Seven Games of the Soul

List Price: $29.95 Discount Price: $6.00

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PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine

Customer Reviews:

I was disappointed [Posted on 2005-04-27]
In the early part of the 20th century, a man named Theodore More built an amusement park called Dreamland. The park was inhabited by various societal misfits--a pair of Siamese twins, an animal trainer with parental issues, a fat lady, etc.--all of whom had some dealings of an infernal nature with a gentleman named Mephisto. Now there's some dissension in the upper realms as to whether all these people deserved what they got and an everyman--Marcellus Faust--is sent to explore the past and sort things out.

_Faust: Seven Games of the Soul_ is a game that players seem either to love or hate. The ones who love it cite its adult themes, great soundtrack, decent graphics and freedeom of exploration. Its detractors refer to illogical puzzles, technical problems, random action triggers and lack of a truly coherent story. All these things, both the good and the bad, are part and parcel of this game. Taking all into account, I fully expected to be one of the pro-Faust camp. I wasn't.

In the first place, as another reviewer has pointed out, this game really doesn't run very well on XP. You can get it to run if you use a compatability mode and turn your sound acceleration all the way down. But sound in the cutscenes is still extremely choppy and there are numerous things in the game that don't work. Half the features on the main menu simply don't function. Some of these features are supposed to be helpful in gameplay (detailed notes on each character, for example, that just aren't there). Some are things that have led others to give Faust high ratings (no matter what, I could only access one song from the soundtrack)so their lack really had an impact. Within the game there are numerous glitches as well--hotspots that don't appear, or appear far from where they're supposed to, cutscenes that don't play, things that don't work. Just for that, I found attempting to play Faust a frustrating experience.

But it's when you get to the story that things really fall apart. In seven episodes, each devoted to one of the park's denizens, you're supposed to unveil a greater mystery. And you do, kind of. But the episodes themselves are too short and lack detail, and only a few of them contribute to the greater story. Otherwise, you're exploring territory that's infuriatingly random. Some of these people had relationships with each other. Some didn't. What's the point and who cares? By the end, I didn't.

The puzzles were a mixed bag, mostly inventory-based with a few combination locks--not enough variety to excite me, I'm afraid. And here, too, the randomness showed. There was too much inventory that you picked up that had no purpose other than to trigger a cutscene. There was other inventory that you picked up that had no purpose at all and later disappeared (what was that baseball bat for?????) There were puzzles that were so obtuse that there was no possibility that one could solve them without at least a nudge and puzzles that gave no indication they HAD been solved, so I still had to consult a walkthrough to see what was going on. There were puzzles with so many possible solutions--putting a number of words into order in a sentence, for example, when those words would make sense in a hundred different orders--that solving them would take days. I generally play without hints or a walkthrough, so having to exit the game and consult one about five times an episode just to follow the gameplay was truly annoying. Also, towards the end of every episode you're suddenly thrust into a totally different location where you have to complete some action unrelated to anything else to move on. The whole experience was like being shunted back and forth along a series of badly running bumper cars.

After everything else, the revelation of the "true" story and the final decision were a letdown and the two endings, good and bad, were frankly abrupt, meaningless and had the feeling of being slapped on.

I completed Faust in under 20 hours. It would have been shorter if I'd known what was going on. I have to say, for all the disappointments, it IS a haunting game and I DO keep thinking about it. I think if I had an older computer on which to play older games I'd play it again; maybe I'd like it better. But on modern machines, by the standards of today's games, it just doesn't measure up.

Very Imaginative [Posted on 2006-08-10]
The seven separate parts were enjoyable to play and had interesting (although in a few places odd) story lines. The puzzles contained in the stories were related contextually and had varying degrees of difficulty. There were few, if any, puzzles which had solutions that were so far removed they would be impossible to figure out.

Confused and Angry [Posted on 2007-06-26]
I am often a little suprised at the reviews some games get, but i can understand that everybody has different tastes so it does,nt bother me. But this has me stumped this is by far the worst adventure game i have ever played,i did,nt even play it exactly i actually used a wwalkthrough for the entire thing just so i could also make a review on the storyline and plot otherwise i would have stopped lpaying right there

Lets begin with the puzzles probably the lowest point of the game they are impossible for the player to solve for the most part Some of the more ridiculous ouzzles include finding a tiny rectangular metal plate on the ground its colour almost matches the ground making it even more impossible to find but there is absoloutly no indication that you have to find this metal reangle which then makes a clicking sound and you are now able to open a plaque on the wall which before if you tried clicking on it nothing would have happend not even a click to indicate it is locked but can be opened. In another puzzle you enter a bathroom and there is a hotspot on a part of the wall the entire wall is the same with no distinguishable features but for some reason there is a hotspot on just ONE part of the wall clicking on this NOTHING brings up a mirror(??) a mirror just appears in thin air with what appears to be the reflection of a drawer in the bathroom, but when you look the actual drawer has not opened only the drawer in the mirror image and you must open the drawer in the mirror image not the real One. hows that for ridiculous. Furthermore much of what you do you dont know why you you need to do that, it lacks purpose and logic.

As for the plot it leaves alot of unexplained questions one of the characters "two siamese twins" are seen seperate in one clip, this is never explained or even referenced ever again, there alot of things like that, and the character animations are just terrible they have no facial expression the character mephisto has a constant grin on his face and for some reason his arms are constantly flailing about the place as he talks, actually all the characters are like that. You will find nothing in this game, If i were a game develop giving a presentation on what NOT to do in an adventure game id bring this along as an example.

Great Game [Posted on 2007-07-12]
This a fun adventure! I am new to adventure games and this was good. The puzzles were not too hard to figure out. I did have to cheat a little bit.

7 games of cool atmosphere and confusion [Posted on 2007-12-14]
7 games of the soul is interesting enough if you enjoy puzzles solving games.The graphics are outdated, but the music is timeless. So it's six of one half a dozen of the other. If you enjoyed MYST, this is about the level of graphics MYST was, but without the LOGIC of the MYST puzzles. "7GOTS" consists mainly of hunting and pecking with your cursor finger, trying to accidentally roll-over the important spot on the screen that lets you know you can do something there. The main problem is, there is no real logic or pattern to the events and objects and things you are supposed to touch and move with the cursor. I found I was unable to get past certain points in the game due to the complete ridiculous nature of the thing you were supposed to do and thusly,I had to rely on hints from the internet. None of the puzzles seem make much sense in the problem-solving fashion, but if you have a lot of time on your hands and enjoy SLOWLY playing games, you might actually enjoy this. The music and the scenery are just cool enough to make this NOT a total waste of your time.It has a certain charm and dark appeal of some kind.
I am using the game on WINDOWS XP and I am not having trouble with the game function in that respect. It installed and played fine.No trouble with the animations or the basic game play. But my Mcaffe anti-virus program does pop up every time I try to save the game and says it removed a Trojan masquerading as another type of program. So, either it's incompatible with Mcaffe or it really includes a Trojan on the disc. Puzzling? YES!
I am inclined to think the Trojan might actually be there, because when I originally played this game, several years ago, I had a pc with windows 98 installed and there were also problems whenever I tried to save. I didn't have Mcaffe then, but something always went wrong when I tried to save, and this was a completely different computer and different game discs. So, you be the judge. Is it worth it to play this slightly interesting, but totally illogical out-dated game with possibly a STORED Trojan on the discs....?
I am beginning to wonder if I should finish the game a second time...but since it is very pretty and atmospheric to look at and has GREAT music, am I in an actual debate as to whether I should continue. Who knows, what danger lurks in the realms of the 7 games of the soul....

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