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Not worth it

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I hate nonspecific reviews that just say "this game sucks" but. . . this game sucks!! Ahhh, where to begin? The first thing that bothered me was all the little glitches and idiosyncracies. You WILL sometimes get stuck in an area and not be able to get out- the interface does not always work. If you don't get the puzzles right the very first time, be prepared to go back to your last save because even if you eventually get it right, the game will not let you pass. And, be prepared to do a lot of fiddly walking around to areas that never ever come in useful. And also be prepared, unless you get every character to say every phrase and talk to them in EXACTLY the right order, you will have to retrace your steps-- even if you show up at the correct location with exactly the right idea in mind, it may not do you any good. I would not mind all this stuff if the story was good, but. . . SPOILER WARNING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . THE ENDING IS NOT REALLY AN ENDING AT ALL!!!!! IT IS ACTUALLY A HUGE LETDOWN/SETUP FOR A SEQUEL!!! This seems to be a recurring trend in Adventure Company games (ie Syberia). That said, the graphics were nice, and the soundtrack definitely kept the spooky mood going (although it was sometimes repetetive). My character occaisionally needed some sort of laser surgery or corrective lens that was not supplied (the backgrounds tend to be blurry). I wish they had started out the first day telling me I would never ever find the killer so at least I went in with my eyes open. Then I would realize that I was spending all this time on eye candy, and not even very good eye candy, and things would have been straightforward.

An OK Game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I think this game is just OK. I don't think it's as bad as everyone is saying it is. I love adventure games, even though I am not that good at them. I usually end up looking at walkthroughs like 10 times in one game. But this game was so easy, I didn't have to look once. There's only like 3 puzzles. The Nancy Drew games for younger girls are even much more complicated. The graphics were kind of outdated. The game was short. I did like the story, the bad ending doesn't matter that much to me. I'm in it more for the gameplay, which was good. There are lots of places to go, and lots of characters to interact with. It was more like an interactive movie than a real hard adventure game.

This one was lots of fun.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Very similar to Black Mirror, so if you liked that you will like this one. A good combination of puzzles, character interaction, and clue hunting. My kinda game. I only gave it a 4 star, becase the story is one most people know, so their are few surprises. Overall a great game and easy to play.

Jack the Ripper: fun to play but leaves room for improvement

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

In Jack the Ripper you take on the role of a writer for the New York Today newspaper. When a series of killings begins in the Lowside district of New York, it's up to you to unmask the killer...
Sounds great huh? Well basically it is on some levels. For instance, I'm not really good at these games, but I was able to beat it with only a few glimpses at the guide. Other people will tell you it was easy. Hmmmm. Most of it was. The story overall is pretty good. The gameplay is a bit on the glitchy side. For example some puzzles won't work unless you click on things in a certain order. You might figure out the answer, but the game won't register that you did and then you're stuck. So why did I buy it?
1. I'm intrigued by the whole Jack the Ripper story.
2. I like adventure/mystery games.
3. I like adventure/mystery games that I can beat.
4. i like adventure/mystery games that are scary.
FLAWS:
1. Some predictable events.
2. Minor glitchy gameplay.
3. An ending on the weaker side.
Jack the Ripper has a few parts which are eerie and is best played at night in the dark. I suggest waiting a little while till it drops down a few bucks though. But if you're really itching for a game that's puzzling and creepy and will entertain you for a few nights, then go out and buy it. :)

Not quite what I expected . . .

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

For a while, I've been really interested in Jack the Ripper (and as Silkner says in this game "And serial killers in general"), but this just isn't as exciting as the actual murder cases. The slaughterhouse part was really creepy, though. Your boss in this game, Bur, really would've made a great killer, because you can just tell that he only cares about his job, and wants to see if The Daily to find a story as good as that. However, his face just doesn't match the actual Ripper's face. [..]But, then again, neither does it match in this game.

Dark and Seedy Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game actually made some horror game lists - and for good reason. It's quite dark and scary. If you are interested in an adventure game that has a good story, some easy puzzles and solid voice acting at a good price this is your game.

The graphics in this game are functional and seedy with some nice rendered backgrounds and characters. The story line along with "puzzles" that fit into the story are quite good actually.

I myself usually play 3rd person adventure games but this game is on my top 10 best games along with ganes like Syberia and The Longest Journey.

The puzzles are very basic and easy to solve without using a walkthrough which was a real plus for me.

In my opinion, this game is what all adventure games should be - a great interactive story. I can recall not too long ago paying $59.99 for games exactly like this one - this game is a real bargin.

great

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: April 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I really enjoyed this game. I thought it was pleasantly different from most of the "go through the weird lands and solve puzzles" games. There were some moments of anticipation of someone jumping out and catching you--fun! And as far as the ending people are complaining about--I thought it was a frustrating but great way to set us up for the sequel--which I will purchase as soon as it comes out.

This game was pretty good

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game was pretty good, there was one gorey part, not that scary. I did like the music for it though. I liked the ending song that Abigail sings. It is a little bit of a dark game and sometimes it is hard to see what you are doing. Very exciting though. I liked the game overall.

Lovely to look at, but could've been better.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 04, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Beautiful graphics and music, dark ambiance and a fair amount of Ripperanna, but it could have been much more satisfying if there had been a few more scares; perhaps a confrontation or two with ol' saucy Jack? The ubiquitous raven was puzzling, albeit creepy-cool, and the "Nevermore" reference at the end I supose is to conjure a connection between those ravens and the Ripper? Are they are accusing EA Poe, or are they just milking the popularity of that great poem for all its worth? In any event, the ending is a disappointment, but I did enjoy the journey. I did hope that once the game was over a second level would be unlocked allowing for an increased level of challange, intensity and further pursuit of Jack...maybe a few more years in the future, and with a final resolution. I supose the creators wanted the game to end just as the Ripper murders ended - without closure. I do hope there is a sequel because then I'd feel a bit better about paying twenty dollars for a game that leaves the player feeling a bit cheated. In conclusion, on a scale of one through ten: Graphics-10; Ambience-10; Music-8; Characters-8; Challenge-7; Ease of Use-9; Fright-8; Action-6; Mystery-7; Storyline/writing-6; overall satisfaction-6.

Dull, But Playable

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

New York, 1901: the seedy "Lowside" disctrict is rocked by a series of killings that resemble the London "Jack the Ripper" murders twelve yearas before. You play James Palmer, a young reporter for the New York Today. Your boss assigns you to cover the crimes and produce a series of articles that will regain sales lost to your paper's competitor. When your articles start receiving attention, you begin to hear from the killer, himself. Can you trace the hints he drops and prevent another murder?

_Jack the Ripper_ (JTR) is the kind of game that will be familiar to Adventure Purists: one with many fine points, one that has incredible potential to be remarkable, but one that had obviously no been given the time or attention to rise above the mediocre. It's perfectly playable--mildly entertaining, even. But when game developers complain that Adventure doesn't sell, they need look no farther than games like this to find the cause. JTR is boring. I personally don't think that games need lots of action, threats, and timed sequences to be exciting-and, except for one, you won't find them here. But neither do you find very many interesting puzzles, engaging characters, inspiring conversations, great locations, or much of a plot.

The game has its good points. The graphics are nice. The music is actually superb. The navigation and gameplay are smooth and easy. The voice acting isn't bad. The structure is well thought-out. But there just isn't enough going on. Each "day" of the game presents you with certain tasks, and I always was surprised when the day came to an end; I never felt like I had actually done anything. Part of this was because the puzzles were so very easy. Ninety percent were conversation; the rest were a smattering of incredibly simplistic mechanical and inventory, with one timed activity. I had downloaded the U-Hints file for this game, but the only time I ever looked at it was at the end, when I thought, "Is that IT???" In general, I found the puzzles so unchallenging that at one point I resorted to translating a book in French that my character found, just for something to do.

There are numerous red herrings in this game--threads that turn into nothing, places you can go where nothing happens. I suppose this is a realistic representation of investigative journalism, but I found it tiresome. There was also a strange plot element involving a raven and what seemed to be psychic phenomena that was never explained at all.

I disliked the save-game feature. This gave you a limited number (16, I think) of spaces to save thumbnails of your game in progress. 16 slots were about half the number I wanted, and the thumbnails were so small you couldn't tell what they represented. As your game was saved by time and date only, with no opportunity to label them for yourself, this was an irritation.

JTR was also pretty glitchy, particularly in the early portion of the game. Several cutscenes did not run properly and had to be skipped out of. Conversations overlapped and the navigational cursor sometimes didn't appear. Once the game crashed entirely--good thing I had just saved!

The ending of JTR is a disappointment. I realise that the real Jack the Ripper was never verufiably identified, so it would have been going out on a limb to identify him here. But I would have preferred that to what I got. The way the game ended was like the rest of it: wimpy and without challenge.

This game took me about 15 hours to complete, playing a couple hours a night. It was mildly entertaining, as I said. But probably better to wait for the jewel case release.

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