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| The Ripper |
With these few words starts "Ripper", not only the latest interactive adventure game from Take Two Interactive, but also the best title the company ever produced to this date. During the full motion video introduction that obviously sets the mood of the game with its dark and tense atmosphere, the music from the band "Blue Oyster Cult" is no coincidence. The references to the Reaper in the song, undeniably induce a connection between the Reaper and Jack the Ripper, one of the most famous criminals of the 19th century. Such an introduction won't leave you impassive, and whatsoever you feel, it will irresistibly entice you to play the role of Jake Quinlan, a crime reporter at the Virtual Herald working on the Ripper case.
As soon as you arrive at the crime scene where the third victim was shredded by the Ripper, you are struck by how aggressive Magnotta is. His deliberate intention of keeping you from grabbing essential information on the case will go as far as destroying evidence in front of you. Evidently, Vincent Magnotta has a temper, and who else could better interpret this strange character than the enigmatic Christopher Walken?
The cast of actors in "Ripper" is without any doubt, the most impressive that the computer game industry has ever seen. With Karen Allen, Burgess Meredith, John Rhys-Davies, Jimmie Walker and others to figure by the sides of Christopher Walken, this 2.5 million dollar production mainly focused its development on acting and realism. Forgotten is the time when developers used to play themselves as the characters, hence showing their poor acting talents to the entire gaming community. In "Ripper", the professional cast makes all the difference, and with the excellent full motion video, the results are simply stunning despite it only uses 256 colors. Four different configurations allow you to set up the video playback according to your PC performances from low to high resolution and interlaced graphics. Overall, nearly three hours of video were compressed on the six CD's.
Basically, "Ripper" follows the trend initiated by "The 7th Guest" and other similar games. Each location features one or several possibilities of movement that are accompanied with an animation that puts you in place of the character. Unlike "The 7th Guest" where the camera views were almost constantly horizontal, the animations in "Ripper" have partially integrated the movements of a person walking around. While moving about, your view will go slowly from left to right for example, as if you were turning your head to look around. Without radically bringing something extraordinary to the genre, it gives a greater depth to the 3D environment, thus strengthening the realism of the scenes.
The interactions with the environment are of two types in the game. In the first, more like 2D classic adventure games, you must explore the various locations, examine objects, find clues and solve puzzles. The second type concerns the dialogues with the numerous characters you can meet in the game. As in "Under A Killing Moon", characters appear in the various rooms that you visit. Should they be on the phone, waiting behind a desk, or even training in a gym center, you will see them animated on the screen while you can still explore the rest of the room. Placing the icon over the character transforms it into a skull which means you can ask questions. If you click on the mouse, a choice of questions will be displayed below the character and each question will bring up a video sequence. The questions can be selected independently of the others as the answers have virtually no influence on the progress of the conversation. Only at rare moments you will have to decide between two attitudes to adopt, leading your interlocutor to different reactions.
During your investigation, you will inevitably stumble across objects and puzzles. When there will be something of interest, your icon will become a magnifying glass, and clicking on it will bring a closer view. If you encounter an object you can take with you, your icon will shape into a grabbing hand. If however, it turns out to be only something you can scan with your WAC (a hand-held laptop computer), you will have a small laptop icon instead. The objects will be placed in your inventory to be used later, and what was scanned will be stored in a database you can check at anytime.
"Ripper" features many puzzles based on reflexion, but also on your observation skills. Some puzzles will even have you compete against the computer AI like in the "11th Hour". Although you can change the difficulty from easy to hard, and medium, I found the puzzles to be sometimes confusing as I didn't have any clue on how to solve it. There are no in-game hints available, and even switching to the easiest level will probably give you a hard time with some of them. Still it is really entertaining, and will have you coming back again and again to give it another try.
But "Ripper" has more to offer than 3D rendered animations, puzzles and full motion videos. The game also contains arcade shooting sequences similar to what you can find in "Wetlands" or "Rebel Assault 2". These scenes only found in the cyberspace, require precision and agility to succeed. You will be given unlimited tries as you won't die if you fail.
The cyberspace as you will discover it in the game, plays a prevalent role. To access the cyberspace, you must first find a docking station. The one in the newsroom at the Virtual Herald will be your main access to the virtual world throughout the game. The cyberspace consists of various locations called "wells" that are protected with passwords. These "wells" are the propriety of a person or a company, and to make an easy comparison, you can consider them as "home pages" on the Internet. Some "wells" are protected by a guardian to prevent an intruder to have access on the information hidden inside, thus bringing the shooting sequences upon your arrival in the "well".
As your investigation progresses, you will reveal clues and evidence that will point out to a series of suspects. It will be difficult to make a choice as you must be aware that some characters might deliberately try to mislead you. The end of the game will be the final test where you and the four suspects will be trapped in the cyberspace, in a virtual representation of the White Chapel neighborhood back in London of the 19th century. With only one chance to shoot at the Ripper and three to die, saving your game before the final encounter will be extremely wise.
| Graphics: | 93% |
| Sound: | 89% |
| Music: | 90% |
| Gameplay: | 92% |
| Interest: | 93% |
| Overall: | 92% |
Creative Labs; Media Vision and Gravis Ultrasound cards supported.
Supports Windows 95.
| Technical Support: | 412-539-6407 |
| Fax Support: | 412-539-3195 |
| BBS Support: | 412-539-6414 |
| Hints: | 1-900-28-TAKE2 |
| 0.95 cents per minute for recorded hints | |
| $1.25 per minute for live hints | |
Internet support: Take Two
Interactive
Web site: Take Two Interactive
Acclaim Entertainment.
Web site: Acclaim Entertainment
In Europe:
In UK:
Gametek UK.,
258 Bath Road,
Slough, Berkshire SL1 4DX.
| Technical Support: | +44-(0)1753-531831 |
| Fax Support: | +44-(0)1753-554340 |
In Germany:
Gametek Deutschland GmbH,
Steinmetzstr. 20,
41061 Monchengladbach.
| Technical Support: | +49-(0)180-5304525 |
In France:
Gametek France,
5 Rue Jean Rostand,
B.P. 380,
Genas Cedex.
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