A Quiet Weekend in Capri

The Good
If you have never been to the Italian isle of Capri, this game is a great way to see if you would like go there. The separate sightseeing tour duplicates the beginning of the game itself from the moment you arrive on the ferry. Further into the tour, a narrator provides you with a description of what you are seeing.

If you played Golden Gate, you may get an idea of how this game is put together. High quality photographs linked together with directional arrows depict the eastern part of the island. Those arrows, and other icons, are easy to see and use. At certain times and in certain places, the local people will talk to you in Italian (a lovely sounding language). If you elect to play in English, the translation appears by way of a side note pad at the bottom left of the play screen.

There is a lovely musical score, although nothing really memorable, and you'll hear sound effects (water running, for instance).

The Bad
As an experienced adventure gamer, I was disappointed enough with this "game" to uninstall it after about an hour. During that frustrating hour I was not only totally confused but was irritated by the lack of a professional interface, the lack of puzzle clues and the overall appearance of the game itself.

While there is an in-game map of Capri, it is insufficient to actually find your way around the streets or to "learn" the city. Downloading a map from a tourism web site was suggested by someone, and it was much easier to use than the one provided inside the game.

An inadequate uninstall routine attempted to remove the game from my system but left behind hidden code that altered some of my file type associations. This was difficult to remove and required editing the Windows XP registry (something I am never comfortable with). In fact, I'm still not sure that all of that code is gone.

The Bottom Line
This doesn't feel like a "real" game. It's more like a marketing tool to get tourists to visit Capri.

I suppose as a "amateur" game it could rank fairly high, but as a professional release it does not. I wouldn't recommend A Quiet Weekend in Capri unless you can find it very, very cheap. Even then, it is doubtful any adventure gamer worth their salt would enjoy it. It's just not fun.