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.

This game is definitely worth playing. The involving plot, simple interface, interesting characters, stunning graphics, and well-designed audio definitely compensate for the tough puzzles, complicated movement paths, and occasional overacting. The controls are easy to use, and icons are simple to figure out. There are a lot of conversations, but they are all entertaining and/or useful. Video sequences are well put together, fun to watch, and if you get sick of them you can always hit your trusty escape key. Besides that you get to explore cyberspace and stop the worst killer in the 21st Century. If you can find a copy, pick it up. The story and visuals themselves are worth playing for.

"Ripper" is certainly a slick production, with stylish, hip graphics and sufficiently varied gameplay to keep you going for days. Unless, of course, you boldly decide to tackle all the puzzles without any assistance, in which case the game might take you months to complete (but look on the bright side: by then, what with all the disk-swapping, you'll be a very nimble-wristed person). Still, not all the stars deliver stellar performances, and the quality of the video and animations suffers from lackluster porting.

Ripper är ett av de första riktigt bra äventyrsspelen med video/datorgrafik. Det kan kännas lite begränsat men båda handlingen och atmosfären och svårighetsgraden på gåtorna gör att man gärna sitter och grubblar en bit in på natten.

This is slick, sophisticated entertainment with difficult puzzles and a rich, complicated story set in an intriguing gameworld.

So is it replayable? I don't think so. But is Ripper worth playing? For serious adventurers, absolutely. Way above and beyond the annoyances cited above, rises a game that tries to give us everything, and for the most part, succeeds. For those of us who don't necessarily want everything on one plate choose Easy Mode for combat and enjoy the rest. But for those who can happily ladle Chinese food over Belgian waffles, pick up a copy today. Lace up your gloves, make sure your mouthpiece is in place and go to your respective corners. Then, get ready to rumble!

Take 2 erbrachte im vergangenen Jahr den Beweis dafür, daß Hollywoodstars nicht unbedingt Garanten für erfolgreiche Spiele sind. Was Dennis Hopper in Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller nicht schaffte, soll nun Christopher Walken mit Ripper gelingen.

Was bleibt ist ein sehr spannender und guter Film, aber auch ein zähes und mäßiges Spiel an und für sich. Dass es trotz des Gameplays, noch für drei Lupen reicht, zeigt wie deutlich sich der storytechnische Inhalt, von anderen Bereichen des Spiels abzuheben vermag. Dennoch sind die filmischen– ebenfalls in 3 D gehaltenen- 'Tex Murphy' Abenteuer deutlich vorzuziehen.

Entwarnung vorneweg: Nach dem höllisch miesen "Hell" hat Take 2 bei "Ripper" die Kurve gekriegt. Die Videos haben nicht ganz Wing-4-Niveau, transportieren aber die verzwickte Story ganz gut, ohne allzu aufgesetzt zu wirken. Im Gegensatz zu so manchem "interaktiven Film" ist dier spielerische Gehalt manierlich, geht aber nicht in die klassische Adventure-Richtung.

Just when I'd written off Ripper as a cross between a B movie and a Mensa application, it threw me a pleasant curve: Quinlan's visits to the ''well,'' which I can describe only as equal parts The Lawnmower Man, Salvador Dali painting, and Grateful Dead album cover. These dizzying interludes make you wonder why CD-ROM producers are so hot for live actors in the first place — I'd rather spend an entire game spinning around in psychedelic cyberspace than playing gumshoe with Christopher Walken.

With all of this going against it, Ripper should be commended only for what it aimed to achieve, but failed to follow through on. This game is a weak hybrid experiment that combines the graphic adventure genre with a grand scale movie production—and will hopefully send other developers scrambling to one-up Take 2 with better parts to create one playable, enjoyable whole.