Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator Case 2 - The Lost Galleon of the Salton Sea

The Good
Ben Jordan is a paranormal investigator, graduated in International Relations. But not wanting to work at the local grocery, he decided to conduct investigations... involving paranormal - after all, it was his passion... Today, he's been called to Dunesberg by a woman whose husband has disappeared while searching for a mysterious galleon in the Salton Sea. Ben goes to California for his second case...

After the Skunk-Ape, Ben goes into the world of lost galleons and treasures. As you may know, Ben Jordan is a free downloadable game, famous into the AGS world, one of the star series created with this graphic engine. The game is inspired by Sierra or LucasArt adventure games, so expect some humor or reminders of previous games. The Lost Galleon of the Salton Sea is the second game in a series of 8. At the time of writing, seventh case isn't released but seems that Grundislav Games is nearly at the end of the development.

Gameplay hasn't improved, it's still the old school one: use your mouse to select an action like "observe", "take", "talk" or "walk". About this latter, you can't walk if you don't select walk; that's a bit disappointing for people used to walking with just clicking on a place with the mouse. You can pick objects with the finger icon ("take"). For using them, you need to go into your inventory, select the one you want to use and click on the character or object you want to interact with. With the eye icon ("observe") you can observe your environment. Ben will always say something that you read in a box as the game isn't voiced at all.

Graphics are correct for a game without great expectations, just wanting to entertain players. But contrary to the first case, you can enjoy more the graphic engine with Dunesberg, Medicine Man Shop or the galleon itself. Landscape is more detailed for example. As for soundtrack, it has also improved from the first case. Yep, you still have the annoying sound indicating that you have acquired points but music is so "Far West" that you forget it's just a little game of 8,9 Mb. Oh yeah, soundtrack isn't neglected.

As for the lifetime of the game, it has increased from 30 min to more or less 1h30 maximum. Well, it's perfect for relaxing if you work too hard for example. But still, being a gamer used to long games, I always have the feeling of "too fast". I'll develop it in the negative points. But I think that makes Ben Jordan really enjoyable. Being able to finish a case without having an headache after searching a solution to a problem is really something that a player needs. Knowing that you have also a challenge to have a perfect score (205/205), you can see that you'll have more enigmas to solve and more talking to do in order to have the final word of the story.

The Bad
Well, I did point some negative points in previous paragraphs but I'm pretty sure that they're drowned by the positive facts (well, I don't know if it's the right expression but you'll forgive me, right?).

First frustrating point is the walk action. It seems that I'm still not used to it. Correction: I'm used to, now that I've played the third case but when I played Lost Galleon, I was still confused with the walk action. As you see, it could take a time to adjust your way of playing.

Second frustrating point is the sound when you gain points. Well, it's not the Skunk-Ape Scream, it's more the sound of a wind but hearing it everytime can be annoying.

Third thing is... yep, you've guessed it. Lifetime. Yes, it's more longer. But it's still short compared to some others games. But you know what? I think that if the game reaches 5 hours of gaming, Ben Jordon will loose its magic touch. What is making complain about it is that I love the game and I want more. More mysteries. More enigmas. Yes, I'm satisfied when I finished the game. But I wish to have spent more time into the galleon for example.

The Bottom Line
If I must describe the game in three words, it would be: fun, free and simple (to download, to install and to play). Trying Ben Jordan is something to have on your "to do" list. Playing his second adventure makes you pleased with the direction taken by the series. Longer in time of playing, more enigmas, no wonder that Grundislav Games made a Deluxe Edition of the first case in 2006, based on the new improvements, beginning here in the second case.

And as Ben Jordan had put it, the work of a paranormal investigator is never done.