Reviewed: November 24, 2004
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Activision

Developer
KnowWonder

Released: November 9, 2004
Genre: Adventure
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone

6
8
7
6
6.3

System Requirements:

Based on the forthcoming movie of the same name, Lemony Snicket is a sinister tale that balances a disturbing storyline with charming gameplay, exploration, puzzle solving, and even some new vocabulary, object recognition, manipulation, and other useful skills that will teach kids and delight adults. The scarier portions of the film are kept in check so parents should have no problems with their kids playing this game.

As the title might imply, A Series of Unfortunate Events paints a bleak canvas that deals with three young children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, whose parents have recently (and mysteriously) passed away leaving them with a large inheritance and in the care of the eccentric (and obviously evil) Count Olaf. Olaf, who has no tolerance for children, is only out for the inheritance and plans to dispatch the children as soon as he can. After a quick adventure in Olaf’s mansion, the children learn of his treachery and escape, but Olaf is not far behind and unfortunate events are sure to follow.

Creating these inventions is a major component of the gameplay. Items are easily spotted with their sparkly glow but you won’t always be able to take an item, at least until you “know” you need it. This was a major issue for me, as I have become accustomed to picking up everything that isn’t nailed down and sorting the items out later. Here you might spot an item and the game will tell you, “We can use that later”. Annoying? A little, but then I realized what the designers were doing.

When you are given the list of items to create one of Violet’s inventions you are shown a list of icons for those items. These icons looks exactly like the in-game objects and chances are you have likely already spotted those items in the level and now you must tax your memory to remember where they were. Combined with the fact that most components are usually within a two or three room radius, building gadgets, or at least collecting their parts is fairly effortless.

Klaus is no longer the man of action. The console versions of the game offered gameplay elements that were specific to each character, but these lines have been blurred on the PC. Sunny suffers the worst in the PC port. Sunny is a rather creepy baby who can speak a single word that translates to a complete sentence. Her four razor sharp teeth allow her to chew through wood, pipes, or just about anything else that gets in her way. Sunny’s fantastic arcade segments do not make their way into the PC version. She plays pretty much like her older siblings only she chews instead of using weapons.

The controls on the PC work well enough but the four-way, non-analog, directional input of the keyboard is no way near as precise as the smooth analog stick control of the consoles. The mouse is used for looking around and picking up items as well as firing weapons. A gamepad would make the game more playable, but I couldn’t get any of mine to work.

To complicate things more, the game uses a hotspot interaction scheme where the “eye” icon will appear on objects of interest. For the icon to appear you have to have a clear view of the item and your character can often block your view forcing you to tweak your position just right to see the item enough to interact with it.

The PC is able to handle much larger levels so you won’t find as many load screens, although load times on the console were negligible. The problem that arises from larger levels are doorways that no longer prompt for a button press to “jump” you to the other side. Now doors open and often trap your character against the wall. It gets even more problematic on items that you open then have to jockey for position to see the inside so you can interact with the contents.

Special effects are amazing with great liquid textures, splashing drops from leaky roofs, real-time lighting and shadows (the moving shadows on the Great Tree level left me speechless), volumetric fogging and vapor effects that create a horrific hurricane experience, fire, rain, and just about anything else you can think of. Even though it’s colorful and storybook-like, it’s surprisingly real.

The PC version is able to run the game at much higher resolutions than the console and gets you a better overall image but I’d gladly trade the extra resolution for a functional camera and control scheme.

Of course Tim Curry steals the show as the narrator who has much more dialogue than Olaf and speaks with that charming English accent that just captivates you. It truly is story time when Tim is reading. He even manages to sneak in a few sophisticated words then tells you what they mean without sounding the least bit condescending.

Sound effects aren’t terribly noteworthy but they get the job done. You’ll hear the sounds of a thunderstorm and the splash of dripping water through a leaky roof. Sunny chomps through steel and wood with a disturbing crunch and giggles with delight as she bounces down bumping ramps. In the garden level you will hear insects, frogs, snakes, and wasps. The hurricane level features howling winds and the sounds of wood flooring ripping apart.

The music comes and goes leaving you in silence for long periods of gameplay. When it does rise to the occasion it has a very “Tim Burton” feel to it, a bit sinister but a bit charming, making me wish there had been more of it.

There’s no movie ticket with the PC version but you also get the game for $29, which is a fair price for the console version but still a bit high for this problematic PC port.

Combined with the already short length, Snicket on the PC is an “unfortunate event” that you can probably pass on in favor of one of the console versions. Even the GBA game is better than this.