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A 3-star Game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 72 / 73
Date: May 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

It pains me to write this review. It really does. I am a huge fan of Benoit Sokal. I am a huge fan of adventure games. I believe that Mr. Sokal's reputation for excellence and the future of the genre might suffer as a result of this game.

THE PROS:

* Beautiful graphics
* Ann is a lovely girl (arguably the best "face" in gaming)
* Excellent voice acting
* Amazing cut scenes
* The leopard was generally very well done (though he looked like a dark grey shadow in 2 settings I can think of)
* Good (not great) story

THE CONS:

* The gameplay

That's it. Nothing else. But so many things depend on it. Examples immediately follow.

- my MAIN source of frustration: finding items was horrible. Most of the time I thought I was playing "Mystery Case Files: Huntsville". The items BLENDED into the surroundings with a dedication that was WHOLLY unnecessary. Many times, after the endless meandering and pixel hunting, you don't know what you've picked up until you open the inventory and look to find your latest prize. Even getting water (in a place overflowing with fountains, pools, ponds, baths etc) was frustrating - SHEESH!
- sometimes the cursor does not change so you have to click in faith; sometimes it indicates the wrong action (again - you click in faith)
- sometimes when talking to people they walk out of the scene and then you're talking to nobody - seriously.
- sometimes you click to walk in one direction and Ann insists on walking in the opposite direction
- sometimes, in the bedroom in the harem, you click to speak to the maid and you walk away
- sometimes you walk through people
- no matter the gender of the person, if an object is not to be used by/with that person, Ann says she won't give it to "him"
- sometimes the cursor refuses to appear at all
- sometimes you run down a path, there's a screen change and Ann comes out facing the direction you just left - result - you run back down the path you just left
- once, you drop a hook. You know something happened but not sure what until Ann says "Now how am I going to get that back?" And she doesn't even say, "How am I going to get the HOOK back" so if you don't know what you had in your inventory, too bad.
- playing as the leopard is frustrating - the nights were too dark for proper navigation. After really trying, I skipped the 'hunt' the first 2 times (the second time I got a mini cut scene without knowing how I did it exactly). The third time I actually achieved the objective - again without knowing how I did it.

There was one other thing. The colours were so washed out. I know that it set the mood, but it seemed that every single tribe, village, individual had something against anything that wasn't a muted grey or brown. Even the plants weren't a riot of colour and they should have been.

The story (while good) wasn't gripping for me, though a large part of that might be because the gameplay took so much of the fun out of it. I was concentrating so hard on getting that *&^% cursor to work, finding the &*^%^& items, that I couldn't let the story take me away.

As for the ending, I didn't think it was awful. It ended unexpectedly and it seems Mr. Sokal left us to draw conclusions, but unlike a lot of these games, the assumptions were well set up. And I can see room for a sequel (I won't elaborate as it would necessitate spoilers). I don't know though if a sequel (in this case) is a good idea. Even if Mr. Sokal eliminated the glitches, he may have already lost a good bit of his audience because of this game.

I am sorry that Mr. Sokal felt compelled to declare this game gold before it was truly ready (with a start-up company the bottom line may have been thinning). I assume the seeming 'rush to stores' because of the obvious quality of the Syberia series versus ...... this.

In closing - one TIP - right click to bypass conversations.

Sigh. This was disappointing for me. Even so, I was tempted to give it 5 stars just to raise the average rating here on amazon. Even with the gameplay being what it is, it still is not a one-star game.

Merely serviceable, but could have been outstanding

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 19 / 19
Date: June 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Benoit Sokal, the Belgian graphic artist behind Amerzone and Syberia I and II, returns with Paradise courtesy of his new company White Bird Productions. Originally titled Lost Paradise, the game traces the journey of amnesiac Ann Smith as she seeks to unravel the mystery of her identity through the fictitious African nation of Maurania. There are four distinct worlds to explore, fantastical creatures, and numerous characters that seek to aid or harm Ann on her quest.

I held off on buying Paradise until the official US Patch 1.1 was released (available at Ubisoft.com) after reading numerous critical reviews of the poor design and programming. However, even with the corrections to cursor sensitivity, in-game cutscenes, and other adjustments, the game is still prone to bugs and the occasional crash.


If the leopard segments were made crucial to the plot, there would be more reason to include them. As is, allowing the player to choose to exit the non-mandatory leopard stages makes them feel throwaway at best. The realtime graphics also look weak and outdated in comparison to the prerendered environments. The ending is shocking and very, very brief for the frustrated hours of fighting through glitches and bugs. Paradise had the potential to rival Syberia, but due to sloppy, rushed design (if I had to sum up Paradise's gameplay in one word, it would be "unfinished"), Sokal didn't deliver on the E3 2005 hype, and the deceptive blurb on the box "Paradise is poised to be the most exciting adventure release of 2006." Even though gamers gripe about setbacks and delays, I would much rather have waited an extra six months to a year for a finished product free of glitches (and more rendered cutscenes en lieu of spotty, jerky puppetlike character animations) that lived up to Sokal's artistic vision.

The Good:

+ Graphics
+ Music
+ Imaginative settings and creatures

The bad:

-Giving away Ann's story from the very beginning doesn't allow the player to discover Ann's motivations as she recovers her memories
-The leopard segments don't serve to advance the plot; poor design and implementation ruin the appeal
-Bugs, bugs, and more bugs that result in missed clues, endless hotspot clicking, and illogical options
- Sloppy / nonexistent beta testing (only two beta testers listed)
- Character animations (instead of rendered cutscenes) are missing crucial objects, so many cutscenes are hard to follow or make no sense
-Objects do not appear in characters' hands

Paradise - This game has cured me of ever pre-ordering a game again.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 18 / 19
Date: May 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game strictly because Benoit Sokal was involved. I had been wowed by his Syberia games, and was looking forward to another wondrous tale set in a new, exotic location.

There is a TON of pixel hunting in this game, which is aggravating. To make matters worse, the curser floats off a bit, so you are constantly fighting with it to make it go where you want it to be, and combine that with the pixel hunting, with some of the things you are looking for not being very obvious, or worse yet, not accessible the first time you go through a screen, and the game becomes even more annoying.

I could have lived with all this, plus the fact that the further into the game you progress, the more buggy the curser got (showing a pick-up icon when you are supposed to talk to someone, or an action icon when it really should be an arrow to walk out an open doorway), but the ending is truly awful. The last five minutes of gameplay made no logical sense, had no psychological basis that I could think of unless there are huge gaps in the story, and does not resolve the story-line at all. Plus I can see NO WAY for this story to be spun out into a sequal.

Truly a disappointment, and not what I have come to expect from Benoit Sokal's work. I really wish I would have waited, instead of rushing to get this, as my money could have been spent elsewhere, and I would have had more fun.

NOT PLEASANTLY SURPRISED

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 14 / 14
Date: May 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Well, my title just about describes it. Sokal is only human, after all, and after the truly magnificent Syberia I and II, he set himself up for a hard act to follow. Sadly, he didn't make it.

The game is graphically intresting, but not to the level that demands so much of ones hardware, so be forewarned. It IS demanding, so even though I had just undergone a HUGE upgrade, I was still anxious as to whether I could even download it. I did.

On that note, the graphics are pleasing, but not nearly as imaginative as the pre-release hype would have you believe they would be. The colors are muted, but I didn't find that all that annoying given the setting of the game. As for the setting - a fictitious sub-Saharan country pre-WW II, it was OK, but by choosing it, Sokal boxed himself in - especially in the almost tedious beginning section of the game.

When you get beyond that, it is sort of fun. Sokal early on, with Amerizon showed his love of making up fantastic animals, but like Amerizon, these only play a small part - amusing though they are.

The heroine is OK, and I have to admit that the voice acting is a lot better than the norm. She is pluky enough, and as is somewhat "helpful" in adventure games, you do sort of start to care about her toward the end, but like just about everything else, not nearly soon enough or enough, period.

As for caring, I found myself caring as much for the leopard that you are made to feel is so central to the story, but like "Ann Smith", you don't care enough soon enough, so the whole thing comes a matter of sight seeing and getting things done so you can move onto the next part. Sad.

The version of the game I got is an early one - I preordered on it, so there were some of the typical glitches, like people occasionally walking through each other or cursers that you DID have to take on faith, but all in all for an early release, it played well enough.

Sadly, the bottom line is that everything about Paradise (it's an ironic name, by the way), ALMOST, SORT OF succeeded in a number of areas, but NEVER quite made it. That just about describes everything about the whole game.

Given the Benoit Sokal has PROVED that he IS so capable of so much more makes it all that more disapointing, but as I said, up front, he IS only human. The expectations he set up for himself with the Sybaria duo were almost too much to exceed - at least for now.

If you have NOT played either of Syberia I or II, you will very probably very much enjoy Paradise, only be forewarned on the system demands and the inevitable glitches that so often occur in the first releases of a game (but not always).

As a final note: for a PC platform game it is very much UP there in cost. I wouldn't say not to buy it - ever - but I would advise that if you feel that if you HAVE to buy it to wait and buy used versious.

Final assessment: Close but no cigar.

Paradise - maybe once upon a time.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: September 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I truly enjoyed the Syberia Series and have replayed them several times. I really liked the fact that Paradise contained the same very detailed environments that one would expect from Sokal's previous work. However, one major difference between Syberia and Paradise is that Paradise is a pretty dark story. I have to admit that I was very surprised by the ending. The main character "Ann" is one of the more interesting characters that I have seen in this class of game play. Sokal does a good job of developing and revealing "Ann".

The game ran acceptably on my computer (eMachine T 6524 with an ATI Saphire X550. The graphics were certainly not as smooth or clean as the Syberia Series. (Leopard at one point submerged part of it's body in a boulder) I had one serious glitch in the play that prevented some key dialogue to take place (even with the 1.1 patch). I recovered by loading a previous saved game after restarting my computer. The "night of the leopard" sequence only worked on the last of the 3 sequences and even than the play with the leopard was not very smooth. Fortunately you can exit those sequences easily without major impact to the game play although one feels a little cheated in not having the game entirely functioning.

In the end, I have mixed feelings about the game on two levels, technical quality of the product and the actual story. I felt that the game was released prematurely and should have had more beta testing. The actual story line was perhaps darker than I wanted or expected after being exposed to Syberia. But in the end, I'm sure I will buy Sokal's next release. His ability to tell a story in this media is second to none.

Very Disappointing

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: May 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The pre-release reviews I read gave an undeserved favorable impression of Paradise. I've enjoyed all of Benoit Sokal's previous games, so I'm extremely disappointed and surprised at how poorly done Paradise is.

Poor controls (I would have liked to play the leopard, but the cursor jumped so violently I had to skip all three times!), numerous bugs, the predominately olive/tan color scene became painful to look at, and the ending was completely bizarre. There is no humor at all and the constant abuse of nearly every animal you encounter was depressing.

I played to the end all the while hoping it would improve, but it only got worse. This game was clearly a rush job and is not worth buying.

A slight disappointment, but still worth playing

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: July 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

As other reviews have outlined, this game is full small annoying glitches. While they were irritating, I don't believe they were enough to discredit the game completely. My disappointment came with the story line. The first half of the game had me very excited because it all seemed so political and interesting. The story just never seemed to be explained enough or come together for me. There seemed to be too many lose ends and not enough details to support all of the political talk of war and rebellion.
On the positive side, while I had to get hints every now and then, and while some items were difficult to find because they blended into the background, I enjoyed the puzzles and appreciated that they all attributed to the story line and were neccessary to complete the game. And, the scenery was beautiful. There were a lot of unique animals that I wish would have been better utilized in the game, or at least used more.
It seems that this game started with great intentions and then was rushed, so the story didn't play out well and it wasn't sufficiently tested for glitches. I think it would be worth editing and re-releasing it, because there is so much potential there. Just random things made this game a disappointment (like this rug salesman who is killing people and sabatoging you...but then you never find out who he is). And after playing Syberia, when I bought this game I hoped one thing would change that didn't...the characters walk so amazingly slow and there is no way to speed them up or skip frames. This becomes very irritating when you are walking places you have already been or trying to run back to a place just to grab something.
I think the game is worth playing, but I would try to buy it on sale or borrow it. For such a quick and glitchy play, the price is a bit steep.

Sokal is simply the best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: May 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I loved "Paradise". Great game. Much darker than "Syberia", but what a story! No one tells stories like Sokal does. And he is the only true author in video games.
(no bugs in my version BTW. Have to agree that the leopard gameplays are weak though).

This could have beaten Syberia

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Well, I've just finished playing this game and I have pretty mixed feelings about it. While the story is typical of Sokal - so if you loved Syberia, you will love Paradise - the gameplay was just plain awful!

After my disappointment in Dreamfall (TLJ 2) where you control with the WASD keys, I was very much looking forward to a traditional P&C adventure. I thought, P&C adventures can't have any flaws anymore because they've been around for such a long time. I was totally wrong. See the review underneath for detailed problems in game, I experienced the exact same flaws! At one point (while fishing) I was so annoyed that I couldn't catch what I wanted by observing and then clicking that I just madly clicked around. Only then I was miraculously successful. Ouch! Some of the puzzles are quite illogical while others request common sense but you can't find the appropriate items because the hot spot is faulty.
What's great about this game is that it not once crashed on me despite my fits.
While the voice acting is overall well done (proper English :p), I thought it weird for natives and Harem folks to speak just as British an accent as the English themselves. The leopard should really have been integrated in the game! For the alternative night scenes I couldn't find a reason to play them. There the point and click problem became really obvious! So they were just a waste of time (just click ESC and get on with the adventure). The end was pretty sudden and disappointing, sadly enough.

It definitely looks like this game was rushed out like there weren't any beta testers available. It could have been a 5 star game, as it is it's not worth more than 3 stars for me and only because I love Sokal.

Not as good as Syberia

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I bought it because it was made by Syberia team, and its preview seemed promising. Unfortunately, it isn't as good as Syberia. Paradise has terrific graphic though, but its story is not attractive. You don't know what happens in the first place, and then you know it's about a person's past. Not a delight past, nor is it absorbing. To my surprise, the ending is convincible.
Creatures in Paradised are been designed great; it's a pity that they just being used as "items" in the game. The leopard part is a good idea, but this part doesn't affect story proceeding, nor is a branch story line, just for fun. You can decide play or ignore leopard part.
If you're a fan of Benoit Sokal, you might want buy this piece; if you just an adventure gamer and want to play good adventure game, you can consider others.

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