Enter the Story: Volume 1 - Victor Hugo's Les Misérables

The Good
Chris Tolworthy's Enter the Story series is built upon a really interesting concept: that of adapting great literary works into games and of linking those games together into a larger narrative. And he isn't just picking the obvious stories like Frankenstein or Dracula either.

I was impressed by how much detail from the book he managed to squeeze into the game, often in the form of actual passages of text. And yet it was done in such a way that I never thought I had to see / read all of it. I think it was a tremendous achievement to wed so much extraneous detail and character into an adventure game.

Also, it is by most accounts a very good recreation of the Les Miserables story.

The artwork is simplistic and yet pleasing to the eye and the game world is truly massive. There are far more locations here than are needed and they are filled with background information and character. And initially it was enjoyable to explore this world.

There is a lot of music in this game, most of it classical. It occasionally gets a little overbearing if too long is spent in one location but for the most part it is enjoyable and the range of it is very impressive for an independently produced game.

The interface is unique and takes a little getting used to but once I did so it wasn't too much trouble. There are many keyboard and map shortcuts that ensure what could have been a navigational nightmare works okay. There is also a step-by-step hints system built into the game in a very story-logical way. But you will need it a lot...

The Bad
I'm sorry to say that Chris Tolworthy has managed to come up with a form of gameplay that is absolutely no fun whatsoever to play. Some of the obscure object hunts really were beyond the pale. We're talking about tiny click spots hidden away in locations the player had no prior reason whatsoever to visit, within the framework of a massive game world. Being a pretty thorough kind of player I visited them all anyway but still continually missed them. Some of the links I was supposed to make between characters also seemed spurious and unintuitive. Sure, there is a copious hints system built into the game, as I mentioned, but having to constantly resort to it really saps ones enjoyment.

Also, at many times in the game I found myself far ahead of the narrative in what I needed to do, but my progress kept getting held back by not having done seemingly needless tasks or through overly tiny baby steps I hadn't taken. At one point I found a missing child before I had even seen the dog that was supposed to help me find her! So my progress was held up until i'd discovered the dog and found the girl all over again!

Also, I must mention the poor pacing of the story. Every time things seemed to be building towards some sort of climax or pivotal moment the focus would suddenly switch to a new character we hadn't yet been introduced to. And the focus would then stay on that character pretty much exclusively for a good while. When we did finally go back to the previous protagonist his world typically had substantially moved on. Now, I haven't read the original novel, but i cannot believe the narrative transitions come about there quite so jarringly.

The Bottom Line
It's a shame the gameplay is so unenjoyable because I enjoyed how much detail from the book the creator managed to get into the world, the narrative itself (well, I guess Victor Hugo has to take credit for that) and wasn't put off at all by the minimalistic graphics. But I honestly cannot say that at any point I had fun playing the game and by about two thirds of the way through I was desperate to get to the end (I hate leaving games unfinished). By the end of the game I was so fed up i was resorting instantly to the in-built hints, simply because I was so weary of it.

Unfortunately, despite having purchased them I don't think I will be playing any more of the games after Les Miserables, which was a HUGE chore to finish.