For all those who would like to get to know the pros and cons of the work of Queen Victoria's secret agent, who like to spend hours having fun with classic adventures, appreciate a good joke or feel attracted to frock coats and long for the times when a decent citizen could freely take advantage of For their servants, Divide By Zero has created a great opportunity with The Gene Machine. The main protagonist of the game is Piers Fanshawe, a nineteenth-century London gentleman, the queen's trusted man, intended for tasks requiring decisiveness, cunning and discretion. We meet him when he returns from America with his servant, Mossops, after completing an extremely important and secret mission. Such a beginning does not foreshadow a thrilling action, after all, there is only paperwork left from the special task, and the tired heroes only plan a well-deserved rest. However, as soon as Fanshawe enters the homestead, an amazing guest shows up. He tells a fantastic story about a mad scientist, Dr. Dinsey, describes a hellish machine, capable of daring genetic operations, spreads an apocalyptic vision of an attack by legions of hideous hybrids of animals and humans. Piers, in which the character is played by the player, has to face another task, more important and more difficult than all the previous ones, because you have to act on your own.
This is how the actual action of the game begins. From London, it soon moves to the most amazing places on the globe. The Gene Machine is a typical adventure game. It consists of a large number of static backgrounds that you can move around quite freely. You can also leave the board, if there is a place near any of its ends where the word EXIT appears under the cursor. The protagonist moves around the game world by walking (usually) or riding a horse-drawn carriage (in London - where the extensive, initial part of the plot takes place). During the game, he finds many different items. Sometimes they are so small that one may overlook one, but it does not happen often. When you press the spacebar, icons of all carried items are displayed at the bottom of the screen. When the cursor is clicked on one of them - icons of activities that can be performed on a given subject are displayed, there are many of them, but the simplicity of symbols and clear descriptions exclude the possibility of misunderstandings. When you press the spacebar twice, the game menu icons are displayed, including save and read game state and exit and return to game.
A big plus of The Gene Machine is the fact that Pierce has a pocket under the coat with unlimited capacity. The player does not have to wonder what can be of use to him in the near future and what needs to be discarded. The creators went even further - you can't just get rid of the taken item. It disappears only when properly used or as a result of spontaneous development of the action. This is related to the second "blessed" procedure of the authors - the game never moves forward, if the player were to get stuck in a situation with no way out (for example, when he does not find an item). The individual security features are so elaborately planned that even knowingly finding them is not always easy. There is also no failure in the game. There is no chance that the hero will die, and the final victory is only a matter of time - even if it is achieved by testing all possibilities. Enthusiasts of adventure games can imagine how blissful and carefree playing The Gene Machine is.
Each game stage is made in a similar way - a nice, pastel background with flat, bright and quite large figures of characters. Rendered items also appear from time to time. They look very nice, but in my opinion they contrast unpleasantly with the rest of the graphics and spoil the overall effect. Figures and objects seem to be cut out of colored paper - flat, stiff, with clear contours. The creators gave up the clarity of the plan - usually there is no doubt what is involved in the game and what is only decoration. There is little animation - the movement of an object in three dimensions or a close-up of the faces of the talking characters. Nothing really fancy. In addition, usually in the latter case, my heart was tearing out of my chest and weeping for a little more care. A player expecting many special effects will rather be disappointed with this game - not what the authors focused on. I don't rate the music side of TGM very well either. In the background, three or four piano themes appear all the time - as discreet as they are monotonous. The authors did not, unfortunately, use the possibility of associating the melody with the mood of specific boards. The situation is somewhat saved by the digitized voices of people and nature.
If an exemplary, stiff as a broomstick, an English gentleman from a hundred years ago is entangled with a wrap in an adventure taking place in the scenery of the tropical jungle, the underworld, the deck of a submarine or the polar circle, we will get a story from the genre of Jules Verne's work. This is how the world of The Gene Machine must be associated. The more so as the game features direct references to some of the writer's titles. I was pleasantly surprised by the way in which the creators of the game managed to weave the fun into the atmosphere of the London of a bygone era. The game contains a lot of realities from Victorian England - the hypocrisy and snobbery of lords, the poverty of the lower classes. A short history lesson was smuggled in a painless way for the player. The above-mentioned joke is worth special attention. Regardless of tastes, everyone can find their favorite kind of humor in the game - from simple situational gags, in the form of an equilibrium fall on the back of the body, through often quite spicy comments on morals, to ironic mockery of the prevailing social situation. I am also amused by the fact that Piers often hides strange objects in the inner pocket of his coat, such as a teacup, a live mouse, a camera or a shovel. Other peculiar ideas of the authors include a scene in which the protagonist pulls out a cork with his own hands, an area of about a square meter, stuck in a bathtub at a depth of at least four meters (required Piers lifting capacity - four tons plus the weight of the cork), but I think I'm clinging. The idea and script of the game seem to be worth paying attention to. I encourage you to play the old-time Londoner - especially the older players who are not always enjoying shooting at the alien green men.
The world of The Gene Machine is associated with the works of Jules Verne. I was pleasantly surprised by the way in which the creators of the game managed to weave the fun into the atmosphere of the London of a vicorian era. This short history lesson was smuggled in a large dose of dialogue, often brilliantly witty, although often overly long. Everyone can find their favorite kind of humor in the game. The idea and script of the game seem to be worth paying attention to. I encourage you to play old-time Londoner.
PC
My rate: 9/10