Simon the Sorcerer 5: Who'd Even Want Contact?! Review
06 April 2010 | By Manny Brown
What alchemy is this? (PC)
Adventure games are funny old things. Or perhaps that should read: 'adventure games were funny old things', because you'll find it difficult to chuckle at the bum notes that underpin Simon the Sorcerer 5's script. But despite those faltering gags and - at times truly terrible - voice acting, there is still much to love about Simon's latest jaunt, and a return visit to his world of fairytale spoof and pop culture reference overload winds up surprisingly entertaining – despite the odds.
In this new chapter, Simon himself is much as you may remember. A bumbling young wizard with a penchant for the lazy and calamitous, his adventuring days seem to be long over as he settles down to run a dilapidated magic shop with girlfriend Alix. Trouble is never far away, of course, and the opening scenes oversee the abduction of Alix at the hands of a suitably comedic Alien race, along with the partial destruction of the town in which Simon resides.
From those tutorial-style beginnings, the narrative progresses as you would expect, ambling along to include almost all of the memorable previous characters in the series, with the hit-and-miss results that inevitably entails. Swampling is still incredibly annoying and reason enough to switch off the voiceover, Red Riding Hood is packed with cynicism, Goldilocks is fun, the aliens are entertaining enough and the supporting cast never really offend.
In terms of mechanics, this is as pure a point ‘n click as you’ll find anywhere. You’ll be scouring the environment for items, left-clicking to interact and right-clicking to examine. Object can be picked up, stored, combined and utilised in a traditional manner, and although a few of the puzzles are on the side of obscurity (the opening shop sequence is one such example), Simon’s difficulty is roughly on a par with the established genre staples.
In terms of diversity, there are a few mechanics on offer to spice up proceedings - such as alternative solutions to a couple of conundrums - but they only really offer superficially branching paths for a few moments; Bioware this certainly isn’t. That said, adventure games are often devoid of replay value once players know the solution to every puzzle, and without a stellar script to encourage people into another run-through, you can see why even a token effort in this direction was deemed as necessary.
Functional then, and entertaining. But as far the technical aspects are concerned, Simon is a slightly jarring mix of excellent lighting, flat 2D backgrounds, 3D objects and fully polygonal characters. When it all ties together, and especially on the highest settings at a decent resolution, it’s not a bad-looking game at all, but all too frequently the quality of animation and a few jarring transitions break the illusion. Movement is generally fluid, and some of the context-sensitive motions are superb, but inconsistency runs throughout.
But even those moments cannot stop Simon the Sorcerer 5 from becoming a much-improved beast compared to the last entry in the series. Mercifully, the option to switch on subtitles and switch off the dreadful voiceover exists, and if you take anything from this review at all, please ensure it’s that recommendation.
In this new chapter, Simon himself is much as you may remember. A bumbling young wizard with a penchant for the lazy and calamitous, his adventuring days seem to be long over as he settles down to run a dilapidated magic shop with girlfriend Alix. Trouble is never far away, of course, and the opening scenes oversee the abduction of Alix at the hands of a suitably comedic Alien race, along with the partial destruction of the town in which Simon resides.
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| Simon returns! | Dialogue is a little stilted. |
From those tutorial-style beginnings, the narrative progresses as you would expect, ambling along to include almost all of the memorable previous characters in the series, with the hit-and-miss results that inevitably entails. Swampling is still incredibly annoying and reason enough to switch off the voiceover, Red Riding Hood is packed with cynicism, Goldilocks is fun, the aliens are entertaining enough and the supporting cast never really offend.
In terms of mechanics, this is as pure a point ‘n click as you’ll find anywhere. You’ll be scouring the environment for items, left-clicking to interact and right-clicking to examine. Object can be picked up, stored, combined and utilised in a traditional manner, and although a few of the puzzles are on the side of obscurity (the opening shop sequence is one such example), Simon’s difficulty is roughly on a par with the established genre staples.
In terms of diversity, there are a few mechanics on offer to spice up proceedings - such as alternative solutions to a couple of conundrums - but they only really offer superficially branching paths for a few moments; Bioware this certainly isn’t. That said, adventure games are often devoid of replay value once players know the solution to every puzzle, and without a stellar script to encourage people into another run-through, you can see why even a token effort in this direction was deemed as necessary.
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| Your main nemesis. | It all looks rather nice at times. |
Functional then, and entertaining. But as far the technical aspects are concerned, Simon is a slightly jarring mix of excellent lighting, flat 2D backgrounds, 3D objects and fully polygonal characters. When it all ties together, and especially on the highest settings at a decent resolution, it’s not a bad-looking game at all, but all too frequently the quality of animation and a few jarring transitions break the illusion. Movement is generally fluid, and some of the context-sensitive motions are superb, but inconsistency runs throughout.
But even those moments cannot stop Simon the Sorcerer 5 from becoming a much-improved beast compared to the last entry in the series. Mercifully, the option to switch on subtitles and switch off the dreadful voiceover exists, and if you take anything from this review at all, please ensure it’s that recommendation.
SIMON THE SORCERER 5: WHO'D EVEN WANT CONTACT?! VERDICT
But even those moments cannot stop Simon the Sorcerer 5 from becoming a much-improved beast compared to the last entry in the series. Mercifully, the option to switch on subtitles and switch off the dreadful voiceover exists, and if you take anything from this review at all, please ensure it’s that recommendation.
TOP GAME MOMENT
A return visit to Goldilocks.
