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.

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.