No Dracula here

First off, let me just say that I am not fan of Twilight or the Twilight series. I have watched the first movie in the series and fell asleep halfway through. And just thinking about the movie now as I write (that should be type – Ed) has me yawning at my desk. Maybe it is just time to go to bed. So when we were offered a review copy of Scene it? Twilight, I was less than enthused about offering my services. But, you see, my significant other is a huge fan of the series. She has watched both movies and read the four books and thoroughly enjoyed them. So, with that, I decided to volunteer. What better way to get in her good books than bringing home a game that relates to her recent favourite movie?

And it is just as well my lovely partner is interested in the Twilight movie, because personally, I wouldn’t have gone far in the game without her knowledge of all things relating to the popular vampire movie. You see, Scene It? Twilight is a trivia game based on the original movie in the Twilight saga. So if you were looking for any New Moon references, you’re out of luck. This is just purely Twilight.

Having said that, there is certainly enough material to keep the game fresh for an extended period of time. There are over 500 multiple choice questions based on the movie. There are two modes of play – Flex Play allows the gamer to choose how many questions they will be required to answer, and Standard Play which gives the Twilight fan three rounds of questions plus a lightning round where points can be lost for incorrect answers. Questions range from simple enough questions that even I could answer (or give a reasonable guess) to questions that require an in-depth knowledge of the movie.

Watching the questions

The game isn’t just multiple choice text questions though. There are parts of the game that show clips from the movie and the gamer is then asked a question about the viewed clip. At least this gives the non-Twilight fan a chance to get answer some questions correctly and score some points. Points are allocated according to the time taken to answer the questions. Answering quickly and accurately will score the most points.

Scoring a certain level of points unlocks bonus material – picture stills from the movie. I guess fans of the movie will find this more of an incentive to play again and improve their score to open more bonus material than what I, a non-Twilight fan, found it to be. A bonus nonetheless though.

Looking Pale

Visually, Scene It? Twilight does an admirable job for the genre of game it is. The backgrounds could be similar to what you’d see on the desktop wallpaper of a Twilight fan, but the movie clips are a decent quality. The font type that the questions are written in are easily readable, which is always important in a quiz game.

Audio also does a commendable job. The voice-overs are done by the Twilight character, Dr. Carlisle Cullen. The music, too, is quite good as it matches the mood of the game/movie. The video clip audio isn’t too bad, but I did find that I needed to turn up my speakers to hear some of the dialogue.

But, the game does have a huge downside. The length of a game is alarmingly short. A typical three round (plus lightning round) lasts for around five minutes. And that includes time taken to watch the clips from the movie before answering the related question. For a retail movie based game, I would have certainly expected games to last much longer than that. Indeed, I am sure I’ve played free browser based trivia games that have lasted longer. Even my wife, who is an avid fan, commented that she thought the game would last longer.