Alternativa

I've written about a number of games by now on this blog, many of them being either nostalgic fun, a new shiny adventure, or a Top 10 list no one agrees with.  So it's with great pleasure that I'm able to talk about a pretty mediocre adventure game: Alternativa.  Warning: spoilers are present for this game you probably won't play.

Don't get me wrong, I love talking about the games I love.  But there's just something about bad games.  They're like KFC.  They look good enough, and then a greasy coating of bad translations, drab storyline and odd puzzles invades your entire body and you feel pretty bad for having done it in the first place.

Okay, Alternativa isn't THAT bad.  But any reason to use a KFC analogy is a good one.  There's some interesting themes present, such as the power struggles between social classes and the rising power of corporations versus government.  Unfortunately it's set against the back-drop of a cliched dystopian future and a storyline that's uneven and unsatisfying.

The year is 20-something something...let's just say the future.  Society is now separated into three major districts: the State, the Industrial zone and the Slums.  One of these is bad to be in.  I'll let you guess which one.  Along with the State, two major corporations also share the majority of the power: Endora and Theolex.  Things are getting tense as the two corporations are firing many of their staff, restricting them to the slums and keeping some big mysterious dystopian secret from the State.

Enter Richard.  The game starts off with him getting fired from Endora and having his identity card removed.  He is just so gosh darned fed up with this clear abuse of the system that he decides he will seek out the Resistance in order to get back at those jerks in power.  Sci-fi shenanigans ensue.

The story as a whole just sort of grated on me.  I think part of the problem was the potential for it to be a great sci-fi tale.  A future where the government oppresses it's subjects?  It's a classic story!  And it's one whose success depends on the characters and world setting to keep it fresh.  Unfortunately, we're treated to an over-the-top Orwellian rip off and bland characters whose motivations are all over the place.
Richard as a character simply...doesn't reach the mark.  Actually, it can be summed up in the first five minutes of the game:

Richard:  "Damn, I just lost my job!  Life sucks.  I should go join the Resistance".

It's not exactly what he says, but it's actually not far off.  The problem is that we don't get a chance to know Richard first before all of the serious gameplay goes down. That's what beginner levels are for. Spend an ordinary amount of time with the character, THEN take his job away. That way you might at least feel a little invested in what's happening in the game.  On top of that, he's also the most trusting character in the world:

Richard:  "I'm going to join the Resistance, everyone!  Can everyone hear me?  I'm going to join that organization that is supposedly incredibly dangerous to even talk about in our oppressive society!"
Incredibly drunk sleaze:  "Heeey, I know where the refistance is..."
Richard:  Ya do?!
IDS:  Sure, just bring me a watch battery. (seriously)
(Twenty minutes of gameplay later)
Richard:  What do ya meaaaan the drunk sleaze wasn't telling the truth?!

And that's just one example.  The supporting characters are even worse.  At the very least, you get some sort of kind of motivation for Richard's decision, but as for everyone else...they're just...unrealistic.  Hilariously so. 

The best example of this is a cop who is guarding a crime scene you need to get into.  Richard's excuse?  He has to get something.  Instead of maybe, I don't know, suspecting that MAYBE she should question the guy who just HAS to enter a fresh crime scene, she decides she'll let him in if Richard goes and gets some evidence from a previous case she can't solve.  I can't even classify that as corruption...that's just stupid.

These examples lead into the puzzles and gameplay.  As noted above, some of the reasons for the inventory based puzzles are pretty far fetched.  At one point you have to trade a pebble with a hobo to get a jar of rotten plums.  It's not quite at "Pie in yetti's face" rage, but it was kind of getting there.  A lot of solutions to puzzles actually involve doing a previous puzzle again...literally, you do it twice with some small variation.  There was a lot of process of elimination which doesn't make for good puzzle solving.

As for gameplay, it's a pretty straight forward point and click interface with the added feature that if you choose incorrect conversation paths you can die.  Choosing a lower difficulty at the beginning of the game (as I did) means that you get more chances to try again, but it's kind of made pointless by the fact that you can also just save your game before said encounter.  The lower difficulty also gives you "hints" about what you should do next, but the hints are pretty useless as well, mostly telling you a vague statement of where you should go.

If there are any positives about the game, I guess I can applaud the visuals.  They're appropriately stark for the setting and have some nice detailed animation like robots twitching and water dripping, but I also have some issues with the trend to always set these types of stories in a dark, oppressive light while all government buildings are set in the daytime.  What...do they deny the sun to the lower classes as well?

There are many other things I could go on talking about: The androids who are the most dangerous aspect of the game but who are easier to sneak around than Zelda guards, the sometimes awkward translation, the spotty voice acting.  But the biggest one would have to be the ending.  JUST when the story took an insane and interesting turn, it ended on an incredibly anti-climatic note.

The game developers probably wanted to set up for a sequel, but without characters that I actually care about or puzzles that are challenging I don't see a reason that I personally would want to continue.  I do applaud Europe for keeping the adventure genre alive but unfortunately a lot seems to get lost in translation...or it's just a mediocre game.  At any rate, I hope the developers do continue making games...they're still new and have potential, but have some learning to do along the way.