Game Review: The Perils of Man (Windows, Mac)
The Perils of Man originally released on iOS platforms late last year, and now the game's PC version is out. As an iOS title, it's a small adventure. But this length of the game has some adverse effects; in addition to some other issues which make it a bit weak.
The game is about a girl named Ana, who is part of a family with a well known succession of scientists. Only all of them have ended up mysteriously disappearing. During her sixteenth birthday, she gets a present left behind by her father who also disappeared years ago. The gift is actually an elaborate clue to help her find his research, and possibly himself. This lead Ana to discover a robotic bird named Darwin, but more importantly the Risk Atlas and the Perils of Man.
The Risk Atlas is the big gimmick of this point and click. It lets the player wear them like goggles, and view the environment in first person. This let's the player learn about objects of note, which is sometimes necessary to view in order to trigger flags that advance your progress. The plot itself also involves time travel, because apparently the Risk Atlas also is capable of that. The gameplay pretty much plays like any other adventure game outside of that. The hint system is actually pretty helpful in this game though. Even if most of the puzzles are simpler than the usual obtuse offering in the genre.
The game was originally on iOS, which had the game split in chapters. The game is one continuous experience on PC with no breaks. Some of the iOS version's issues have migrated, while introducing some of it's own. In a lot of the game's video cut-scenes, there's some repeating of lines, and the frame-rate is bizarrely choppy. On the game side, there are times when clickable objects fail to highlight properly. The lighting can also go dark, making it hard to see things. And path-finding can also fail at times. Those issues can be fixed, but it did weaken my experience a bit. What can't be fixed is the game's length. While short playtime means that it doesn't overstay it's welcome, plot-lines remain unresolved at the conclusion. And they likely won't be, as the conclusion of the game is pretty concrete. All of this leads to a game that just is pretty average. The game is fairly affordable at the $10 asking price, so if you're curious, it won't be a big hit to the wallet.
The Bottom Line : A small point and click game with some interesting ideas, but it's short length leaves some important plot issues unresolved.
Acquisition method: Digital code provided by Vertigo Games
The game is about a girl named Ana, who is part of a family with a well known succession of scientists. Only all of them have ended up mysteriously disappearing. During her sixteenth birthday, she gets a present left behind by her father who also disappeared years ago. The gift is actually an elaborate clue to help her find his research, and possibly himself. This lead Ana to discover a robotic bird named Darwin, but more importantly the Risk Atlas and the Perils of Man.
The Risk Atlas is the big gimmick of this point and click. It lets the player wear them like goggles, and view the environment in first person. This let's the player learn about objects of note, which is sometimes necessary to view in order to trigger flags that advance your progress. The plot itself also involves time travel, because apparently the Risk Atlas also is capable of that. The gameplay pretty much plays like any other adventure game outside of that. The hint system is actually pretty helpful in this game though. Even if most of the puzzles are simpler than the usual obtuse offering in the genre.
The game was originally on iOS, which had the game split in chapters. The game is one continuous experience on PC with no breaks. Some of the iOS version's issues have migrated, while introducing some of it's own. In a lot of the game's video cut-scenes, there's some repeating of lines, and the frame-rate is bizarrely choppy. On the game side, there are times when clickable objects fail to highlight properly. The lighting can also go dark, making it hard to see things. And path-finding can also fail at times. Those issues can be fixed, but it did weaken my experience a bit. What can't be fixed is the game's length. While short playtime means that it doesn't overstay it's welcome, plot-lines remain unresolved at the conclusion. And they likely won't be, as the conclusion of the game is pretty concrete. All of this leads to a game that just is pretty average. The game is fairly affordable at the $10 asking price, so if you're curious, it won't be a big hit to the wallet.
The Bottom Line : A small point and click game with some interesting ideas, but it's short length leaves some important plot issues unresolved.
Acquisition method: Digital code provided by Vertigo Games
Our Grade:
C
The Good:
- The game's puzzle's aren't too obtuse.
- It's also short enough to not overstay it's welcome.
The Bad:
- But that also makes it too short to deal with some unresolved plot elements.
- There are some annoying technical issues.
Eric is one of the co-hosts of the RPGrinders podcast, as well as a freelance video game writer. You can follow him on Twitter @EricRPG .
