Reviewed: September 10, 2006
Reviewed by: Jeff Gedgaud
Publisher
The Adventure Company
Developer
Kheops Studio
Released: August 2, 2006
Genre: Puzzle Adventure
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone
9
8
7
6
7.5
System Requirements
Recommended System
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
The Adventure Company and Kheops Studio has released the puzzle adventure Safecracker: The Ultimate Puzzle Adventure. The name of the game surely fits the title and that about explains the whole thing in a nice neat package. The whole adventure is exploring a large mansion finding the next safe to crack using logic puzzles.
The Adventure Company has released other good adventure puzzle type games in the past but this is by far their best work. The safes are opened using either a puzzle or a combination using clues received in other parts of the mansion. The story follows the adventure of an expert safecracker hired to find the will of Duncan Adams, a very rich but eccentric oil tycoon with a penchant for safes.
Although the adventure part of Safecracker: The Ultimate Puzzle Adventure is a little thin the wide variety and unique nature of the puzzles used to acquire the clues and open the safes is really challenging and fun. In Safecracker you roam the mansion in search of the safes and clues that are not hidden or hard to find merely tricky to open. The game rises above average in the wide variety and unique nature of the 35 or so puzzles you have to decipher.
The story line has you as an expert safecracker that has to find the will of eccentric oil tycoon Duncan Adams although a safecracker is not what is needed to open these safes. You need to open the many safes throughout his home to find the clues and items to help open the next safe or obtain passage into the different rooms that are locked to you at the start. That about sums up the entire story line as far as Safecracker goes.
You have no need for any more plot in my opinion as the games good graphics, well made puzzles and unique nature of the ways they have given you to open safes is the whole point of the game. Too many times in the past a game is brought down in enjoyment or outright ruined by a poor plot or thin story but in this one they choose to forgo the cheesy following of a story and just throw a bunch of logic puzzles at you.
Some of the puzzles I am very familiar with while others were totally unique and very fun, as well as a challenge. The logic type puzzles are not so hard that you cannot think them through but some will be rather time consuming to figure out on your own. All of the puzzles that you have to solve are not so hard that time and trial and error cannot get them solved eventually.
Gameplay for Safecracker is pretty simple using only the mouse for controls. Right clicking will bring up your inventory and left clicking activates things while left click and holding moves things when appropriate. Collecting letters and scraps of paper with clues help your puzzle solving while the keys and other components and parts help to gain access to safes or open them. The safes themselves are all unique in their own way and fun to puzzle through.
Roaming the mansion is accomplished by moving the cursor until it changes to a small arrow and then clicking. It will move you in that direction or into that room. To look at a safe or puzzle your cursor will turn into a small magnifying glass and you click on it to work on the problem. That’s about it for controls except for bringing up the inventory but you really don’t need anything else.
Solving each puzzle will open the safe and inside will be further clues to some of the next safes. Some safes have you simply solving the puzzle to open them while others require collecting numerous parts before trying your hand at them. You move throughout the mansion and have access to more and more safes at certain times during the game toward the ultimate goal of the will in the last safe.
With simple pre rendered graphics for each scene and very little in the way of system specifications Safecracker is a very good game as far as graphics. The scenes all look very good with unique room areas with things like nice fountains and unique puzzles that are built into the mansion. Some of the puzzle safes are built right into the mansion as the centerpiece of a room while others are the more usual safe stuck in a wall.
All the safes and puzzles have easy to tell green lights when you solve them and many are nice looking with easy to understand controls to figure out what you need to do to solve the puzzle. The scenes look very good with no glitching or problems at all. Safecracker The Ultimate Puzzle Adventure is a very good looking game, taking place in an expensive mansion. The scenes include all the things you would expect to find in an eccentric’s home, museums, game room, safe workshop as well as fancy bedrooms.
Safecracker includes some pleasant background music as you roam the halls and rooms of the mansion with a few voice acted lines being played. And that about sums up the sound for this game. There are not many lines for the voice actors and the background music plays well without any problems.
Safecracker: The Ultimate Puzzle Adventure is one of the best puzzle games I have seen. Once you puzzle through all 35 logic safes and outwit the cunning Duncan Adams by finding his will you get to choose who gets his fortune and the fun ways they conclude each heirs’ own future for the fortune. Finishing the puzzles and concluding the game will last many hours but once you have completed Safecracker there is not much reason to repeat the game.
Some of the puzzles are fun but others are simply inputting the same numbers or combinations and the whole adventure portions of where to go next you have already solved. If you really enjoy this type of game you may replay it but for most of us playing this once is enough even though it is a fun game, so there is not much in the form of replay ability. As a value priced game Safecracker is a very good buy.
The sheer simplicity in Safecracker: The Ultimate Puzzle Adventure is its greatest asset; easy to maneuver around and gets right into the logic puzzles that are the mainstay of the game. The lack of storyline or background information is made up for by the fun and unique nature of the puzzles that are the main focus of Safecracker.
Safecracker combines unique puzzles or logic games with simple and easy to figure out rules for those puzzles that are part of the fun in conquering them. Rules or objectives for each puzzle is either easy to figure out or quite apparent by the board. Some are a bit difficult but that is also part of the puzzle. They could have added some parts like unlocking an area for solving puzzles again after concluding the game but safecracker is a very good puzzle game and well worth a look for puzzle enthusiasts.