, not the enemy (or the object) itself. When you ame it a target appears that pulses when you drag it over something that can be shot.
Difficulty. Wow... You can get killed instantly from a monitor, a fall, the shadow creatures, regular enemy, falling blocks, lava, lasers (there are a couple of these here and there and you have to outrun them). When you get killed you return to the very room you got out from just before you got killed and everything that you did, or that you killed remains done or dead. This is one thing that lowers the extreme challenge of the game. You do pick green "tears" and get a life (blue for health meter to fill up) but you don't get nearly enough. If you are an average player you will have huge problems with this game. You can lose around 25 lives per level, and you'll get around 3. You can pick up 10 blue balls on (almost) every level, which adds to your health meter, but it's rather useless. They don't give you more lives, don't refill health (just extend the health bar), don't work unless you have all ten, and don't get saved if you pick a few (not all ten), quit the level and then come back). This game is a great example of a game that shouldn't have lives at all, just endless continues (like Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time). You need to snoop around the level, and you will get killed a lot while doing it, so life counter is just a cruel joke. These guys (EKO Software was the developer) went on to make more difficult nerve wrecking platforms (of bad quality) like Woody Woodpecker: Escape from Buzz Buzzard Park. Now they make only simple kids games (like Strawberry Shortcake: Sweet Dreams).
Puzzles. If you take a few looks around the level you won't get stuck. It's really not difficult, especially after they start to repeat (like the button finding). In one place you have to throw a bug to grab the attention of a monitor or a swordsman so you can push a button or a tile that opens the floor so that they fall). they don't get more complicated than that, but they do get buggy...
Bugs. Clipping is often and sometimes crucial items disappear (rarely but it happens) or the game crashes to desktop.
Extra lives and additional challenges. The game has a percentage of completion. When you beat it, you get around 75 percent. The rest is spread in two groups. First are the blue balls that add to your health meter. They add some 20 percent all-together. The second is a challenge puzzle that appears in a couple of levels.
In second level you get into the room with red crystal that flattens you. You need to stand on the tile and shoot the shadow of the door with the light gun when the door opens so you can freeze it and go under. In there is the first challenge room. If you beat it (it's a regular room but with a 40 sec timer) you get a life or something and if you lose it, you have to restart the level in order to access it again (but beating it is not a condition to finish the game). To get to challenge rooms on other levels (not all of them have these) you collect five brown balls that look like a chestnut, and after you collect the fifth you are teleported into the challenge room.
All in all it's a wasted idea, low on imagination, done lazy and without quality, fun or wit...
Quick tips:
If your copy works too fast or crashes, first use the Windows '98 compatibility mode, and if that doesn't work, keep the '98 compatibility mode and turn off every single graphic option (it's ugly anyway) in the game's display menu. You access the game's display menu by going to it's install folder or shortcuts and finding "display" icon. You can also change the controls there (default controls are abysmal).
You need a bunch of lives for the last room of the game because you need to guess a door password and whenever you miss you get killed, and there are around 30 combinations.
If the game gets too hard for you. use a hex editor on the save (you need to download a free hex editor, and the save game is in the game's folder) and change forth, or fifth, or sixth double-digit-number field (experiment for yourself) in a first line of a file to 99. It should add a random number of lives (up to 150 and you will need them all).