Philip Colmer
02-06-2004, 06:00 PM
"I don't understand
I'm thirty, I'm a married man, I have my own business. Everything in my life is OK, but still
I can't get any sleep
". So begins the story of Louis Everett in FADE. Come & find out more about the game, Louis and some of the characters he meets along the way.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/pcolmer-fade-opening.gif" /><br /><!><br /><i>It isn't until you reach the end of the game that you find out where FADE got its name from, so I'm not going to spoil that for you. It's a graphical adventure game that from the very start contains beautifully rendered images and a storyline that will keep you hooked until you've solved it.</i><br /><br /><span><b>Getting Started</b></span><br />Installation is very straightforward and you can install the game onto a storage card if you like. If you've got an older iPAQ (38xx or older), you may want to play with the gamma adjustment tool that is either available as a patch (if you've bought version 1.07 of the game or an earlier version) or gets installed alongside the game if you get the latest release (1.09). There is no documentation of this tool, so using it is initially a bit difficult because when it starts - all you get is a blank screen! A quick press on the D-pad, though, and you get a screen looking something like Figure 1. Pressing up and down on the D-pad increases or decreases the adjustment and, when you are happy with the results, tap on OK. The setting is then kept for when you play the game.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/pcolmer-fade-gamma.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 1: Adjusting the visibility on an old iPAQ.</i><br /><br />When you start the game, you are presented with the options shown in Figure 2. As you can see, there aren't actually any options for the game per se just the ability to start a new game, load a game, save a game, see the credits and quit. There aren't any options for changing button mappings (because the buttons aren't used it's pure point and click) or control over the volume (because there isn't much in the way of sound). The lack of a control for the sound is, perhaps, an omission that needs correcting because although the Pocket PC has a volume control itself, you don't know how loud or soft the game itself is going to sound until you start playing it and, by then, it's going to be tricky to save the game, quit it, adjust the volume, restart the game and load your position. When you decide to save where you've got to in the game, there are three available slots.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/pcolmer-fade-options.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 2: The game options.</i><br /><br />Tap on "New Game" and you are given the introductory background to the story. You play the part of Louis Everett. You are thirty, married to Anne and you own an antique shop. You also need to take pills to control your headaches
<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/pcolmer-fade-opening2.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 3: Anne reminds you to take your tablets.</i><br /><PAGEBREAK><br /><span><b>Game Play</b></span><br />When the game has a lot of text to give you, it flashes the "down arrow" at the right-hand edge of the text. The four controls across the top of the text are, from left to right:<li>Navigation. This takes you back to the options screen;<br /><br /><li>Diary. This automatically keeps track of the notable events that happen in the game. This can be a useful aide memoire if you aren't sure what you just read or encountered;<br /><br /><li>Briefcase. For carrying things in :D;<br /><br /><li>Exit. For navigating around your environment. This is often the best way to move around since it tells you about all of the available exits, which might not always be immediately visible on the screen to tap on.Interaction with the characters takes the form shown in Figure 3. The game will always give you at least one line to say to a character. At the point shown in the game, there are three options and you have to scroll up & down to read them. Clicking in the line of your choice results in that option being said to the character. Let's see what happens if I tell Anne that I'm still sleepy
<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/pcolmer-fade-anne-response.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 4: I've just told Anne I'm still sleepy.</i><br /><br />Hmmm
that didn't get me very far. The down arrow flashes, so I click on it and Figure 3 is repeated but without the ability to repeat that same phrase. As it turns out, the different phrases exist to allow you to elicit information from the characters and, therefore, more background to the story. As far as I could tell while playing FADE, there is no wrong choice. This is a linear adventure game with puzzles laid out along the way. The worst that can happen is that you get stuck on a particular puzzle. Unlike some other adventure games, FADE doesn't penalize you if you make a wrong decision.<br /><br />One of the earliest puzzles in the game finding your pills is a good introduction to not only the puzzle structure but interacting with characters and using objects that you pick up as you go. In this case, for example, you have to use an object you are carrying in conjunction with another object in a room in order to solve the puzzle, and the game will give you hints on how to solve that puzzle if you interact with the objects and characters in the right way. Some of the harder puzzles you encounter as you progress through the game require you to combine two or more carried objects together to form a new single object.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/pcolmer-fade-assistant.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 5: Fιlicienne.</i><br /><br />The graphics for the game are amazing. They have been computer generated yet some of them, the exterior building shots in particular, look like photos!<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/pcolmer-fade-village.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 6: Louis' village.</i><br /><PAGEBREAK><br />Interacting with a given scene largely consists of tapping on the view until you find something that gives you some potential actions
well, that's how I played it, anyway, particularly when I got stuck :D Typically, the first option will be "Examine", which gives you a description of what you are looking at. If there is an "Inspect" option, this will give you a closer look at the object, as shown in Figure 7. This allows the game to give you the opportunity to interact further with objects in the scene that would otherwise be too small. Clicking back on the main picture closes the inset. Another way that the game helps you along, sometimes, is by providing a "Think" option against an object or character. Choosing this might sometimes give you a clue as to what you can do next.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/pcolmer-fade-interaction.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 7: Interacting with the elements of the scene.</i><br /><br />Sometimes the logic of a puzzle is just too darned illogical! This is partly caused by the linear nature of the game if you try to progress in an order that the game doesn't allow for, it simply doesn't happen. For example, you've just saved someone's life and the game muses that you might not have done the right thing because that person will now be more irritating than ever. You go off to another room and start searching around. Part of the search reveals that a desk contains a pack of cigarettes, among other things. OK, but there is no means of picking up the cigarettes, so maybe it was just part of the narrative. There doesn't seem to be much else you can do in that room, so you wander back to the other room, where you find the person you saved. OK, click on them and choose Think. The game suggests you might want to smoke a cigarette to annoy them. Ah
but hang on, we couldn't get the cigarettes! Go back to the room with the desk, check the desk again and this time the game deposits the cigarettes into the briefcase. Tapping on the cigarettes gives you: examine, smoke, use with and combine with. Hmm
tap on "Smoke"? What? The game just said "I don't like that". OK let's go back to the room with the person in and try again. Nope same result. Let's try using the cigarettes with that person. Huh? Now the game is saying "That won't help me
". Persistence, though, finally pays off when you discover that tapping on the person themselves now has a new option of "Smoke" on it and tapping on that gets rid of them.<br /><br />Thankfully, once you understand that this is how the game works, you soon settle into a pattern of always looking around to see if something has changed as a result of your actions. Also, as I've already said, the game won't let you make a mistake so if there's something you need to pick up in order to achieve something later on, it won't let you go anywhere if you haven't got the object.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/pcolmer-fade-belleville.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 8: Fιlicienne talking to Mr Belleville.</i><br /><br />As you progress through the game, you encounter more characters and the text uncovers more intrigue and twists to the plot. At times, when the game needs to move the plot on a bit, you will only be given one choice of what to say. One such occurrence is your first encounter with Mr Belleville a few pages of plot story and one of the first major twists in FADE appears. And that's where I stop giving any more spoilers away :lol: <br /><br />The original game was written in French and, on the whole, the translation to English has been done very well. There are occasional spelling mistakes or the wrong word, but they are very minor and don't really affect the overall high quality of the game.<br /><br />If you get stuck in the game, the <a href="http://www.fade-team.com/">Fade Team</a> do have <a href="http://www.fade-team.com/phpBB2/index.php?c=1">forums</a> where you might already find an answer or <a href="http://www.pdagold.com">PDA Gold</a> has a walkthrough of the entire game. When playing the game for this review, I found the walkthrough to be helpful but a bit skimpy in detail, so you might not always find the exact answer you might still have to tap on bits of the screen you haven't tried yet :) <br /><br /><span><b>The Ending</b></span><br />As I said right at the beginning of this review, it isn't until you get to the end of the game that you find out why the game is called FADE. The ending tries to provide an explanation for all of the twists and turns you've encountered on your journey. To a large extent, I think it succeeds and the end result is a really good journey. One that I might take again after I've forgotten bits of it and when I don't have Internet access so I can't cheat again :) <br /><PAGEBREAK><br /><span><b>The Price</b></span><br />If you are a regular reader of my reviews, you'll know that I don't make any comment on the price of the item under review. I prefer to leave that to you. In the case of this game, I will break my rule. I know that some of you will think that this game is too expensive. You will make comparisons against other games and other pieces of software available for the Pocket PC. You might even think about the fact that you can really only play it once.<br /><br />However, I think that this game is good value for money. The developers have clearly spent a lot of time creating the images, the story and plot line, the puzzles and the overall product. The nature of this product means that there will be a small target audience and that inevitably means that the price will be higher than one aimed at a mass audience. Unfortunately for the Fade Team, lowering the price isn't necessarily going to get them many more sales, so they have to pitch the price that (a) will be deemed right by most people and (b) give them a decent return for the sales that they do attract.<br /><br />There are just some products that you have to pay a premium price for
and I think that FADE is one of those products.<br /><br /><span><b>Gotchas</b></span><br />As I've mentioned a couple of times, the game play is linear. By that, I mean that if the game requires you to, say, get a camera and a film for the camera, it won't allow you to get the film first. This can be a bit restrictive because, as I illustrated with the cigarette example, if you've already failed to get the secondary item, you might not be on the lookout for it after you've got past the primary hurdle.<br /><br />Another consequence of the linear flow is that exits and actions often don't appear until you've got all of the information or objects that you need. This does have a benefit, in that you can't make any mistakes, but it also means that once you've played the game, that's it. There aren't any different ways to play it.<br /><br />There isn't a lot of audio to the game a few sound effects scattered through the game. It would be nice to have some background music, perhaps reflecting the period of the game or the location.<br /><br />One thing I hadn't appreciated before starting to play this game was that it is intended for an adult audience. There are some scenes of nudity and the text occasionally includes swearing. As an adult, it didn't really worry or upset me, but it might others and I think that the Fade Team might want to avoid potential problems like that in future games.<br /><br /><span><b>Where To Buy</b></span><br />The software can be <a href="http://www.handango.com/brainstore/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=20522">downloaded from Handango</a> or purchased for $29.90 (affiliate link). The link provided is for the ARM & Windows Mobile 2003 versions. There are separate versions for <a href="http://www.handango.com/brainstore/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=27876">SH3 processors</a> and <a href="http://www.handango.com/brainstore/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=27875">Mips processors</a>, plus a <a href="http://www.handango.com/brainstore/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=92316">French version</a> for ARM & Windows Mobile 2003 devices. There is a demo available; it will play for a couple of hours before stopping.<br /><br /><span><b>Specifications</b></span><br />The game requires 12Mbytes and can be installed onto a storage card. It will work with Pocket PC 2000, 2002 and Windows Mobile 2003. Versions are available for ARM, MIPS and SH3 processors.<br /><br /><span><b>Conclusions</b></span><br />I love graphical adventure games. They challenge me and encourage me to think outside the box a bit more than I might normally. Add to that the quality of images that you get with FADE, and you have an amazing game. The plot is intriguing once you start playing, you might find it difficult to put down, just like a really exciting book. If you enjoy puzzles and adventure games, give this a try. I don't think you'll be disappointed.