Summary
Innovative and suspenseful, although not serious enough in what it tries to be
The Good
"Countdown" is yet another one of those weird ground-breaking adventures by Access, with digital sound effects, live actors, and some really advanced graphics - and this all in 1990!
Like all the games made by Access, "Countdown" maintains a good balance between the story, the atmosphere and the technical stuff, such as graphics, music etc. The story is strong and fascinating, it draws your attention immediately. If you thought most adventure games are just cute, innocent cartoons, how about checking this baby. This could have been the father of horror adventure (if it could maintain the horror atmosphere better - more on that later), and has definitely influenced the magnificent
Sanitarium. The design is very innovative - probably it was one of the first games ever to use real videos (since
Martian Memorandum appeared later). The story is quite cool, full of twists and turns, a genuine cheap B-rated horror/espionage thriller, and there is nothing wrong with that.
The puzzles are more on the traditional detective side, "search all the pixels in the room until you find what you need", but it is always nice to gather evidence and to see how your little notebook gets filled with people, locations, and other data.
The dialogue system is unusual and very interesting - the characters react to you depending on your approach, almost in a RPG-like fashion. Some people require you to be tough with them, some appreciate flattering, and so on.
The graphics are extremely well done, with digitized actors and wonderfully painted backgrounds. The sound effects are realistic and creepy.
Finally, this is the only game I know where you visit Israel. It was nice for me to see my own country in a game. In Israel you also have the best conversation of the game: you meet a girl who is your contact in further investigation of the mystery, and ask her: "Are all Israeli spies as gorgeous as you?", whereas the girl answers coldly: "No, just the women".
The Bad
The controls are very uncomfortable, you can't move your character around and perform actions at the same time, just like in "Martian Memorandum". The puzzles are tough, mainly due to the awkward interface and the inevitable pixel-hunting (the blessed system LucasArts used, highlighting important objects, was unfortunately not implemented by Access at that time), some of them require annoying backtracking, and the time limit is very disturbing. Three-four train trips instead of the (obviously) much faster plane - and the game is over, because the time limit is exceeded. Why so? I like trains more than plains, and they are cheaper, too.
But the biggest problem is the fact they couldn't make a full-fledged horror game out of thise title. The game's beginning is so promising, I was expecting a cool psychological thriller with lots of weird and unusual stuff. Instead, as soon as I got out of the asylum, I was involved into a cheesy "save the world" globe-trotting story. Sure, the ending was unexpected, and some moments were nicely done, but the game totally lost the horror touch after the opening chapter in the asylum, which was miles above the rest of the game.
The Bottom Line
An interesting game which you shouldn't miss if you are interested in adventures. Unfortunately, the story quickly goes downhill after a promising beginning, and some frustrating pixel-hunting prevent it from being the perfect horror/mystery thriller. Anyway, just check it out to see what technical marvels Access was capable of at the time. If you wish to see more of this stuff in a better game, try
Martian Memorandum.
