Delaware St. John: The Seacliff Tragedy
Preview
Poor Del is having trouble sleeping again.
by Marcus Mulkins
previewed on PC
Are We Having Fun Yet?
Fortunately for me, Big Time Games has released a preview demo of the game. I say "fortunately" because I thought the premise of the game sounded intriguing. Additionally, reviewers and previewers of the games in the series all seriously loved them. Having played the demo, I can see their fascination: the interface is intuitive, the voice acting is clear and precisely enunciated, and even if you?re stumped by a puzzle, you can always just get a hint from the VIC. But I figure a game should be fun. I found that though Del?s voice is clear and precise, it is just flat out boring. I mean this guy?s diction is about as scintillating as three-day-old dishwater. Though the interface is forthright and intuitive, gameplay still devolves down to massive amounts of pixel-hunting. And though the storyline is more or less intriguing, it is so riddled with basic logic flaws as to border on ludicrous.
Consider: Seacliff Park was closed and abandoned four years ago. The owner apparently suicided, leaving the property to his brother who simply locked the place up and left the lights on to discourage vandals. What would happen in the Real World under those circumstances? To begin with, there would be all of the wrongful death and criminal negligence lawsuits, all of which would require boatloads of cash from the new park owner. Even ignoring those, there would be the inherent value of the structures and rides which the brother could sell to carnivals and traveling County Fairs. [When I was growing up, my aunt and uncle lived four houses away from Muskego Beach Amusement Park in Wisconsin. The park opened in 1861, changed its name to Dandelion Park in 1968, and finally gave it up in 1977 when the Great Americas and Six Flags megaparks took control of the industry. I snuck onto the grounds shortly after it closed, just to look around. It was less than a year later and all that remained of the park that once held the world?s fastest rollercoaster (The Cyclone) was the foundations that the buildings and rides had been built upon. Everything had been broken down and sold off to pay the creditors pennies on the dollar.]
Even if you allow that ghosts seek someone to help put them to rest, why would it take four years before Del started to have his visions about the park? How did the ghosts reach that far to actually connect with him? If now, why not sooner? There is, of course, the more sinister underlying story. However, if there is a malevolent spirit behind it all (as seems to be the case in all of these volumes), capable of causing the tragedy that destroyed the park, why was it content to just take a four year vacation with no attempt to reach out and touch someone? It isn?t until Del shows up at the park that the Shadow People manifest themselves. But note the lack of instances in the preceding four years of anyone coming to grief in the vicinity of the park after the tragedy. Could it be that the Shadow People attack only those people that can detect them? For creatures bent on sucking souls, that seems a bit too selective on their part.
Is it too much to ask for a realistic (albeit, supernatural) storyline?
For those people that compulsively grope around through panel after panel of game world locations, picking up items like a kleptomaniac and dragging them hither and yon, and frequently cycling through inventory to drag down items to see which ones interact with the current puzzle, you?ll probably just love this game. As for me, I was bored after 10 minutes, yawning after 20, and dreaming about my comfy pillow after 30. I did, however, have nice thoughts about Big Time Games and about the free demo. I doubt I would have been so kind had I actually paid for the game.
