Since "Magenta" asked in another thread what playing The eYe was like, I decided to give it a little personal review for the newer fans.
--------------------------
First of all...I played it years ago when it came out on a PII 300 MHz with 32 MB RAM and Win 98, 4GB hard drive. It worked out alright, but in the beginning I had a few problems with my sound card. Most times I played it, the Queen songs/instrumentals didn't play during the game. But that was ok. The music can easily interfere with the characters and what they say.
However, when I started playing it, it was a hassle. I presumed you had to try and kill every enemy that shows up. Especially in the Arena Domain you actually just run away from them. I tried to play without hints and cheats as long as I could, so that was a bit of a problem for a while. So the Arena is more or less a 3D jump n' run.
I also tried to play by keyboard, not joystick, and there were literally about 20 keys you were supposed to use. Talk about bad gameplay.
The general appearance of the game was pretty much like Tomb Raider at the time. Looking at the specifications of my old computer back then, you can presume I wasn't too spoiled by great graphics. But I knew what was possible. Anyone remember Myst and Riven? That was graphics.
The story seemed to be interesting, and the use of Queen sounds and videos added to it. I still remember nice places or areas of the game that had a certain feel to it. The Works Domain mainly. I liked the greenhouse and the catacombs. But again, it was hard for me to play it without hints. The characters were ok. I liked the weirdness in the Theatre Domain, Mr Fahrenheit and all.
But playing the game has worn off pretty fast. By the time I finally reached the Innuendo Domain, I wasn't much in the mood to play anymore. The graphics and the story didn't do a lot for me anymore either. Usually in other games I wanted to see what's next. But I didn't regret not having finished the game. The Final Domain was quite difficult for me back then, and then I thought it's not worth it.
For comparison, I stayed up nights long to play and solve Riven. I also could sit and play Command & Conquer 2 and 3 for hours at a time. The eYe wasn't that kind of game to me. I kept it for the music though.
I didn't like the lack of continuity. It was supposed to entertain a lot of different customers, so all kinds of things were included. Things that sound great on paper. Mystery, fights, riddles, weird characters, a story... So you played easy and fast at times and then got stuck in a riddle for ages. That could get a little annoying.
The end result was nice for a Queen fan. I liked it from that point of view. But generally the game didn't exactly keep me want to play. If you can get your hands on it these days and you are able to run it (it is made for a Win 95 environment, so Win 98 was probably the last system it worked on), get it and play it. It can be quite enjoyable for a while for the sake of the Queen connection.
You might simply not be too keen on playing it till the end. But then at least you still have the instrumentals.
For the collectors among you:
The instrumentals in the game were different in several countries.
You can find games with We Will Rock You (live from Wembley '86) overdubbed with english, german or spanish speech. The game was available in english, german, spanish and french, therefore it included conversations during the game in the respective language.
You can also find games with the full instrumental of Party on one CD instead of two identical versions of the Liar intro. I uploaded this instrumental a while ago in mp3, because not a lot of people seemed to have it. (General comment: "A surprising gem has surfaced.") However, that instrumental is official, so I deleted the links again. You might be able to get it in a trade or by e-mail from a Queenzoner tho. It will be mp3, if it's coming from my original upload, so that's lossy of course.
Other than that, I'm sure the internet will provide you with specific differences that are interesting for collectors.
Agree with ^here. It took a long while to produce this "work of art". I read the book before i got the game and it looked fine...but we're talkin 1998 here and games were becoming more advanced in graphics and gameplay (remember Half Life, GoldenEye, Blade Runner etc). The game would've worked if it was released three years before(it was scheduled for a 1995 release), but with the poor story (Almost the same plot as the WWRY Musical), bad animation, horrific gameplay and butchered songs it's one of EA and QP's worst products.
The only positive thing about the package: Great level design.
The only time I've enjoyed a game that was pretty much made to advertise an artist
was David Bowie's "Omikron : Nomad Soul". That game kicked arse!!
(Well the demo did, I never got the full one).
Zebonka12 wrote: The only time I've enjoyed a game that was pretty much made to advertise an artist
was David Bowie's "Omikron : Nomad Soul". That game kicked arse!!
(Well the demo did, I never got the full one).
"KISS Psycho Circus" was an excellent piece of gaming...
V.
Zebonka12 wrote: The only time I've enjoyed a game that was pretty much made to advertise an artist
was David Bowie's "Omikron : Nomad Soul". That game kicked arse!!
(Well the demo did, I never got the full one).
I've got the full game and it is really difficult, the only way to get through the game is with a walkthrough.
I really like that song from Bowie at the beginning of the game. link
It is indeed a very good game :)
Bands and video games just don't mix. Devo was the first to do it (remember anyone?) and it just has never made sense.
Perhaps they sacrifice the budget paying the bands when the should be paying decent programmers. I played The Eye once and never found the need to ever play it again.
deleted user 08.02.2007 21:37
Thank you VERY much, Jan! You've really helped me out! I'll probably buy it if I can, but I won't expect too much.
Thanks again!!!
DoBBieS
If everyone could review it and make it better, I would love to take a spin back into time and see https://casinor.com for what it is other than wrecked ship.
I have fond memories of this game, but not because of the gameplay. At the time I was already a Queen fan but I didn't know much about the non-hits. As with the Queen Rocks compilation that came out a year before, the game introduced me to a lot of great songs that I didn't know before.
A problem with the eYe was that the included tracklisting was just complete nonsense, it didn't match with the actual songs at all. So it took me much longer before I found out that those cool riffs were from songs like Dragon Attack and More of That Jazz.
The game itself isn't great, the tank controls make the fighting and platforming a lot harder than they needed to be. Still, it was an interesting project.