14 DAY TRIAL // This Tuesday was probably one of the most emotional days for me in the past months. Be at ease, this isn't some nerve-wreaking rant about any personal issues, it is strictly game-related. The Heavy Rain article, but most of all, the game's cinematic trailer, stirred something inside me. The first thing was pride that titles were still able to convey emotions is such a raw and moving form at the moment, and I can still hold some pride in my hobby. Most CGI imagery can be praised for their technical achievements or the voice acting. But the trailer for Heavy Rain can be commended for acting as a whole, almost to the point that it's a shame to call it a trailer and not a short film.
The second thing I felt was shame. Shame because, for the past couple of years, I've stayed away from the adventure genre. The last adventure game I finished was Fahrenheit, or Indigo Prophecy. I had a run-in with Still Life, and, even if it seems interesting enough, it sits stashed away on my hard drive collecting cobwebs. Indigo Prophecy was the first game that I made a connection with when I reviewed the Heavy Rain trailer, but, when I put the pieces together, like the game creator and developer, another brilliant adventure title struck me. When Omikron: The Nomad Soul began to creep into my thoughts, I almost lost it.
The game, for me, was one of the biggest teases of my life. I got my hands on a demo somewhere around early 2000, but never got my hands on the full title. I had a chance to look at something a little more than just the demo somewhere, somewhen, but it's like something is screwing around with my memories and the actual moment eludes me. The one thing that is indeed embedded in the back of my skull is the game's atmosphere and that overwhelming nostalgia I get when I think about it. I've swore, to this day, that I will get my hands on the Nomad Soul and will relish in the choppy graphics from the end of the millennium.
Adventure titles have started drifting away from even the sidelines of gaming. Considered somewhat dorky and childish, the hardcore gamers of today have embraced the popular genres that have pretty much become the bread and water of casual ones. Few still play titles that don't excel in graphics or that didn't receive a publicity campaign big enough to block out the sun. The few adventure games that receive attention from big publishers have already incorporated some sort of popular gameplay mechanics, be it some form of shooting or a Prince of Persia-styled climbing system, that, in development, forget along the way, wasn't the idea behind the game. While these thrive, the ones that remember that the genre became what it is by pointing-and-clicking are ignored, and most of them never receive the financial backing to become actual titles. It's the adventures like the ones in the Jules Verne stories that I miss.