Simon the Sorcerer 4: Chaos Happens

The Good
Before I go any further I must say that this is NOT a bad game, it just didn't work for me.

After playing Simon The Sorcerer 3 I was pleased that this game looked and played sooo much better. The combination of 3D characters and a 2D background worked so well. The gameplay was smooth and it worked flawlessly, for me, under Windows 10. I especially liked the little animations in the background, there were woodpeckers flitting around the trees and log cabins, moles digging holes and so on. These were unexpected, amusing and well done.

The sound was good with pleasant medieval-like music burbling along in the background. There are background sounds too but they never intruded or sounded out of place. Overall the sound quality and the sound balance was spot-on.

I think what I liked most about this game is that it didn't try to be too innovative. The controls just felt right and behaved as expected, there was nothing new to get used to. Putting the mouse pointer on an object gave an icon which clearly showed whether I could look at it or interact with it - I don't remember a time when I had to make a choice between looking or using - so gameplay was straightforward and, well, natural. The game has a map function which allows fast travel between locations, this is a good feature and is nicely done.

The final thing I liked about this game was its length. There came a point where I thought I was near the end only to find it went on and on and on. At the time I was playing half-heartedly and really only wanted to see the ending so this was a bit of a mixed blessing.

The Bad
There are some clever puzzles in this game and many of them are quite logical, however I did have several "Where do I go now?" moments and only completed the game with the help of a walkthrough. When I read through to the point where I was stuck my general reaction was "WTF! I'd never have tried that!" because the solution was kinda surreal. There was only one occasion when I thought "I should have got that" and that was when I was well into the game and, frankly, by that time I just wanted to see how it ended.

What killed this game for me is what made the other games ( well Simon 1 & Simon 2 ) so enjoyable - they were funny and this wasn't. The voice acting, like the game, was competent but the lines were being delivered by someone doing their job and not by someone who was having fun themselves. There are jokes in this game and the best did raise a smile but no more than that.

The Bottom Line
I finished the game in three evenings which equates to around fifteen hours gameplay. I did get stuck and I did use a walkthrough, if I hadn't used a walkthrough I could have been playing a week or more.

Take away the fun from a Simon the Sorcerer game and you have, well, just another game. It's good and it's competently done but it is not memorable nor is it outstanding.