Road to India - Review English


Road to India Release date: France 05/2001, Germany 08/2001 Developer: Microids Canada Publisher: Avalon Download Trailer AVI 29 MB Walkthrough deutsch Walkthrough english A review by slydos 11th November 2001 "Road to India" is presented to us by Microids Canada. A new adventure location in the modern Orient with its thousands of years old history. In the starting sequence we get to know a little about the situation: One year ago a momentous bomb attack was committed in Dehli, with which the well-known actress Laj Vanti was seriously hurt. While the American student Fred Reynolds says good-bye to his Indian friend Anusha at the airport, the television reports on a procession in honour of this actress, who disappeared 7 months ago without trace. Some days later Fred gets a letter from Anusha, in which she secedes from him. But Fred cannot let this matter rest - he vaults into the next plane to New Dehli, in order to visit his fiancee and clear things. On the airplane Fred falls in sleep and dreams about Anusha an almost foreseeing, dramatic dream: in front of the adorable scenery of the Taj Mahal his dearest one is pulled away by a kidnapper before his eyes. The door slams shut and he couldn't follow the two.		The main menu To enlarge click on pictures New Dehli

But also in his dream Fred doesn't relent and so he finally succeeds to open the door ... Here the dream ends and our student arrives at Dehli ... And also here - in the real world - Anusha has disappeared! The search for his dearest leads him to a long believed dead, diabolic sect of Kali worshippers, the Thugs. Fred, who doens't know much about Indian history, follows his instinct and the hints, which he receives during his search from the people he met. Each time, he sleeps, or let's say, is unconscience, Fred also continues the search in his dream world. He meets persons in his dreams, then also in the reality again. However both strands are independent. The installation of the 400 MB runs smoothly. The game comes on 2 CDs, but there is no frequent CD-change. Once during the game the second CD must be inserted and can then remain in the drive, also during interruption of the game. If you compare it with similar games, then that is very comfortable. This 1st person adventure is exclusively mouse-controlled. After the start you are lead to the main menu, where you can call the option menu beside the restart or load options. There you can adjust the mouse sensivity apart from the picture depth, volume and the sub-title selection. During the game you can only reach the main menu, if you interrupt the game in the electronic diary. The electronic diary appears with right-clicking your mouse and first displays the inventory. Beside this there is still a save/load function that can be accessed by a button and also a diary function. This diary function describes objects, which you have taken, e.g. the letter of Anusha and Freds thoughts on the occurrings so far. Here you can recall the past film sequences again. Objects, which appear in the diary, do not occur in the inventory. During the game the diary icon is displayed at the bottom left corner until you recall the new entry. Through this you can't ignore new information. On the diary display the dialogues are also displayed. With another left click the displayed question then will be spoken. All in all very easy controls. Fred can look around in a flowing 360 degrees movement and also upwards and down. A possibility for changing the location or conversation, a receptible object or an area for action is shown by a changed cursor. The controlling of movements reminds much of Wanadoos titles "Dracula 1 + 2" or "Necronomicon". However Microids did still a lot more here, in order to perfect the handling. Really intuitive controls and an easy to learn inventory system don't leave desires open. Each savegame is stored with picture, date and time-of-day. The number of savegames is not limited after my knowledge and you can easily find them by fast scrolling. Hotspots are easy to localize, the inventory is usually only filled with three or four objects, which can be taken and used by right-click. If an inventory item is no longer used, it disappears. For me the most user friendly system, which I became acquainted with. Puzzles The puzzles are logical and interwoven into the story. Often you have to find and apply objects. Sometimes items are combined and also used several times. You get the needed information by dialogues and the descriptions in the diary. There are simple combination puzzles and also a maze - however don't be afraid - this maze is even for beginners and doesn't interrupt the game flow in any way. The puzzles are integrated and support the game flow. However the difficulty level for experienced adventuregamers is extremely low and they will miss a larger challenge. For beginners it's outstanding suitable, no frustration and no boredom will arise. The game gets along without killing and also without action elements despite the film clips, sometimes Fred gives us a note that a just paralyzed guard is only unconscious, in consideration of the censorship. Even if Fred comes into ticklish situations from time to time, he never must die in "Road to of India". The game doesn't have branchings points and you can't deviate from the linear story. Graphics/atmosphere The graphics in "Road to of India" are outstanding. Both the highly detailed background graphics of the Taj Mahal, the backyards of Dehli, the house of Darmesh, Fred's opponent, or the Kali temple pleased me very well even if from time to time simply too much darkness prevailed. Several Indian music themes support the eastern flair. The appearance of the scenes have a lasting close-to-reality effect, but they are too inanimated for Indian conditions. Who wants to experience really animated roads with hundreds of non-player characters, should regard "Casanova" from Wanadoo. Only in the interspersed film scenes the real multicolored Indian life is demonstrated. These film sequences are really Top and make the game dversified. And there is no boredom since you can change between reality and dream from time to time. The dream sequences are indicated by a veiled frame at the edge of the screen. The character movements work both in the movie sequences and also in the game during dialogues very life near. The voice output is lip synchronous, mimic and gesturing matching. Unfortunately the dialogue or action partners are rare. Conclusion While the story of "Road to India" plays in a period of 3 days, it will take the experienced player probably hardly more than 6 hours, beginners won't need more than 8 hours. That is fewer than few and there is in no relation to the price you pay. More and more you find this tendency in game developing circles to wake the appetite of the player on a complete menu and then leave him with only a hors-d'oeuvre, even if tasty. Unfortunately also only little suspense arises in the game. For my taste everything runs too smoothly and streamlined. More complexity and entanglement would have done better. I would have required myself also more background informations about the colonial age, the Kali cult and the Thugs in the game and not only in the clear manual. It's only a little scratching at the surface. In any case - "Road to of India" pampers with wonderful graphics and a perfect handling. It ran without crashes and error free. Unfortunately the interesting idea of the story with its locations and the historical references was only superficially worked out and the puzzles are very simple. Thus the game is so short. My rating: 72% Adventure-Archiv-rating system: 80% - 100% excellent game, very recommendable 70% - 79% good game, recommendable 60% - 69% satisfactory, restricted recommendable 50% - 59% sufficient (not very recommendable) 40% - 49% rather deficient (not to be recommended - for Hardcore-Adventure-Freaks and collectors only) 0% - 39% worst (don't put your fingers on it) System requirements: Pentium II 266 MHz Windows 95/98/Me/2000 64 MB RAM DirectX 8/Direct 3D compatible 3D graphic card 8 MB DirectX 8 compatible sound card 16x CDROM-drive 400 MB free disk space Played on: Windows ME Pentium III 850 128 MB RAM Sound- and graphic card DirectX-compatible Toshiba DVD-ROM		The assaillant Farewell to Anusha The dream-kidnapping Taj Mahal only in Fred's dreams The inventory An astrologer This guard is paralyzed What could you need here? The rikscha driver wants money A recurrent motif - the statue of Kali How to escape the cellar? More screenshots