NiBiRu: Age of Secrets

The Good
Nibiru has been sitting on my shelf all winter. I don't know why I waited to play it until this week. Maybe it was the weird name or the picture of the Mayan temple on the front. I wasn't looking forward to interpreting an ancient numbering system, language or calendar again (flashbacks to Beyond Atlantis and Nancy Drew: The Secret of the Scarlet Hand).

I really liked Future Games' previous game (The Black Mirror), although many didn't share my opinions about it. Like The Black Mirror, professional reviews about Nibiru span the ratings scale high and low. My opinion is at the top of the rating scale, and here's why.

The main character and story remind me of early LucasArts Indiana Jones games. An archaeologist, a newly discovered Nazi underground mine, searching for lost treasures, bad guys trying to get it before you do and the like. The plot took a few unexpected twists and turns which made it interesting.

There are loads of NPCs to interact with and all of them are portrayed very well - graphics as well as voice-acting. The translation into English was very good, although some of the so-called French accents sounded more like German at times. Some of the characters' personalities are really "colorful" and funny, especially in the Mexican area.

I was pleased that I was able to solve 99% of the puzzles myself - without a walkthrough or hints at all. Most of the puzzles are rooted to people or objects. There are decent amounts of "I'll help you if you help me" character puzzles, but everything you need is always nearby. Finding keys and/or pieces to open locked passages is normal in adventure games these days, but some of the locked door puzzles are very inventive and different. (Wait until you see the Colored Ball puzzle! It looks like a Parcheesi board, but works more like a circular Rubik's Cube.) There is a simple slider, a "get the bar to the exit" puzzle (similar to one in Nancy Drew: The Final Scene, only a bit harder), a jigsaw puzzle with triangle-shaped pieces (like another Nancy Drew game) .. but NO MAZEs (thank goodness!). All in all, the puzzles were integrated well into the overall plot and none of them seemed out of place.

Another good thing concerns the amount of travelling around. Some games make you traverse the universe to find what you're looking for. Not this game! You are confined to a certain area until you solve everything in that section.

Graphic backgrounds are easy on the eyes and realistic. Weather effects and shadowing add to the realism. The music never overshadows the voices, sounds original and is beautifully symphonic. Important puzzle solves get you special congratulatory music, too.

The interface is as simple as it gets in a point-and-click game. Both mouse buttons are used extensively, and I had to remember to right as well as left click on objects. Subtitles can be turned on or off and volume controls are provided. You can save as often, and in as many slots, as you like. You can skip through conversations and some cut scenes. Also, I was happy that I wasn't asked 10 times "Are you sure you want to exit?", like some games do. Click Exit and you're gone.

Finally, the ending is satisfying and concludes the story well.

The Bad
I liked almost everything about Nibiru, but a few things come to mind in this area.

As seems to crop up more than is warranted, there are quite a few misspellings in subtitles. (a pet peeve of mine) And sometimes the words written on-screen didn't match what the actor was saying exactly - but close enough.

I missed not being able to make Martin run but got used to it after a short while. I would have liked to look at the inventory objects more closely. I also would have liked to name my saved games. But those things are incidental and a matter of personal preference.

The Bottom Line
This game contains everything a great adventure should - good story, graphics, music/sound, acting, dialogs and interface. I found it to be engrossing and fun. So much so that I couldn't step away from my computer until it was finished!

Nibiru will take you back to days gone by, but not in the way it looks or sounds. The gameplay, situations, puzzles, and overall feel make it a brilliant game. I highly recommend it!

The Good
Nibiru is a highly typical 3rd Person 2D point and click adventure game. The phrase I just used, 'typical, 3rd Person 2D point and click adventure game' pretty much tells the entire story, especially if you put the word 'typical' in capital letters. It does it pretty well. I never really had any qualms with any of the puzzles (which are mostly inventory based with the very occasional Myst-style puzzle thrown in to open a locked door or the like).

The game is pretty long and covers a number of different, varied locations: urban Prague, an abandoned Nazi mine, a mansion in Paris and the Mexican jungle. Yes, Nazis and old Meso-American temples figure in the storyline; don't they always in 'typical 3rd Person 2D point and click adventure games'? Furthermore, your mentor and informant will also be murdered during the course of the game; don't you just hate it when that happens? Needles to say you will need to get into his safe in order to get the vital information needed to complete your mission. What is your mission? Actually, I was never quite sure...

The Bad
I started out by investigating an old Nazi mine at the behest of the fore-mentioned mentor and informant but he never really told me why and my character never really seemed interested enough to ask. He diligently and unquestioningly went from one location to another, simply because the other man asked him to. He seemed happy enough to do this, despite constant risk to his life, but personally I would have preferred a little more information... Even by the game's end I wasn't really sure what the purpose of the whole quest had been and the ending sure didn't provide much elucidation. But my character seemed satisfied enough that it had all been worthwhile... why don't I use the character's name? Actually, I don't recall it. He was such a blank cipher that he could have been any 'typical, 3rd Person, 2D Point and click adventure game' protagonist. He wore blue jeans, a red jacket, had brown hair and never at any point showed any discernible personality. He walked very stiffly and made light-hearted comments about matters which would have caused most men in his situation to become quite infuriated. Personally, all of this never quite satisfied me.

Too much of the game was set in boring locations. The pace is painfully slow at the start of the game, with the action (such as it was) mostly taking place in council buildings, offices, an apartment block... yes, really. Generally it is a good idea to open a game in an interesting location, or at least move to one fairly quickly. Spending two hours of gameplay early on trying to get a bureaucratic form signed (yes, really) wasn't the most intriguing way to begin my adventure. Things perked up when I finally got to the Nazi mine but then started to drag again with the slow rate of exploration, and by the time I was capturing a mouse in order to tie a stick of dynamite onto its back so that i could use it to blow open a secret door (yes, really) my interest was again starting to wane. By the time I finally reached Mexico and the Mayan ruins I’m afraid I’d almost entirely lost interest in my very vague mission. After all, in order to get there I had had to fetch a hot dog for a homeless lady not once, not twice, but three times in order to borrow her umbrella so that I could lower a fire escape and enter a hotel. Yes, really. This is a pretty good example of the passable, but boring type of 'typical, 3rd Person Point and click adventure game' inventory 'puzzle' I was routinely required to solve in this game.

The Bottom Line
There was nothing really 'wrong' with this game. The graphics were fine, the voice acting ranged from irritatingly unconvincing accents to fine, the inventory puzzles were mostly fine, the story was vaguely defined, but fine, the Nazis were ridiculous caricatures, but fine. The game length was value for money (I’m not so sure they were value for my time though) and it was clear that the developers really enjoyed 'typical, 3rd Person, 2D point and click adventure games'. So do I, but at times this game had me wondering just how much.

The Good
Nibiru is one of the few adventures that I have really gotten into. I thought the storyline was really interesting and every move I made kept me playing. Every event leads to another in order to achieve your goal. The graphics are really nice and I can even play the game on my laptop which has an older graphics card and everything looks nice. Navigation is relatively easy, the voice-acting is pretty good on the most part especially Pedro's. Good music as well.

The Bad
The ending was disappointing though I won't ruin it. Some of the puzzles were stupid and annoyed the crap out of me, game felt somewhat short in a way.

The Bottom Line
Nibiru is a remake and the original game was supposedly only released in Czech republic. The game takes you as the role of an Archaeologist and your uncle being one as well but too old to do anymore adventures. He sends "you" on a expedition to an old German mine during the Nazi era. You find out about a large secret regarding the Nazis and there connection to Mexico and ET life.