Reviewed: September 10, 2005
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
The Adventure Company

Developer
Future Games

Released: August 31, 2005
Genre: Adventure
Players: 1
ESRB: Teen

7
9
7
6
7.9

System Requirements

Admittedly, they can’t all be award-winners like Syberia or The Longest Journey, but that doesn’t stop developers like Future Games (The Black Mirror) to keep on trying. On the surface, NiBiRu: Age of Secrets appears to have it all, a gripping story full of intrigue, murder, aliens, Nazis, and a creepy old mine.

You play as Martin Holan, a linguistics and archeology student who, on request of his uncle, travels to Prague to investigate a newly discovered mine that may be the last great weapons cache of Hitler. Things go awry almost immediate as Martin is late for his midnight rendezvous with his female contact who turns up dead in a bathtub.

With some clever interaction with the local characters around town Martin is able to secure information and travel papers to get him across the border and to the dig site, but that is where the adventure really begins.

NiBiRu falls into the category of third-person adventure game, my personal favorite, as I believe the first-person Myst clones have totally saturated the market. I much prefer the freedom to explore scenes looking for clues and interacting with people and objects.

This game doesn’t deviate from the classic adventure formula. You basically explore each scene looking for anyone to talk to or anything to view or take as indicated by the changing mouse icon. You’ll collect an assortment of objects that can be used at key moments in the game or perhaps combined in your inventory for more advanced purposes.

I have a few complaints with the way NiBiRu was designed. First, Martin cannot run; admittedly not a huge issue but it’s just painstakingly annoying to have to watch him walk across a scene. At least the designers have allowed you to double-click the exit icons to quickly leave a scene.

My second complaint, and this is more major, is the linearity of the game design. I’m guessing this game was created by programmers more than game designers. You can almost see the logic flowchart bleeding through the scenery. Not only is it annoying, it can actually hinder the gameplay since trying to do something out of order will give you the indication that your action is incorrect at any time.

A good example is early in the game when you enter the lobby with a bulletin board. You can read the board but the info you “need” cannot be found until you actually trigger the event that flips some internal programming flag. In this case it’s a message about the hidden attic key, but you can’t read it until you find the attic door and learn it is locked. But even worse is that you cannot even learn about the attic door until you have rung a doorbell and knocked twice on the door.

It’s cheap and restrictive puzzles like this that will send you in search of a walkthrough within the first 20-30 minutes of the game. This chain of trial an error gameplay takes a bit of the challenge out of the game. Early on you are ringing buzzers at random trying to gain access into a locked apartment building. I’m trying to logically deduce from the names who might let me in, but the simple truth is that you have to ring three or four random bells (doesn’t matter which ones) and let the script play itself out.

The game also forces a lot of unnecessary backtracking between locations. There is a street vendor that sells cigarettes, matches, and wine, but you can’t buy all these items at one visit. You have to first learn of your need for wine before it is even available for purchase. Whatever happened to the glory days of adventure games where you assembled a massive collection of items and worried about how to use them later?

Despite the plodding pace of the game and the constrictive puzzle and scripting system I have to admit I did get drawn into the story. I won’t give away any of the earth shattering secrets but lets just say the game really kicks into high gear when you reach the mines.

NiBiRu is divided into five chapters that encompasses more than 80 breathtaking locations, and with more than 30 characters to meet and interact with there is plenty to see and do. The puzzles range from obvious to moderately difficult. They could have been a lot harder if the game had allowed you a bit more freedom in collecting items before the needed them.

Character design is fairly advanced but the animation is a bit choppy at times, especially when characters change directions. They do that robotic pivot move then continue the standard walking animation. There is also a lot of "busy animation" that cannot be skipped, like when you are getting your papers stamped and you literally have to stand there for nearly a minute and watch the guy shuffle papers and sign them. I suppose it's realistic but it's no less annoying.

The inventory system is built right into the game as a series of icons along the bottom of the screen. Some items can be zoomed in for a close look but most of the time you never leave the main view. One particularly nice feature is the ability to hold down the TAB key and reveal all possible exits.

The voice acting is pretty hit and miss. Some characters come across as comical caricatures of their racial stereotypes with thick accents and performances that are more fitting a B-movie. The narration and voice acting for Martin drones on in a monotonous tone that will either lull you to sleep or have you contemplating turning on the subtitles and turning off the speech.

I can’t put my finger on exactly what bothers me about Martin. It’s not horrible voice acting, but it’s not just a pleasant voice to listen to for long time and since he is narrating as well as doing most of the talking you have to endure a lot of it. The good news is that you can skip each line of dialogue by clicking the left mouse button. This is especially useful if you have subtitles on and you can read faster than the characters speak.

Sound effects are perfect although sometimes the sound levels are out of whack. The opening scene on the bridge had water trickling as such high volumes I had to turn on subtitles to catch all the dialogue.

The story is just as linear as the gameplay and with no branching paths or alternate endings this is a one-trip affair. At least the budget pricing keeps the game within the realm of reason and it’s still a safe recommendation for anyone who loves adventure games.

Even so, there is no denying a certain level of enjoyment for those with the patience to jump through the hoops, once you learn the order to jump through them. And for those select few, NiBiRu is certainly an adventure worth taking at a price that is more than fair.