Simon the Sorcerer 4: Chaos Happens

The Good
After the disaster that was Simon the Sorcerer 3D "Adventure Soft" sold the rights to the game to the German "Silver Style Entertainment".

Learning from the mistakes of Simon 3D "Silver Style Entertainment" return the game to the classic point and click interface and thus the game is once again a classic quest - in which you advance by talking with people and solving a inventory base puzzles.

Another part that the game done to correct the mistakes of Simon 3D is the graphics, Simon and the other characters are made using a superb 3D graphics while the background is painted in 2D. All in all the new look fit very well and do justice to the series.

Another thing that I liked is when Simon arrive to Hades and meet the god of the underworld, Orpheus, Eurydice, Ovid, Sisyphus and Cerberus. As a fan of classical history and mythology I really got a kick out of this level.

The Bad
The Simon of this game is completely different from the one we knew at the previous three, Simon chose to return to the magic kingdom after seeing a vision of Alix telling him that the kingdom is in danger and so he came to save it. This is completely out of character for Simon, in the previous games Simon didn't show any interest in saving the day (or in Alix for that matter) he just wanted to go home and go on with his life.

In addition the dialog is pretty bad and Simon lost his trademark cynicism and his obnoxious (but funny) behavior toward others, as a result many of the jokes and the attempted parodies (e.g Red Riding Hood) are just not funny. A big minus when we discussing a Simon the Sorcerer game.

This new persona is made worst by the voice acting, Brian Bowles (who voiced Simon in the two previous games) didn't reprise his role and our beloved wizard is now voiced with an American accent and the actor performance sounded weird and unnatural.

In comparison to the previous games this one is pretty easy and you shouldn't have a problem finishing it in a day or so.

The Bottom Line
I wouldn't say this game is bad because it isn't. It's not the best quest out there but you will have a decent time playing it.

However as a successor to the first two games of Simon the Sorcerer this game is beneath the standard they set, this caused mainly by the lack of good humor which was the heart of those games.

If you didn't play the first two games of Simon the Sorcerer, go out, get them and play them. They are much better than this one. I would recommend this game to hardcore Simon fans; just don't have expectations about it. Looks like the series has gone downhill forever.