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Great Game, Great Value

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 60 / 63
Date: September 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game, "Anacapri : the Dream" is a traditional point-and-click adventure. As you might expect from the title, the action takes place in the island of Capri in the Mediterranean Sea. The story is fanciful and imaginative. I'm not giving the plot away, you will find that reality and dream are intertwined during the game. It's a long time since I enjoyed playing a game as much. One travels through the island in full-screen 2D photos (more than 6000!) which display the beauty of the place (as in the original Myst which inspired the developers). The music is unobtrusive and pleasant to hear. The game is long, 50+ hours. You get to travel by bus, boat and cable car as well as by foot. You play scopa, a card game, with a Neapolitan deck. This game is available as a stand alone after the mystery is solved. The puzzles are fair and well clued. There are no action sequences, sliders or mazes and you don't die. The game also has a walkthrough mode which is not a puzzle solving device, but a tour of the game locations. This too is available after the game is over and done with.

So, you get a great long game, a tour guide and card game. It's a steal at the asking price. I highly recommend it.

Players who bought "A quiet weekend in Capri" might like to know that Anacapri is, IMHO, a big improvement. The story is linear (you don't get left marooned by being out of order in the game). The game is full screen. The puzzles are clearer. You see the rest of the island of Capri.

Someone needs to tell S&G Software that it's no longer 1993

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 21
Date: October 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Someone needs to tell S&G Software that it's no longer 1993. Creating games with photographs and video clips in place of digitally created images is about as culturally relevant today as a new Coolio CD, so it's hard to see what the developer was thinking when it made Anacapri: The Dream. This throwback to the era of The 7th Guest may include thousands of photographs of one of the most gorgeous vacation spots on the planet, but it plays more like something you found at a yard sale than a game you pulled down from the new releases shelf.

The line between games and movies is sort of blurred in the structure of the game. While the play style holds tight to the point-and-click adventure template, the game is constructed solely with still photos that give your jaunt the vibe of an indie film. So even though you play a stereotypical sleuth looking to solve the mystery of the ancient Obsidian Disk on the island of Capri, the atmosphere is quite different from the sorts of adventures you might be accustomed to. Thousands of photos depicting everything from seaside vistas to cobblestone roads, to the many quaint shops lining the narrow streets of the titular town of Anacapri, give you the impression that you've embarked on a real trip to the exotic Mediterranean locale. The gameworld is absolutely massive, so it frequently feels as if you're really exploring all of the crooks and crannies of the island.

However, there are prices to pay for this type of presentation and the sheer size of everything. Many of the most potentially picturesque outdoor shots are blurry or strewn with artifacts, presumably to keep picture size reasonable. Oddly, the most sharply detailed pics are the dull ones that show a shopkeeper behind his counter or an old man sitting on a bench. Regardless of quality, there is an air of absurdity to the whole affair because of the use of multiple shots of people during conversations to give the illusion of movement. Done more subtly, this might have been a good idea, and might have nicely added the illusion of movement to what is otherwise a breathless game. But all of the changed poses and expressions given to Anacapri residents are wildly exaggerated, so encounters with them come off like some sort of bizarre mime show. Finally, there are some technological issues in the install process due to the high number of photographs. There are so many photos included as single, high-resolution files that the installation takes almost as long as a flight to Capri itself. You might want to brew a pot of coffee for this one, as it takes a good two hours for all seven gigs of picture files to be transferred from the DVD to your hard drive.

Unfortunately, this time isn't well spent. The game amounts to little more than a great selection of somebody else's vacation snaps. Gameplay lacks structure, due largely to the sheer size of the island. The game itself is such an afterthought that it feels like something hacked together at the last minute to justify writing off a vacation to Capri. Although you're assisted by a hotspot system that highlights key locations on each photograph, it's ridiculously easy to get lost because the entire island is open at the start of the game. Make a wrong turn, or simply get befuddled over the game's many vague clues, and you're soon off on an unintentional sightseeing tour. Although it's relatively easy to work your way through most in-game situations by doing some careful pixel hunting, closely following all of your instructions, and continually checking the city and island maps to see where you are, you still need a walkthrough to figure out how to get where you need to go.

Adding to the confusion of Anacapri is a plot that values nonsense about the nature of reality over the virtues of an easy-to-follow narrative. As if the real-world island wasn't hard enough to figure out, you regularly have to chug dream syrup that sends you off to explore surreal lands populated by ghosts and mythological monsters. Set-piece puzzles that bypass the absurdities of the plot are the only strength here, and there aren't nearly enough of them to compensate for the awfulness of everything else. Most don't even show up until near the end of the game, such as the nifty series of sphinx riddles, and the tile puzzle that is one of the final barriers to the Obsidian Disk.

Horrific voice acting and scripting, along with some truly weird musical choices, sprinkle extra strangeness into everything. Strangers stop to talk as if they were long-lost friends, and the topics of conversation often seem nonsensical until you start looking back on things and putting together the big picture. All of the characters in the game are voiced by a handful of terrible actors making lame attempts to change their voices with bad accents, which makes even real-world interactions with people shimmer like hallucinations. The dialogue is universally overwrought, characterized by lines such as "That disk will remain a dark stain on our past and humanity forever," spoken with all of the passion of a fast-food counter jockey asking if you want to supersize your value meal. Music is frequently jarring, and bounces all over the place between poppy lounge music and driving guitar. It's like you're being stalked by somebody with a xylophone on wheels and Yngwie Malmsteen, respectively. Thankfully, there are frequent, long stretches of silence.

If it were a relic from the early 90s, Anacapri: The Dream might be worth a play for the nostalgia factor alone. A "so bad it's good" vibe also creeps into the adventure through the voice acting, almost giving you the feeling that you're reliving some fond memory that hasn't aged particularly well. But you're not, and considering that the longing for a bygone day is the only possible reason for playing this backward game, you'll soon get tired of flipping through photographs and move on to something more modern and more competently designed.

Suckiest game i've ever purchased

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 13
Date: October 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I was anticipating an adventure but instead I was thrown back to the early 1990's with a game that's uninspiring, tedious and has a strange and unsuiting musical score. The game involved a lot of roaming the streats of Anacapri with very little reward. Pleeeeaase, don't buy it. You will weep as I did. OK i didn't weep but I was furious for spending a lot of money on the game and the shipping and getting very, very dissappointed.

Save Your Money

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 12
Date: October 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I purchased this game based on the only review (5 stars) posted at the time. It didn't hurt that it was a brand new release with alluring packaging.This game is truly awful.Tedious, not worth your time nor the cost. It's only redeeming quality would be the many photos of Capri. Implausible premise, bad voice acting, outdated design technique. Save your money.

Enjoyable -- For Some

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: October 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The dialogue and voice acting are weak, and wandering through screens and screens of beautiful location shots slow the pace. However, I find these add to the dreamlike feeling of the story -- very Italian. The previous game I played had too many timed puzzles and life-or-death moments for my tastes, along with up-to-the-minute yet annoying navigation. AnaCapri is the perfect antidote: a game you can enjoy for the ample opportunities to explore a beautiful place with a good plot and puzzles that are enjoyable, not frustrating. If you want an action-packed ride with sizzling effects, look elsewhere. AnaCapri is for relaxing and enjoying on its own terms.

GREAT GAME, VERY ENJOYABLE

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 11
Date: October 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The adventure game Anacapri the Dream, is the next best thing to being on the Island of Capri, in the Mediterranean Sea,off the coast of Naples, Italy. I visited the Island of Capri after I had played the game. It was like stepping through my computer screen into the "Dream"
The game is so realistic. The point and click feature with some panning gives a person a chance to see what is around and behind you. It is full-screen with approximately 7000 2D photos.
A jump mode will take you back to a spot you have alredy visited, so there is no tedious back tracking. A map with flashing red arrows keep you from getting lost. A lap top icon in the game keeps track of what actors tell you so you can always refer to it for clues.
The game is non linear, so it does not matter where you go, although the areas of the game open one by one as you proceed toward the solution. The game develops in the Reality and in the Dream, with strong interactions between the two Worlds. The house you will visit in the real world is Anacapri where you solve the mysteries. Only at the end of the game will Dream and Reality converge in an unexpected solution, giving you also the chance to select one of two possible endings.
You can pause and listen to the pleasant music, island sounds, or go into one of the quaint shops that line the narrow walking paths and look around. If you are tired of walking the beautiful foot paths, you can travel by cable car, boat, or bus where you will find more clues to solve the mystery of the Obidian disk. The game is 50+ hours with puzzels and an Italian card game called Scopa. You use a real moving deck of cards in the game. If you just want to go on with the game, some puzzels can be by-passed. Puzzels are what I like and solved all of them making the game more interesting. I did not have to kill anyone and I did not have to die! That is a feature I really liked!
You will hear a lot of history of the Island while listening for clues. I found this very interesting and informative. I would recommend the game to anyone who wants to play a relaxing adventure game, it is well woth it.
After the game is solved it can be revisited again and again by using the exploration mode.
In the exploration mode I enjoyed going to the beach and listening to the sea and the sound of the sea gulls.
It takes about 30 min to load the game onto your computer. This is quite normal for a game with 7 Gbytes. This inclues 32,00 images and plenty of animations. This puts the game into your computer ready to play. I like this feature because there is no putting a disk in and out. It is a Myst type game, but in the real world, with real characters, and it is a much more complex and intriguing story. In a scale of 1 to 5, I would put the game at 5

Not Myst...not even close

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 18
Date: October 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I too bought this based on the single five star review. I don't know how anyone could compare this to the Myst series. It's not even close. It's more like clicking through your aunt Millie's slide show of her vacation. The voices are amaturish and speak to you as you view their still photo. The music, for the most part, does not fit the scenes. Some of the puzzles are clever and fun but overall it's not a world I enjoyed exploring. It was tedious and often boring.

Happy that I bought this game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: November 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I too bought this game based on the single five star review. And I am very happy I did! This game is worth every single penny. This is a classic adventure game, with solid story line, well designed puzzles and great atmosphere. What people are expecting from an adventure game? Action? Violence? Speed? Well, this game has none of this and I am glad it doesn't. I enjoyed this game with all my family, we had several hours of entertainment, we learned about history and legends of Anacapri, with a lot of high quality pictures. It is not true there are no animations! All the ocean scenes are animated and they're absolutely stunning. All the animals are well animated and there are plenty of atmospheric effects. I did play developers' previous game which I found a step below. So overall, we had great time with this game and I recommend it to anyone who wants to have a serene yet intelligent gaming experience.

Great scenery and gameplay

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: November 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I just loved playing this video game! The imagery is great and really makes you feel as you were wandering through the island. Great puzzles, riddles, characters and plot! I really liked the whole experience it gave me while playing it, I recommend it. The idea of setting a whole videogame in a photographically created environment is stunning and original!

Anacapri The Dream -

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: November 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If the idea of putting you to sleep was the basis of this game, then they have succeeded. This game is extremely boring. The point and click action in this game becomes tiring. At least later you can flash transport from one area to another. The acting is horrible as well as the music soundtrack. The storyline moves slowly, and I moved aimlessly around for the longest time before having to resort to obtaining a cheat. The game description sounded like it would be fun, but that has not been the case. This has been move like a travel site with lots of pretty pictures. I would not recommend this game but would like to visit Anacapri.

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