Reviewed: June 11, 2007
Reviewed by: Jeff Gedgaud
Publisher
The Adventure Company
Developer
Streko-Graphics
Released: July 3, 2007
Genre: Adventure
Players: 1
5
6
4
7
5.5
System Requirements:
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
Dead Reefs from The Adventure Company and Streko Graphics joins investigator Sir Amadey Finverro in the mysterious happenings on the English island of Dead Reefs. The adventure starts with a death that needs investigating but could end in finding out the long held secrets of the island and its deadly history.
Dead Reefs features:
- A fascinating and mysterious adventure that takes place in the 18th century and spreads over several decades, combined with an absorbing murder investigation
- Play as a detective and defy unnatural events, solve challenging riddles and risk your life to defeat a vicious killer
- Truly non-linear gameplay in which your actions determine unique outcomes and endings
- Full 3D environments using Virtools® technology
- Stunning graphics, real-life characters, and gorgeous animations
For years death has enshrouded Dead Reef Island off the English coast not only for its hazardous reefs but also in the form of unusual deaths that occur every nine years to the day. A long kept secret of a hidden relic that has been surrounded by mysterious deaths has been resurrected in a new death that seems to follow the same pattern of those long ago tales.
You start your adventure by investigating the newest death on the island for the King of England as investigator Sir Amadey Finvinerro. The controls are only your keyboard as you move around the island with a somewhat warm welcome of a clerk from the local Inn. He greets you and tells you about the death as well as shows you to your first question and answer session.
The same adventure style of finding and combining objects and searching everywhere for clues to what you are supposed to do next is here. You need to find the clues for each step of the Dead Reefs mystery to try to find the solution to the murder. You also roam over the island and uncover new areas to explore and search.
The gameplay is pretty old in these adventure type games and this one is no different. There is the usual gloomy scenery with a very low-key atmosphere with the usual sometimes-obvious objects you need to investigate. Much of your problem in investigating things is you are given no clues of what to look at or touch other than the symbols in the corner of the screen turning on.
Your adventure is somewhat hampered by a very simple keyboard issue and not being able to turn and move your character well. The other portions of the game work fine such as object combining and your inventory along with a handy notebook to write down all your important information.
In order to be able to use or look at objects you need to be facing them correctly and with no mouse use in the game it can sometimes be a trick to correctly face the object or even door you’re interested in. Other portions of the game work well enough but there is just no excitement or even rather difficult mystery here that is something out of the ordinary for an adventure game.
The mood of the game is great with the dark and eerie old mansion, good period music and other qualities add to the same creepy feeling but the gameplay louses things up pretty well. The puzzles are lacking in general common sense when it comes to hints or clues to solve them but they do work for all the general lack of help to even find them.
The scenery and graphics hinder the gameplay by not showing enough of what you’re looking for or not being able to see all of an area in the third person view. The gameplay is pretty average and that about sums up Dead Reefs.
Although the graphics and scenes are nice and eerie with that dark and foreboding quality there is a problem with moving your character around in that environment. The character has a hard time negotiating around the scenes as they have not put enough space in some areas and others are just a matter of facing the guy in the correct direction.
The scenes look good with plenty of good but dark textures that add to the spooky quality. The short and sparse cut scenes do not add much to the story but can be quite effective in giving some of it. There is a definite lack of fill in items for a bit of a realistic feel such as more furniture or items around rooms and clutter that are commonly in the types of scenes.
Creaky floorboards, the tick tapping of your walking stick on the cobblestones and the wind whistling across the docks all add greatly to the very first scene and continue throughout the story. The sound is very good and one of the saving graces to Dead Reefs.
There is some good voice acting in the dialogue but it is not that good and very cliché ridden. There are no issues with the sound other than a lack of voice but it works out pretty well.
Once again this is an adventure game that once you have solved it there is really no reason to play it again. There are no fantastic puzzles or great alternate endings so there is not much of a reason to return to Dead Reef Island.
If you can get past the clunky keyboard interface you may enjoy the game but it ends up being a continuous search to get the right spot in order to find the clue or puzzle. The games lack of help or hints at what you’re supposed to be looking for does not help make it a joy to play.
Dead Reefs is about that, pretty dead in the water. If you really enjoy these searching adventure games you may be amused for a while but the keyboard and character issues are pretty annoying.
The general lack of help to find out what your supposed to be doing does not help the games appeal in the end. Dead Reefs is an average adventure game and should probably be skipped for better fare elsewhere.