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Jazz and Faust
by Jolex Del Pilar
Thursday, March 21, 2002
Adventure gaming dead? Obviously not to small Russian based developer "1C Games" who has churned out a charming title that looks to reinject life into a once popular genre.
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Title:
Jazz and Faust
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Platform:
PC |
Publisher:
1C Company
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Developer:
1C Company
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#
of Players: 1
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Genre:
Adventure
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Origin:
Russia
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Expected
Release: Q2 2002
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Grapevine:
"Perhaps the previous adventure gaming generation ended with monkeys in the Caribbean, but it may come back because of developers in Russia. We can only hope." |
Once upon a time when PC gaming was at a crossroads, and the headlines read "Monkey Island" rather then "Halo", there existed a genre of gaming called Adventure gaming. No, I'm not kidding. Gamers used to eagerly anticipate games like Monkey Island, King's Quest, Myst(*cringe*) and Blade Runner. Whether by slow depreciation in the quality of adventure games, or by other factors, adventure gaming just doesn't seem to excite in the way it once did. That doesn't mean that developers should stop trying. In fact, with the current lull, we should all hope it would attract some developers to fill the void. The days of Monkey Island and King's Quest were good days for PC Gaming, and we can only hope another era is upon us. 1C Company hopes to be the savior that revives this genre back to the glory days.
A couple of days ago, we here at VGLN were sent the latest beta build for Jazz and Faust, the latest creation of a Russian based software developing team, 1C Company. Weighing in at a hefty 500+ megs, it seemed like the build might be far along. It installed fairly easily, taking more than half a gig of drive space with it, and I began to play the game.
Before we start on the technical aspects of the game, I'll present a little bit of the story for Jazz and Faust. The gameplay basically revolves around the adventures of two individuals who are complete opposites of each other. Jazz is a seedy smuggling type who begins the game inside a jail cell. Bribing his way out of prison, Jazz must gain enough money to pay off a debt to the authorities or face going back to prison. Faust is an experienced Sea Captain who begins his journey finding the jewelry of some royalty near the seaport. He seeks to return it. At the beginning of the game, you must choose which character you want to control, you can only play with one character at the same time, although you can begin each of their quest and save into separate game files. Although each character features a varied game path, the characters will come into contact during each of their respective storylines. How this will affect gameplay is still not known, but it is interesting nonetheless.
Jazz enjoys his freedom from prison and being someone else's love toy.
One thing that is immediately noticeable about Jazz and Faust is the amazing detail put into the environments. They are of the pre-rendered variety but the environmental effects seem to make the locals a little more realistic. Dynamic lighting is used graciously in this game, although because of it, I had to toy with the gamma settings a bit. The beta was fairly far along and included many of the games' pre-rendered backdrops including a town square, a tavern, and the port of the city. Water effects, and other environmental effects such as wind, and, bugs were all equally impressive. The game shares a lot in common with the classic "Monkey Island", but the art direction is of course, completely different. Jazz and Faust features complete 3D models for all the characters in the game. They are detailed, although the locals weren’t exactly teeming with NPCs in the build we received.
The gameplay is very similar to Monkey Island from LucasArts. Any respectable adventure gamer has spent some considerable time with Monkey Island should find this game very intuitive since the two games share a similar control scheme. Clicking on objects will change the cursor depending on the action you can perform on it (pick up, open door, examine, etc). There are limits to what you can do as I found out when I tried to "use" my axe on a town merchant. Jazz simply replied, "I do not want to get into trouble with the authorities again". Of course not.
In the press release given to us, the game is said to feature 50 different characters and over 80 puzzle based scenes. The game's scenery will run the gamut between barren deserts, ghost towns, to seedy backwater towns. One thing that we want to see in the next build are towns filled with more NPCs. Sometimes even us hardy adventure gamers can get lonely sometimes.
In the end, 1C Company seems to be heading in the right direction. Beautiful art direction, wonderful soundtrack (the "port" theme is especially rousing), and a great pedigree from which to draw from (Monkey Island, King's Quest) all seem to be pointing in the direction of adventure gaming goodness. Perhaps the previous adventure gaming generation ended with monkeys in the Caribbean, but it may come back because of developers in Russia. We can only hope.
--- Jolex Del Pilar
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