Simon the Sorcerer 5: Who’d Even Want Contact?! Takes us back into the world of Simon the popular miss-firing sorcerer of adventure gaming history. In this, the fifth episode, Simon has settled into a life of pizzas and watching T.V. And managing a magic shop with long suffering girlfriend Alix when he is confronted by aliens determined to destroy not only the magical world but the entire Earth. Simon with the help of some unorthodox tools (think extendible finger, power of peacefulness and a vicious bunny rabbit !) manages to escape the aliens but Alix is not so lucky and is abducted.
Simons humour still very evident
The game is presented in a cartoon style with bright colours and soft rounded character models which really demonstrates the spirit in which this game has been created and developed – with a lot of humour ! The animation is gorgeous and even though it has been modelled in cartoon style there is still a lot of detail applied to each background and you will be taken on a journey from the cobbled streets of a medieval town to discovering futuristic looking underworlds or idyllic Caribbean beaches, and travelling on a steam powered starship through space. Cutscenes are integrated into the game play seamlessly and whether its diving head first into a pile of rubbish or enlivening a crazy inventor by means of voodoo the story is driven forward beautifully.
Along with the graphics the character portrayal and humour were brilliant. Simon fairy tale friends seem to come from an alternate universe where Goldilocks is a thief, Red Riding Hood a man hating nasty little character and a drunken big bad wolf to name but a few. Gamers who have enjoyed the previous Simon titles will of course be familiar with these characters and Swampling who also makes an appearance.
While the previous title split the loyal Simon fanbase, the developers have gone someway in addressing the issues. The dialogues have been shortened and punchlines delivered quicker, the detailed 2D/3D graphics using cel-shading has sharpened the graphics and on the whole the voice acting is very good.
lots of beach action
The controls and inventory system are simple to use and user friendly. The inventory is displayed when you hover your mouse around the bottom of the screen and objects can be combined by dragging one onto another. The quest book is a very handy tool , Simon’s actions automatically trigger updates to the quest book where you can check up on you current tasks and for each task you are gifted three hints or tips staggered by the level of information divulged ie. The first hint is a gentle nudge and the third hint virtually hands you the solution on a silver tray.
The story is undoubtedly absurd as are the characters and a lot of the puzzle solutions. The puzzles contained within Simon 5 are inventory-based meaning you will have to gather lots of strange items on your travels giving rise to some pretty bizarre solutions. Gameplay can also be affected by the players choice of dialogue and there is an instance where you have a choice of three routes however this only affects a five or ten minute stretch of gameplay and doesn’t determine the overall outcome.
lots of fabulous action
Summary
The cel-shaded graphics are packed with beautiful animations, diverse brightly coloured locations to explore, a simple interface and hint system and on appearances it all lends itself to a younger audience but be warned the game does contain risque material and is peppered with foul language. I found myself laughing throughout the game at the dialogue and characters’ behaviour and Simon the Sorcerer 5: Who’d Even Want Contact?! Will definitely brighten the mood of any adventure gamer. Currently the game is only available through digital download at Gamersgate
Marks out of 10
Gameplay 9: Always aware of your next task and everything just very fluid
Graphics and Audio 9: graphics are outsanding and if you exclude maybe two of the characters voice acting (sorry Alix and Swampling) so is the audio
Story 8.5: Far fetched but lets face it we are immeresed in Simon’s world so its to be expected. Very well executed
Replayability 8.5: yes look forward to revisiting from time to time
Overall : 8.5/10
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