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Be Careful! StarForce protection installs on your system!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 13
Date: June 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Still Life has a StarForce copy protection scheme which completely spoiled the experience for me. It installs in a separate folder from the game, and caused havoc with my very ordinary system. Five different programs (games and demos) would not run and load. Realizing what the cause might be, I quickly played through the game using a walkthrough, found it to be a "B" level title, and uninstalled it. StarForce needs a separate unistallation or it stays on your system and continues to cause problems.
The game is simply not worth that kind of hassle!

What a piece of garbage!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 15
Date: April 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Even at 6 bucks at Odd Lot was a rip off! Incredibly stupid and vulgar dialog with no point other than to be gross, cryptic clues so far from reality that only an online walkthrough could help, boring and stupid flow. I have rarely played a game as bad as this! Quarter of the way through I just had to uninstall it, glue the box back together and ship it back to those morons at the Adventure Company! Another company to ignore in the future. Beware, you will be disappointed!

disappointed already...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: July 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

i liked the demo for this game and was hoping for fun. everything was fine until the point i couldn't get into the morgue because my key card didn't work. after trying everything i could think of, i had to consult a walkthrough. what annoys me is that there was no hint before in the game that i would have to use this method to solve anything, or indeed that i COULD even use that particular method. i'm so annoyed by this, it has tainted my whole view of the game. i see nothing like this in the indigo prophecy. while that game has its own problems that i covered in my review of it, it did a better job at the type of things in this game. what is it with adventure game makers today? they just can't seem to get it right. people complain about adventure games dying, yet no good ones are ever made..

i like the main character, it has good graphics, and the story seems good enough, but it doesn't make up for the boring gameplay

Worth it for the Art

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 6
Date: September 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I love it even though I've usually played action games, and really don't like puzzles (lots of em - but you can use a walkthrough on tough ones, copy the "solution", no sweat). Now Still Life is one of my top favs, with HL2 and Doom3, because of the game art (not the in-game "art", that's pretty lame, which fits with the story) - this game is absolutely gorgeous, not what we see often in games! The cinematic ambience is laid back and comfy, and the scenes are worth playing just to see them.
I got this after trying CSI Dark Motives (and getting my money back *whew*) which just reminded me how much I don't like Ubisoft - so I'm totally disgusted that they bought Microids. The characters and pacing are excellent too, mostly I just found it too short. The main flaw in my view, which wasn't enough to distract, was the ghastly way the Canadian actors did American dialects (if the non-white characters had a bigger role, then it would have been distracting). You don't have to be a mystery fan to love this ride.

Mediocre Game Playing Experience

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: September 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I give this game a 5 for creepiness, but a 2 for overall game play experience. It's great to play in a dark room with a few candles lit, while drinking a cup of coffee (for atmosphere and stuff). I've been playing adventure games for quite awhile (way back when Sierra was making them) so I've developed a set of standards on what I think makes a good game.

Still Life is your typical Mystery Thriller, 3rd Person, Point & Click, with Puzzles thrown in. These are my favorite types of games.

The Graphics/Ambience are very good and detailed. This isn't one you want to let the kids play though. The game shows hacked-up, nude dead bodies and there are also a few F words thrown in (for that gritty cop feel).

About the puzzles: If it takes me more than 15 minutes to figure out how to solve a puzzle and then solve it, I get bored and annoyed with the game. For example, the cookie recipe. After working on this one for awhile, I wasn't using my puzzle-solving skills as much as just switching ingredients around until something fit. That's not fun or challenging, it's just annoying. The lock-picking puzzle might be a fun challenge for a Mensa genius, but I hated that puzzle. I actually never made it through the entire game because I got to the laser-robot puzzle and after trying like 50 times, gave up, and uninstalled the game. Then I went online to read a spoiler about how it ended (and read that it sucked).

The inventory puzzles and trying to figure out what to do next were pretty easy. You get clues from characters on where to go next so there's no guessing, but that made the game a little TOO easy. I think the game developers did it so the player wouldn't waste time running from place to place, but still...I think those hints could have been less direct.

The game is relatively short and not really worth $30. They should have sold it for $20 based on the short game play.

A couple of minor annoyances and things I liked about it: When Victoria enters the first crime scene containing a dead body, I would think she would be a little more serious. Instead, she's cracking lame jokes all over the place. Excuse me, there's a dead chick in the bathtub, have a little respect. Otherwise, I liked the character. Gus was a little flat at first, but I got used to his style and I liked his character even better.

Overall, the game was interesting, but not that great. If you decide to buy a copy I'd wait until it goes on sale for $20 because it's really not worth the current price.

Sicko Plot, Bad Ending and Tired Stereotypes=NOT Fun

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 12
Date: January 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Warning: This game involves VERY disturbing subject matter. I'm sure that this review will garner a good number of "not helpfuls" from those who are diehard fans of this sort of game. So be it.

The first game in this duet was Post Mortem, which I purchased because I like Paris, period mysteries, challenging puzzles, and great graphics. Post Mortem was a little twisted, but NOTHING like this sicko sequel.

In Still Life, the developers at Microids have pushed detailed descriptions of horrific murders to stomach churning limits. The problem is that none of the forensic details have anything to do with solving the puzzles or finding the murderer.

I finished the game only because I paid my money and took my chances. It was not FUN. The one saving grace was that the carved up bodies (and body parts) are not rendered realistically enough to REALLY make you throw up.

Gameplay was for the most part smooth on my Dell laptop, although Victoria sometimes ran or walked in place for a few seconds before continuing her gruesome work.

The level of difficulty in solving the puzzles varies. Some are challenging, some were so illogical that in spots Still Life is tiresome. The robot sequence is one of the best and most maddening puzzles. You will undoubtedly have to start over again and again as you cannot save your game in puzzle sequence. It gets easier as you memorize previous moves and progress through the robot manuever.

It was offensive to me that the only African American males (a cop and a bouncer) in the game are portrayed as foul mouthed idiots. Studies have shown that 80% of video games contain negative stereotypes of African American males. Sadly, this is what young gamers have become accustomed to--they think it's amusing.

Stereotypes aside, ADVENTURE COMPANY, if you are going to include black characters, A. CAST THEM WITH BLACK ACTORS! And, B., lose the offensive stereotypes. The Hispanic janitor was almost as bad, but at least he wasn't an expletive spewing misogynist. And, go figure, the gainfully employed men sound like thugs and the hookers sound like finishing school graduates.

And, while we're at it, if part of the story takes place in Europe, please hire actors who can at least manage a vaguely European accent! A lot of the dialogue sounds translated: there is a disconnect between the dialogue that the "Americans" speak in the game and idiomatic English.

The ending is unsatisfactory, even if you watch the credits until the end. Small frys (Microids Canada), take note. You never know when you'll get gobbled up by a bigger fish (UbiSoft) who doesn't want your inventory-- (and who can BLAME them?) Each game in a series should be able to stand on its own; don't make the mistake that Microids did and assume that a sequel is inevitable.

No matter, based on this effort from Microids I would not purchase any sequel to this game.

UGH.

"just another adventure game"

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: August 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I concur with Derek. There's really nothing standout about this game. You've seen almost all of the puzzles before, some of which are particularly irrelevant to the plot. The voice acting is pretty good and the dialogue is just so-so...and both are downright poor with respect to the parts of the game that take place in 1920's Prague. (Neither the characters' vocabulary or dialect suggest they're from anywhere but present-day America.) And the story of hunting down a serial killer has been done to death. But the graphics are beautiful, especially the in-game paintings (which are central to the game), and the decked-out killer himself.

If you want an innovative adventure game that broadens your horizons, check out The Indigo Prophecy (aka Fahrenheit)--which actually is another serial killer story, but much more interesting in every way--or, even better, get Grim Fandango.

The good, the bad, and the pretty

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 18 / 19
Date: June 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

"Still Life" has some good elements, some bad elements, and some very pretty artwork!

The Good:

The game has a great story, a must for any mystery/adventure game, and some good dialogue. You will find yourself intrigued by the story, as other reviewers have noted, impressed by the scenic designs (more below), and interested in the characters.

The game was not buggy. I had no trouble with anything I tried to do, and no patches needed to be downloaded or anything.

For me, those things go a long way. But...

The Bad:

The acting was terrible, especially for the African-American characters. They obviously had white Canadians doing all the voices. There was no attempt at an accent for the Czech characters. The American characters sound like Canadians. And the African-American characters sound like some white guys trying to sound like Chris Rock.

As another reviewer mentioned, lots of time is wasted due to the absolute linearity of the events. For example: suppose you are in a room, and you happen to notice a bulge in the wall. You want to investigate the wall, but you realize you'll need to a tool to cut into it. So you remeber a toolbox in another building and think, "I'll bet I need something out of that toolbox."

So you have to do all the walking to get out of the building and into your car. Then click on the map, arrive at the other building, walk inside, walk to where the toolbox is. That takes about three minutes and is very monotonous. You click on the toolbox, only to hear the character say, "I don't need anything in there."

So you backtrack all the way to the building with the bulge in the wall. When you get there, you click on the bulge in the wall. The character says, "I'll need a tool to get at that."

Guess what? Now you have to repeat everything you just did, only this time, it will let you take a tool from the toolbox. This is silly and a waste of time.

I was also horribly disappointed at the ending! I don't want to spoil it, but it was just a big let down.

The pretty:

The art was the best thing about this game. Sets and character models, to the scenery and props, to the oil paintings which are a main part of the story, these guys did an awesome job on the art. First class!
----------------------

The style of the game is much like "Sanitarium," "The Black Mirror," etc., but the execution was much better. If you liked those games, you will find "Still Life" interesting enough. All in all, it was not a bad game, but it did let me down from what I expected.

Good story, nice graphics, horrible puzzles

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: May 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Still Life is a game that has great potential, but is ultimately somewhat lacking because of two fundamental flaws: 1) Some of the puzzles can be solved only through trial-and-error, and 2) The player doesn't get to participate in solving the murders!

The primary upside of the game is its eye-candy. The pre-rendered settings are excellent. There is a very "Nocturne" feel to the settings, especially in Prague. The cutscenes are very well done as well. There is some nudity and some graphic violence, but it really isn't overbearing and is less graphic than games like "Tender Loving Care" or "Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh".

The music and sound are excellent and really help set the mood. I will grant that in terms of atmosphere, the designers did a great job. There are times when the game is downright creepy.

The real problems involve the actual gameplay. There are times when your character has all the tools he or she needs to accomplish the task, but it isn't obvious how to do what needs to be done. For example, at one point you are asked to lift fingerprints from a beer bottle. You have the bottle, a brush, powder, and tape for lifting the prints. Even knowing what you have and the order of the steps you need to take doesn't mean that you will easily be able to lift prints.

Worse still are a few of the puzzles. There are two puzzles in particular that are not solvable except by trial and error. One is a cookie recipe. If you use every possible clue given by the game designers, there are 48 possible combinations to determine the right recipe. (If you don't use the clues, and they are subtle, there are 5000 possibilities!) The only way to try a recipe is to combine all the ingredients and see if you're right. There are eight ingredients, and each takes three clicks to use. That's 48x8x3=1152 mouse clicks to solve the puzzle using trial and error!

There is a second puzzle very near the end of the game in which you are asked to select three words from a list of eight to enter into a virtual "search engine". If you make the assumption that you know one of the words there are still 42 combinations to try. What fun!

Most frustrating of all, however, is the feeling that you are being asked to solve random puzzles (like a cookie recipe) but not being asked to solve the murder! The story is completely linear. You cannot complete any tasks out of order. When you talk to any character in the game, you have no dialogue choices. You click on the person you want to talk to and a conversation ensues. If there is more of the conversation, you click on the person again. You can't do anything else until you finish the conversation, and you can't change anything, but you have to click them. It's like watching television but having to prompt the actors onscreen to talk.

This linearity and lack of dialogue choices makes you feel like you are watching "Law and Order" rather than trying to solve a mystery. If you are looking for a "whodunit" you will be sorely disappointed. This is doubly true because the murders cannot be solved! It would be too big a spoiler to explain this statement, but it is true.

Overall, it's an atmospheric game with a decent story (except for an ending many players on the Still Life website were unhappy with). The gameplay is not very good and some of the puzzles make you head straight for the walkthrough. If you can pick it up for less than $20.00 it might be a fun diversion, but it's definitely not worth more than that.

Not much character

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: March 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Its fun, its bloody, and sometimes thrilling. Is it bloody thrilling? Well, no. Still Life is a great game to play while waiting for something more epic to be produced. I liked the challenge of the past and present storylines that intertwined throughout this adventure. What Still Life lacks is engaging characters and a decent ending. I get the feeling this was a game with an intended sequel that was never made...The player is left completely hanging and with no closure. Not exactly a nice reward for spending hours of time devoted to problem solving and some annoying pixel-hunting. If you are bored, in need of adventure, try the Longest Journey, or Syberia first-you'll find much more depth and satisfaction from either of these choices.

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