Jazz and Faust Review - VGLN.com PC Reviews

Ten years after the prime of point and click adventures, Jazz and Faust finds a way to regress the genre even more.

Let me start off by first saying, I like adventure games of the point and click variety. I believe they still have a valid place in gaming, and even though the days of Monkey Island™ are long gone (the prime days of the genre), that doesn't mean that the adventure game era is completely dead. It’s sort of on a hiatus right now, waiting for the next big adventure game to take the genre into the spotlight once again.

That being said, Jazz and Faust isn’t the chosen one by far, in fact, some of the gameplay elements are downright regressive.

The main complaint with point and click adventures is that they are often boring and take a very long commitment to complete. A lot of this is due to the complexity of the puzzles that must be solved, as was the case with any of the Monkey Island games. Jazz and Faust isn’t going to be very long, that’s a good thing. However it will be very boring, that’s a bad thing. It’s not that Monkey Island is just so much more different than Jazz and Faust, but it’s the little things that count. Those details are what separate a good game from a mediocre game. Flat out, Jazz and Faust has not a single bit of charming character. In Monkey Island there were many memorable characters with charming personalities and witty dialogue such as the Voodoo woman, Guybrush Threepwood, the many variety of pirates, and even the evil captain himself, LeChuck. In Jazz and Faust, I couldn’t find one character even remotely as invoking or charming as Guybrush. In fact the only time the game managed to evoke an emotion from me was the time I chuckled at how Jazz mispronounced the word “advertisement”. Sad, but true.

Speaking of the voice acting, Jazz and Faust is not “Resident Evil horrible” in this category, but it’s pretty close. Mispronunciations aside, the voice acting has every indication that it was performed within the confines of someone’s basement on a Sunday afternoon. Uninspired, and tepid are words that come to mind when I think of the quality of Jazz and Faust’s voice talent.

There are some gems within Jazz and Faust for the gamers that feel compelled to go through the two quests in the game. Although Jazz and Faust is a very short game (I managed to beat both quest in a single evening), it does have some redeeming qualities. First off, the game has solid graphics. The rendered backgrounds and stages are noteworthy featuring little details such as heat waves above candles and flying birds in the skies. The stages shine in comparison to the character models though, which are fairly unimpressive.

The music for Jazz and Faust is tolerable to a point. Some of the themes such as the music by the port are okay, while the first town’s music is simply annoying. It runs the gamut from slightly electronic to stringy and calm. Don’t expect Nobu Uematsu when you pop in this game, it simply cannot compare.

While the review so far hasn’t been exactly glittering, Jazz and Faust would have been a solid game notwithstanding all the points above if it were not for one main point, and it happens to be a very major detail. The game has possibly one of the most confusing and illogical puzzle implementation I have ever seen. None of the puzzles require any logical sense, just guess what to do next and get lucky. None of them seem to be thought out at all and the worst part is you are given little clue as to where to go next. This would be fine if the game were non-linear, and gave you many options to solve a certain puzzle. Unfortunately, Jazz and Faust is about as linear as point and click adventures come. Solve it one way or do not solve it at all.

The story elements of the game are interesting enough. Jazz is a plucky young captain who is caught smuggling illegal goods and imprisoned. He finds his way out and his adventures take him to places he would have never dreamed of. Faust is caught the intrigue of a murder mystery and returning a ring to a woman he has found more than a passing fancy towards. However, all that is moot due to the fact that for all the promise Jazz and Faust has, its execution is simply sub par.

In the end, a review is a recommendation of purchase. With new PC games going for $40+, a review is not only a possible recommendation; it is also a possible budget saver. Unfortunately, in the case of Jazz and Faust, the latter describes this game much more than the former. In simple terms, buyers beware.

--- Jolex Del Pilar, former resident of Monkey Island

	Gameplay: [3.5] Jazz and Faust is plagued by illogical puzzles and uninspired plot movement.
	Graphics: [5.5] Nicely detailed, static, stages. Average character models.
	Sound: [4.5] Music is hit and miss depending on your taste. Sound effects were average.
	Presentation: [5.0] Very nice FMV intro, however the front end is fairly crude.
	Replay Value: [3.0] There are a very few elite adventure games that can be taken for a second ride. This isn't one of them.
	Global Score: [3.7] Jazz and Faust attempts to rejuvenate a dying genre and fails to do so.

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