7 Days a Skeptic

The Good
I'll be the first to admit that I can't fathom the faulting of amateur games, even mediocre ones. Especially in the adventure genre, where game designing tools for years have made it one of if not the easiest genre to create games in. Not quite foolproof, but much less prone to failure than games in other generations.

And if a game is given to you for free, created by a handful if not a singular person, and not created with the benefit of millions of dollars being poured into it... How can you complain about it if the game is even anything approaching decent?

And 7 Days a Skeptic, for what it is, is most definitely more than average.

A handful of appropriate MIDI tunes that set the mood, and the same goes for the sound effects, those few that there are in a game that only spans a few hours at most.

Some gruesome bits that a horror game like this benefits from.

Actual tension when being chased throughout the station. For a game that takes up a handful of MB at the most, that's remarkable in itself. Reminded me of Maniac Mansion to no end, being chased that is.

Diverse enough characters who act convincingly enough relative to their personalities.

The science fiction setting isn't without explanations of it's inner workings. Plants that can't grow in such an environment, no one needing more than two suits since the creation of material that dirt can't cling to, a Star Trek like food creator. It sets the stage, not letting you forget that you are a few hundred years in the future on a spaceship.

All in all the game isn't anything I didn't play over a decade over... And it's not going to change the landscape of professional or amateur gaming.

But it's a solid enough space adventure romp that'll make you think, invoke more than a few emotions, and keep you busy for a few hours. So why not?

Nice little twist there at the end too. Didn't see it coming.

The Bad
Hmm. The ship looks a little bland, and there's a lack of furnishing and general things around it. Could of used some more variety, more of the science fiction "fluff" that I mentioned above, to flesh it out.

The pitter patter of everyones feet gets a little annoying too, I guess. =)

Some puzzles are more than a little hard to piece together in your mind. And though they're not as aggravating as some adventure games, they did grate on my nerves at times.

Oh yeah, the developer didn't spell "artifact" correctly. Hehhee.

The Bottom Line
A solid enough entry into amateur adventure gaming. You could do far, far worse than playing this one for a few hours.

Kudos to the developer big time for creating a mythos and making his creation into a series. Very well done.

The Good
The first game, 5 Days a Stranger, was very good. So I wanted to complete the saga it's sequel, 7 Days a Skeptic. However while 5 was mostly story driven, 7 is mostly action driven. The graphics are very nice here, and the what plot there is is pretty well thought out.

The Bad
I don't really like the control system, but that more an issue with AGS than with this game. Also, the fact that there was really no story given in this game makes it feel like you are actually in a horror movie sequel that just exists to make money. This game even parodies the movie series Halloween at least twice. There are also two days in which you have to spend the whole (very short) day running away from The Welder. The Welder is also never named, which is too bad as all horror movie legends deserve a name.

The Bottom Line
A decent follow-up effort to 5 Days a Stranger. If you're interested in this game, I strongly suggest you play 5 Days first, and then 7 Days as it will give you a much better understanding of the backstory. And if you only have enough HD space for one of these games, chose 5 Days.

The Good
Continuing in the vein of its predecessor 5 Days a Stranger, Skeptic transposes the slasher flick vibe to a sequel -- IN SPAAAACCEEE. I'm not sure why it was necessary to pick up the same storyline 400 years in the future, but it makes for a really cool Alien-esque setting. Except instead of an Alien it's an aptly malicious and scary space-Jason.

Even (or especially) in the adventure gaming heyday of the early- to mid-90s, there were very few decent horror/suspense games, so it's cool that the designer made an effort to right these past oversights. The ship is a fun setting, and the sparse music combined with ambient sound effects, particularly the use of bipedal pitter-patter, adds immensely to the creep factor. Throw on top of that an inexplicable murder mystery wherein everyone, including the main character, is suspect.

The tension and suspense is really palpable, and the puzzle design is remarkably logical for an adventure game. Every problem has a sensible solution, a relieving change from most fanmade retro games which feature puzzles designed by level 5 sudoku masters who spent too much time playing King's Quest 6.

The Bad
Obviously a retro-style amateur game should be held to different standards than a pro-game. It's free, so that said, there's only so much to complain about but...

..for starters, it's short. Maybe too short. As a side effect of logical puzzles, you can work through the game in pretty short order. There are no alternate solutions, so you're following a very linear path. The limited scope of gameplay means you're essentially playing a movie, but it's in 16-bit and you could be watching Alien instead.

The explorable areas on the space ship are pretty limited and the prop-ish rec room could have done with some functionality for at least the illusion of more open-ended gameplay.

I understand the limited scoring was done for dramatic effect, but honestly a bit more music would have really added to certain segments.

The story itself is a little want for detail. Flashbacks, hallucinations and dreams all add to the atmosphere, but they don't really explain what's going on. The gruesome revelation toward the climax is more for shock value than exposition, and it still leaves tons of loose ends. The Twilight Zone hook at the end is kind of baffling and cheap.

The Bottom Line
It's free, it's fun and it's short. You can't go wrong if you're an adventure gaming fan and you're not expecting a masterpiece of the genre. If you like slasher flicks and suspense games, 7 Days is your man.