Heart of China

The Good
Jeff Tunnell seems to have a flair for telling a good story. Trouble is, this one is quite short. An experienced gamer will probably be able to wrap this thing up in a day - maybe two. The game has a cool feature in that it tells you whenever you solve a puzzle that could've been solved differently. I'm not sure that would be enough to keep gamers coming back, though. The game has lots of memorable characters, all portrayed by real people (no voices, but photo-realistic graphics in computer games were very new in 1991). The added arcade sequences are a nice touch (they ran too fast on my computer, however). They add a little variety to the game, and if you get frustrated you can skip them without penalty. Setting the game in 1930's Asia was a clever idea. Offhand, I can't think of another adventure game with a similar setting (although more than likely, one can be found). The score, composed by Don Latarski and Christopher Stevens, is one of the best; not in the sense that you'll have tunes that will stick in your head for years to come (you won't), but it conveys the emotions and atmosphere of the game in a way that many other titles haven't accomplished. Even given the shortness, there's plenty to like about this game. Pity Dynamix never made a sequel; Heart of China would have made a great beginning for a series, and there are many things in the plot that could have been taken further.

The Bad
The bad points of Heart of China begin and end with it being way too short. The multiple endings and puzzle solutions help this a bit, but I would have preferred a game that was more linear with a deeper plot. Still, the characters are quite well-developed considering the length of the game (mostly due to a good amount of conversation). The game also ran too fast on my computer. If you can't slow your computer down a bit, be prepared to feel a little hurried when going through events that are controlled partially by real time.

The Bottom Line
Heart of China has a lot going for it. There should be enough there to hold the interest of most adventure gamers, and make them feel glad to have played it.

The Good
It had a very simple interface and was not very difficult to figure out. I think if I can play a game without a manual, then it can't be all that difficult. The puzzles were fairly decent. If you're not careful, you could end up hitting a brick wall. It was fairly obvious when you might be messing up--you'd get a text message that said "plot branch". When dealing with NPC's, you could give several different answers, which changed the way they responded to you over time (especially Kate, the woman Lucky is sent to rescue). Multiple endings, which depended very much on what you did during the game. Also, it's always nice to be able to play a female character for once, even if it's only for a short part of the game.

The Bad
It treated some characters, especially the Asian ones, very stereotypically. Way too short for my liking. The plot seemed very hackneyed, without an awful lot of depth. I ended up having to reload a lot at first--the initial conversation where you try to find, and then convince, Chi to come with you is difficult. Later conversations are a bit easier to handle--the only other one you can really mess up on is the conversation with the Lama. I really don't like arcade sequences in adventure games, but here, thankfully, you can skip them without hurting the plot any. Kate and Lucky's relationship seemed very rushed--if you notice the time indicators in the game, it takes place apparently within a three day time span. Somehow, I thought it would take longer, especially considering the type of airplane.

The Bottom Line
The game takes place after the first World War. You play a jaded former wartime airplane pilot-turned-shipping courier sent to rescue Kate Lomax, daughter of a wealthy man. With the incentives her father has given you, you really can't say no. This journey begins in China and takes you halfway across the globe to the game's end in Paris.

The Good
The game is played from the first person view which makes it much more involving to play, and gets around the clunky problem with many point and click adventures of the era; having to watch your character plod across the screen. The graphics are done in a blended photo characters against drawing style, which in this rare example works and creates a believable environment where the style is consistent. This is probably helped by avoiding any animation whatsoever in the cut-scenes, which would betray the actors against a blue-screen. There's also no audio aside from the soundtrack, which is great, voice acting and encoding in this era were generally terrible, so better side-step that until the technology caught up.

The plot is a standard globe-trotting pulp adventure so common to adventure games, complete with cheesy love interest, though it is all told in a fairly cringe free manner. The story-telling is done fairly well, with good dialogue and an interesting ability to approach problems from several different angles, standard fair today, but for the time it's handled smoothly allowing for a more involved sense of storytelling. The title is a bit of a misnomer as much of the game happens outside of China, but hey it sounds catchy.

The Bad
Whilst the story unfolds fairly well, it does allow you to get stuck in dead ends quite often, though the characters often hint that so you need to save regularly to be able to go back. It falls prey to several cheesy scripting elements, such as dodgy jokes and such in an attempt to make the game feel like a comedy/adventure film such as 'Romancing The Stone'. The game engine is solid enough though a little fussy to use, you have two methods of calling up the inventory each one acting slightly differently. The arcade elements of the game look out of place, but actually play ok, so no problems there.

The Bottom Line
A light and breezy game, that is simple to play and fairly short. I like games like this whose puzzles take the more logical approach to the point of straying toward the easy side, rather than trying to be fiendishly hard and obstruct the plot. It handles the sound and graphics well for a game of its age and still plays well. Recommended to anyone with some time to spare who wants a quick adventure.