Developer: Adventure Productions
Publisher: 10th Art Studios
Platform: PC
Shadows on the Vatican – Act 1: Greed – Review
There are several mysteries in the world and Rome might be one of the places where secrecies happen. Shadows on the Vatican might give us a glimpse on one of the mysteries. This is only act one of the game, but has a great story and takes us back to the good old point and click games. Be ready for some clues-searching!
Story
There are several tragedies that happen every day and our protagonist witnessed one for himself. Eleven years ago, his mentor died in Africa. This was an enormous hit for the priest and he rejected this lifestyle. He turned his life around and James, our hero, became a doctor. He doesn’t serve God anymore, but helps other people.
Nowadays, he lives in Chicago and he was invited by his old friend Christoforo to take a holiday and go to Italy. It has been years since James went on vacation, so he gladly accepts the offer. This is where you will start the game. You get an apartment from Mario, a friend of Christoforo. When your old friend contacts you, you can sense a disturbance in his voice plus the fact that he’s acting very strangely as well. The rest of the story is for you to discover.
Graphics
Shadows on the Vatican – Act 1: Greed is a combination of several graphical styles. The main menu and the cut-scenes are more like a comic book, while the other elements in the game are more computer-animated. It has to be said, the main menu is really nicely done and makes you want to play the game.
The game itself has some both superb as less great aspects. The environment is mostly static, but have a great touch to it. It feels like the background has been drawn by hand, giving it that bit extra. There are moving images in the background as well, like the television that is playing in the bar.
On the other side, the characters are not so great. They have a pixel-like view and aren’t finished at all. This is something that could have been a lot better, with the technology we have nowadays. Next to that, the gestures and movements of the characters feel unnatural.
Sound
If you like the songs of a choir, you will definitely like the intro. This might seem bombastic when you’re listening to it, but it fits the game completely. On the other side, there aren’t that much soundtracks implemented or they all have the same vibe at least. You won’t be bothering much of the background music as you’ll be focussing on the puzzles that are challenging you.
There are a few sound effects, but they are not that obvious. The necessary items have their sound at the right time, but that’s about it. For instance, you won’t hear a bird chirp when you’re outside.
On the other hand, the voice acting is quite great. Every dialog or sentence in the game have voice acting as well, which is a great bonus.
Gameplay
Shadows on the Vatican is a point and click game in which you will have to find the clues to solve several mysteries. You can find several clickable items in each area and are marked by a small amount of text around your cursor. You can both left and right click on items to get extra information or to pick them up. It is sometimes necessary to press both buttons to get every bit of intel, giving you the opportunity to advance through the game. Finding clues isn’t always that easy as the important spots aren’t that sensitive and you can skip them easily.
Every interesting item you obtain gets gathered in the upper inventory section. You can use the mouse buttons here as well, and you can combine items to obtain more useful compositions. You have to drag the first item to the second one and let the magic happen. When your creative mind went a bridge too far and your combination isn’t that great, you’ll notice a small red cross at your cursor.
You will have to talk to several interesting persons as well. Each conversation will give you a comic-like sub screen in which the dialog will appear. When you’re talking, you will have subjects of interest pop up as small idea circles. You will need to click these to find out more about these topics.
The game has some different riddles as well. Next to finding the clues, you will have to take the right route and some other small puzzles which you can find out on your own. It has to be said that the overall difficulty isn’t that high and experienced detectives won’t have a hard time with the game. Although the game doesn’t offer you any hints to help you out. This time, you’re on your own to find every clue.
Conclusion
Shadows on the Vatican – Act 1: Greed has several parts and we got the chance to test the first one. The graphics aren’t that spectacular but the sound partially makes up for that.The puzzles and riddles aren’t that hard and the story is more why you’re playing the game. Let us see what the next part brings.
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