Trace Memory

The Good
Adventure games is a strange genre. We don't have many games, but the games that we have are always brilliant. Trace Memory or Another Code is an adventure game featuring puzzles, a deep story and nothing more. It's good enough to become a cult game soon. The game has a similar system used in the games of The Adventure Company, but you can use all the features of the Nintendo DS to solve the puzzles during your adventure.

Stylus is used to move Ashley, but you can do it with the classic control system too. Some puzzles requires the stylus, as well as the use of mic. Puzzles aren't difficult, but you have to remember where the things are because Ashley won't pick anything that is not useful until she knows that it could be useful. It means that you won't have an infinite inventory, just some concrete things picked to solve concrete problems.

Story is as attractive as it sounds from the beginning. Anyway, nothing unpredictable happens, but the story is good. You have to deal with two main stories, one for yourself and another one for your ghost partner who will be with you the most part of the game.

There's no doubt that the most remarkable thing on this game is the story, because puzzles aren't so difficult and you'll finish the game really soon. It's like a movie or something, you'll spend a lot of time watching them talk and nothing more, but it's interesting! Pay attention to the story and you won't be confused anytime. Ashley will do a mind exercise every time that you finish a chapter, it helps to remember important things of the main story, and that's good for the player.

The game is not as "mature" as many other adventure graphics made. You should not expect a game like Syberia or Still Life, it's a different feeling, but the essence is the same. It's just an adventure game.

The Bad
The game is really short, you could finish it in just one day (if you play a lot, that's true). Most of the time they're talking and it's like watching a movie, so, it could be tedious for some players. The story is attractive, right, but we're talking about video-games, not movies, and it's something important. Sometimes you walk just a few steps and they start talking again and again. There are a few puzzles, and just two or three are difficult. Sound is good, music suits with the game, it's ambient and mysterious.

The story, as I said many times before, is good but it's easy to predict. If you pay attention to the story from the beginning you will know what's going to happen before it does. No surprises during the game, and that's not good for a game of this genre. Anyway, they managed to do a good game with a good story.

Some puzzles requires the use of stylus, but it looks like it doesn't response as it should. When you have to move things the stylus is really imprecise. It's not an important mistake because the game uses it a few times, but it's annoying for the player.

When you finish the game, it's possible that you try to finish it again because sometimes you have to choose an answer for some questions. There's always only one correct answer, and you can't change the storyline with your answers, so, no different endings are available. The only reason to do that is to keep the attention of the player in the story, but nothing more. It's a pity because it could be useful to make different storylines. When you finish the game, you don't have to do it again because nothing different will happen.

The Bottom Line
A short game with a deep story (which is easy to predict), a nice main character with charisma, a bunch of interesting puzzles which aren't difficult and a different game from the others available for the DS. If a game like that is done for a system like PC, it would be a mediocre game, but due to the limited number of games of this genre for the DS is a good option without any doubt.