(re: re: Larry 8 update – Ken, any opinons?)
Since Ken hasn’t chimed in and I’m impatient, I’ll say what I was going to say.
In reading this article, there was a very noticeable absence of any type of story. To me (and to a lot of other people), the story is the most important part of an adventure game. The fact that they started with a Sims idea (there’s no story in the Sims!), then scrapped that for a bunch of mini-games, is very daunting to me. All we’re hearing about is the mini-games… what’s the actual GAME about? Something tells me there is no unifying game. If there were, we would have heard a little bit about what that would be about. And, it would have been a big part of the initial conversations… “Let’s make a game about X where Y happens so we can end up with Z” vs. “Let’s make a game where people talk.”
Or to be more specific, “Let’s make a game where Alexander goes looking for Cassima, who’s been locked in a tower by the evil vizier, and saves her so they can get married” vs. “Let’s make a game where Alexander talks.”
It may be a fun game, but I don’t see what it has to do with Larry. They didn’t even want Larry to be the protagonist initially, and then they decided to have him (for some unclear reason) but also decided the game would be set in college, so they changed the protagonist to Larry’s nephew. Okay… why not just come up with a NEW character? To me this stinks of them capitalizing on an old franchise for the sole purpose of selling games… which leaves me feeling very unhappy with Sierra (although it’s not too different from what I’ve come to expect from them).
I think “getting Al involved” is a token on their part. The game seems too far in development for him to have any impact. I’d love to know his reaction to this article…
-emily