Windows

D

Stylish, cinematic and creepily atmospheric, D would be a good example to show your friends of what 3-D graphics animators can do on the computer these days. From the perspectives, lighting, and direction to the incredible sound effects (you can hear a key slapping into your character's palm) and attention to detail (you can occasionally track your character's movements in the mirror), D is one of the most impressive and professional games yet.

What makes D a failure and the reason it is on Just Adventure’s list of “turkeys” is exactly what is supposed to make it stand out. From the moment the game starts, players have exactly two hours to complete the game and there is no save function. While this seems to be a nice touch at first, what it really means is that the game is very short. The puzzles, although entertaining for the most part, will not be challenging for experienced adventure gamers, especially since Laura is confined to a relatively small portion of the house at any point in the game with a limited number of things to examine.

While often unfairly dismissed as a survival horror, D is nevertheless an adventure for completists and older console owners only.

It's the overall design, though, that remains its biggest mistake. Making it operate in real-time is an OK idea - it's a cheap way to generate tension. However, not allowing saves is just asinine. How many people are going to block out two hours of time to play a game? How many people are going to want to replay the first 2/3 of the game over and over again if they can't get through to the end? How many people are going to manage to get to the end of the game the first time and then wonder, "that's it?" D is just too short, too linear and too bad to be anything but a Disaster.

D, if I may be cynical for a moment, could well stand for Done to Death in that it continues the trend towards 'interactive movies' or 'interactive stories' with a horror theme. The emphasis is on graphics and 'atmosphere' which it does very well, but it falls down in the vital area of gameplay where puzzles and exploration are minimal. This is a shame because it had the potential to be a quite enjoyable game despite its deliberate pitch to the graphic horror market.