An archaic game engine combined with ridiculous expectations of the player and plenty monotonous character animations.
Of course, the original game seemed to have had a modest budget available to develop the game (considering the graphics engine alone), and in comparison to other point and click games Still Life wasn't exceptionally good, but was enjoyable.
Still Life 2 promised to reveal more of the story after the events of the original. It takes place 3 years in the future – specifically in Oct 2008, where you get to play the same agent with the cute voice. I pre-ordered the game without reading any reviews and tried it out.
I gave up on the game out of frustration with the number of problems that plagued it. These problems, as I'll explain, were showstoppers – at least for me – and I could now care less about what happens in the story. The serial murderer could waste them all for all I care…
I will try to keep my rant to a minimum.
To begin with, the game has a horrible interface. You can't configure many graphics settings like you would normally expect, and there was no description or guidance as to which button or mouse click does what exactly. Sure the game uses only both mouse buttons and the space bar to skip through dialogue, but there's no where for you to find that out!
No, there was no user manual in the package. There was a DVD inside a white sleeve, and that was the end of it.
Moving on to other areas in the game, the graphics of the game are fantastic if the game had been developed in 2000 or before. For a 2009 game, it was ridiculous to say the least. With AA 4x, I still couldn't see very well in dark patches, and the characters and areas looked funny.
One of the biggest gripes I have is the ridiculous animations of characters doing mundane tasks. Why do I have to sit there for 15 seconds watching a character come out of a whole? Why do I have to watch that again every time I go into, or out of, the same whole? The same applies to going up/down stairs, opening doors, etc. The developers make it seem like it is an act of sheer technical genius every time they have the character slowly go into door-opening position, reach out a hand, move the door knob, pull the door, slowly walk in, and close the door.
This really got under my skin.
In terms of game play, this game is extremely linear. If you dare think logically in solving a puzzle in a manner that the developers didn't envisage, you are punished by a broken objective. Not only that, but even if you have another way of solving a puzzle that makes sense, the developers, on more than one occasion intended for you to do nothing more than pixel-hunt.
Don't use your brain, don't think on the task at hand, go through every pixel on the screen to figure out how you're supposed to solve the stupid puzzle.
To summarize, yes, I was disappointed with the game. I would've been absolutely thrilled with the game had it come out back in the 90's or so. It was a mistake buying it, and it wasn't the kind of hobby I wished to exercise in my spare time (instead of relaxing I was really stressed and frustrated every time I played it).
Tech