User Reviews (11 - 21 of 33)

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Um... ok?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: January 09, 2002
Author: Amazon User

So I'm an experienced adventure gamer. I love the technology's ability to weave story and game into one... but this is just ridiculous on many levels. The storyline leaves you questioning the integrity of the composition process, suggesting many writers instead of a closely-knit collaboration. The visuals are great for their time... but humans would have been better represented by movies. The landscapes draw you in, the furniture is well done, and the soundtrack is absolutely FIRST RATE. Almost worth buying for the classic tunes. Almost. The ending was relatively unsatisfying, and the puzzles were too straightforward.

I was disappointed

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: April 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

In the early part of the 20th century, a man named Theodore More built an amusement park called Dreamland. The park was inhabited by various societal misfits--a pair of Siamese twins, an animal trainer with parental issues, a fat lady, etc.--all of whom had some dealings of an infernal nature with a gentleman named Mephisto. Now there's some dissension in the upper realms as to whether all these people deserved what they got and an everyman--Marcellus Faust--is sent to explore the past and sort things out.

_Faust: Seven Games of the Soul_ is a game that players seem either to love or hate. The ones who love it cite its adult themes, great soundtrack, decent graphics and freedeom of exploration. Its detractors refer to illogical puzzles, technical problems, random action triggers and lack of a truly coherent story. All these things, both the good and the bad, are part and parcel of this game. Taking all into account, I fully expected to be one of the pro-Faust camp. I wasn't.

In the first place, as another reviewer has pointed out, this game really doesn't run very well on XP. You can get it to run if you use a compatability mode and turn your sound acceleration all the way down. But sound in the cutscenes is still extremely choppy and there are numerous things in the game that don't work. Half the features on the main menu simply don't function. Some of these features are supposed to be helpful in gameplay (detailed notes on each character, for example, that just aren't there). Some are things that have led others to give Faust high ratings (no matter what, I could only access one song from the soundtrack)so their lack really had an impact. Within the game there are numerous glitches as well--hotspots that don't appear, or appear far from where they're supposed to, cutscenes that don't play, things that don't work. Just for that, I found attempting to play Faust a frustrating experience.

But it's when you get to the story that things really fall apart. In seven episodes, each devoted to one of the park's denizens, you're supposed to unveil a greater mystery. And you do, kind of. But the episodes themselves are too short and lack detail, and only a few of them contribute to the greater story. Otherwise, you're exploring territory that's infuriatingly random. Some of these people had relationships with each other. Some didn't. What's the point and who cares? By the end, I didn't.

The puzzles were a mixed bag, mostly inventory-based with a few combination locks--not enough variety to excite me, I'm afraid. And here, too, the randomness showed. There was too much inventory that you picked up that had no purpose other than to trigger a cutscene. There was other inventory that you picked up that had no purpose at all and later disappeared (what was that baseball bat for?????) There were puzzles that were so obtuse that there was no possibility that one could solve them without at least a nudge and puzzles that gave no indication they HAD been solved, so I still had to consult a walkthrough to see what was going on. There were puzzles with so many possible solutions--putting a number of words into order in a sentence, for example, when those words would make sense in a hundred different orders--that solving them would take days. I generally play without hints or a walkthrough, so having to exit the game and consult one about five times an episode just to follow the gameplay was truly annoying. Also, towards the end of every episode you're suddenly thrust into a totally different location where you have to complete some action unrelated to anything else to move on. The whole experience was like being shunted back and forth along a series of badly running bumper cars.

After everything else, the revelation of the "true" story and the final decision were a letdown and the two endings, good and bad, were frankly abrupt, meaningless and had the feeling of being slapped on.

I completed Faust in under 20 hours. It would have been shorter if I'd known what was going on. I have to say, for all the disappointments, it IS a haunting game and I DO keep thinking about it. I think if I had an older computer on which to play older games I'd play it again; maybe I'd like it better. But on modern machines, by the standards of today's games, it just doesn't measure up.

seven wasted hours of the soul

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: March 28, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I can't say enough about how poor this game is, especially after having finished a *real* game (grim fandango: buy it now). Typos, bugs and poor dubs are bad enough, but to have to endure the inane plot, the senseless "puzzles" and the utterly frustrating lack of continuity is too much (not to mention the poor attemps at ripping off myst/riven).

It's strange, though. There is some out-of-place attention to detail in odd areas. My guess is there was an above average art director, an ok story teller, some run-of-the-mill programmers, a UI person that had no clue, and someone in charge that had a "QA-be-damned" attitude that only cared about getting the thing out and didn't care about playability. I can't imagine *anyone* getting by without a guide book. It is just too obscure, annoying, and just plain idiotic to play. There, you've been warned.

Greatest Game in Years

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: April 02, 2001
Author: Amazon User

It has been a long time since I was so obsessed with a game. This one has everything. You are Faust, the old keeper of an abandoned amusement park that looks like it was created by the Myst team - gorgeous. There are seven episodes in which you will collect clues and evidence. Will you save your soul in the end? Navigation is easy and the story will keep you engrossed for days. The music is the best of any game on the market. Everything about this game is great, from an easy load to the gameplay which is smooth in every way.

Um... well, it's European

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: May 25, 2001
Author: Amazon User

A strange little game which starts very ambitiously and really gets lost along the way somewhere. There are a number of borderline offensive features -- such as the sex dream sequence, the subtext that Satan's not such a bad guy after all, and the Uncle Tom-like black character in overalls -- but the thing that really turned me off was the bad writing, bad animation, and bad acting. Or maybe it's just a bad translation? All in all, not really worth the bother.

A Great Adventure

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: June 11, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This was a great game. Some of the puzzles were difficult, but all the clues were there - you just had to find them. The graphics were absolutely fabulous and the cinematic scenes classic. It kept me enthralled for hours, only to leave me wanting more. Well worth the money, I would have paid more! Now, if only there was a sequel ...

If only I could give this game 0 stars

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: August 19, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I don't like being manipulated by computer games.
I won't give any specifics away, but let's just say the goal stated in the instructions and in the game's introduction isn't the real goal. And you don't find out what the real goal is until the final scene. That's disappointing, because the stated premise of the game is intriguing, but it never comes to fruition.
Also, the puzzles are tough - anyone who says they did all of the puzzles without a walkthrough is either a liar or a genius.
The game looks and sounds OK, but the fact that there is no
risk factor to your character leaves the story flat and boring. Plus, the character development was choppy and incomplete - you don't know what ends up happening to most of the characters.
I definitely do not recommend this game.

seven games of the soul. Any more like it?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 11
Date: October 19, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game had keep my intrest and always thinking. The game play was great. I like the footprints and the hands and the way the inventory pops up. I wish I could find another game with the same format. Outstanding game please make another.

Great game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: April 11, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game is awesome. With great graphics, music, story, and gameplay, it's much a better game than other similar games like Morpheus, and Ring.

buy the seventh guest instead. or watch the movie "freaks".

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: March 26, 2001
Author: Amazon User

i sincerely regret the money i spent on this. the gameplay was awkward and way too linear. the graphics were malformed and irritating, with these huge pockmarked looking chins. bleah. i didn't bother getting past the second chapter.

when i buy a game one of my requirements is FUN. while the ambience was nice, i don't find it FUN to go over and over and over doing the same tasks to find one stupid little thing. that's bad design. or to have to hover over a practically one-pixel area to find said item or hint.

i recommend either encasing the game in concrete and dropping it in the ocean, or saving your money all together.

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