The Oracle - Indie Adventure

[avatar_58]

The Oracle is a free adventure game created using AGS -

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/20/elevator8rc.jpg
http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/8725/guilotine2ng.jpg
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/55/telescope1zl.jpg
http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/5926/theoracless44ox.jpg

Download:

http://www.bigbluecup.com/games.php?action=detail&id=735

Review:

http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,676/

For a free underground title, it sounds pretty impressive. I'm going to download it and see how good it really is. Looks pretty cool. :cool:

[hiob]

looks interesting, gonna try it out

[avatar_58]

Its actually pretty good. :)

[gt1750]

This interests me, thanks for the info. I'll try it for sure.

[avatar_58]

There are some bugs to be aware of:

*If you mouse over a character and the talk cursor doesn't appear, then move around till it does. The game is supposed to change automatically but sometimes the walk/do cursor appears and gives a nonsensical message like "Looking at the Talk to Vendor doesn't reveal anything"

*If you are done with an area and the items found there, don't poke around anymore. I duplicated items after finishing a puzzle, mainly because I wasn't supposed to be there. It doesn't matter, but it just places a useless item back into your inventory

[hanged_man]

im gonna skip this one ...Never been a fan of "Journeyman project"-like games

[avatar_58]

im gonna skip this one ...Never been a fan of "Journeyman project"-like games

I've never played those games, but I checked some descriptions and it doesn't sound anywhere near similar. This game is more akin to Legend's adventure games such as Xanth in it's playstyle. Also don't let the first person view scare you off, its nothing like Myst or anything like that - basically its just done this way because of the photo visual style.

[jimbob]

crud, both download mirrors seem borked :o :(

[hiob]

the first one worked for me
edit: on the quicksharing.com site, you have to click on download again in the upper left corner, it´s a bit hard to see the first time ;)

[alpha400]

what's that for a car in the last pic:confused:

where do they sell it?

[jimbob]

the first one worked for me
edit: on the quicksharing.com site, you have to click on download again in the upper left corner, it´s a bit hard to see the first time ;)

ah, got it now, thanks. silly site that rapidshare :o

[gt1750]

what's that for a car in the last pic:confused:

where do they sell it?

Pontiac Aztek, a crossover vehicle available in North America. Not as successful as GM hoped it to be, mainly because of it's fugly appearance.
IIRC, quality is also bad.

Back to topic, I've finished the game. Not very long, but that's because I used the Hint System a bit :D

[avatar_58]

Yeah I finished it as well. I thought it was a great effort for a free game, I was pleasantly surprised. However at the same time if I had paid for this I might have saw things differently. :o

The story was kind of odd. Due to the realism added by using real photos, the supernatural stuff just seemed way out of place. I can't really describe it without spoiling it, but basically it just felt rather odd. It also ended quite abruptly.

The puzzles were up and down for me. I loved some of the stuff at the beginning and mid sections. However it has the "you can't touch/pick this up until you know you need it" syndrome that has entered adventure games lately. In a way this is more realistic, but if I personally feel something is useful why can't I take it? In some instances you KNOW what you need, but you didn't click through the right spot for your character to make the connection. As a result you'll be walking back and forth sometimes by accident.

The last few puzzles confused me greatly. I didn't use the hints, I 'accidently' solved them. :o However because the solution confused me so much, I checked the hints to find out what I had done. The solution made sense, but I didn't recall doing it. Usually accidental solving like this is only possible for simple puzzles.

I felt rather confused by two puzzles closer to the end because of this and as a result when the ending hit I felt like I wanted more, though whether or not you consider this a good thing depends on your preference. The game doesn't end on a cliff hanger, but to me it felt quite odd. You'll have to play it to see what I mean.

In all I'd say it was worth playing, ironically its better than some of the lesser titles released by The Adventure Company. If you are bored for an evening and need something to entertain you I recommend this. Just don't have high expectations or anything.

[Jiminator]

do you get to kill people and blow stuff up?

[avatar_58]

Your village must have been quite large.....