I haven’t personally played Chains of Satinav but even I can tell Memoria is continuing on from it. Would-be hero and minor magician Geron visits a strange merchant in the forest who promises to help him return his fairy friend Nuri, who was turned into a raven in the previous game, to her natural fairyness. In exchange the merchant/wizard Fahi wants Geron to solve a riddle connected to a centuries-old story involving a princess Sadja of Fasar, a demonic staff, and the legendary Mask of Malakkar. It was at this point I realised I was playing a fantasy game that wasn’t an RPG.
 |
| The proud city of Drakonia in the distance there. Sigh, another “ia”... |
Rather coolly as the merchant Fahi tells the story we actually get to see it happen and play Princess Sadja, who’s far from the helpless damsel in distress stereotype and is actually extremely capable. An attack on her kingdom by an army of demons and rock monsters has left her city shattered, but her and a rag-tag group consisting of a wizard, a warrior, and a stealthy bastard plan to take the aforementioned Mask from the tomb of Malakkar in the catacombs of the city. The Mask supposedly has the power to undo mistakes no matter how great, which I don’t think Jamie Kennedy would agree with but there you go. After finally getting into the tomb the group are attacked and all but the princess are killed – and she’s been sealed in. However she finds a mysterious staff that can talk to her and gives her special magic powers. We’ll be cutting between Sadja and Geron over the course of the game, and I won’t spoil the reasons why (heck, I’m not sure what they are exactly).
The first thing of note in Memoria are the magic powers. I don’t know if they were in Chains of Satinav (I suspect so though), but they’re activated much like in Night of the Rabbit - by clicking on the appropriate icon on the inventory. There were several spells that unlocked over the course of the preview demo, although only the later ones were impressive. Geron starts the game with a Break/Mend spell, which he demonstrates by breaking a glass pot and then remaking it again. Princess Sadja discovers the Activate/Deactivate spell that allows her to turn on lights and command the stone guardians, both of which come in handy escaping from that tomb but nowhere else so far. Geron later gets the “Hare’s Eye” power that allows him to see lingering magic (a direct reference to Night of the Rabbit which I appreciated - hey, if LucasArts could do it with Max the Rabbit why can’t Daedalic do it with the Maquis de Hoto?). Sadja gets the rather more impressive Create Vision (with an item belonging to someone you can send that person a mystic vision) and another even better one that I won’t spoil since it’s rather key to the plot. These add an extra dynamic to the puzzle solving, although only Sadja’s ones in the demo were used in some truly interesting ways.
In terms of systems though I was overjoyed to find that Daedalic have finally heeded my advice and brought in every convenience of modern adventure games. You can double-click on scene transitions to go there faster, you can hold Spacebar to highlight all interesting hotspots in the area, and last but not least Daedalic have finally implemented a proper in-game hint system. Hooray. Your current goals can be seen in the Quest Log, and clicking on each goal gives a hint on how to do them. Okay, so it only offers one hint that nine times out of ten is incredibly obvious, and you’ll probably still have to Alt-Tab out and check the internet for a walkthrough if you get stuck and Daedalic haven’t written more useful hints between now and release, but it’s a step in the right direction.
 |
| Hang on, is that golem wearing Lion-O’s Claw Shield? |
Puzzles are a mix of magical and standard inventory stuff, and I was relieved to see that even at this early stage the characters at least nudge you in the right direction if you’re doing the right thing in the wrong order. One particularly intelligent puzzle involved Sadja setting a trap for a rabbit. You can’t leave the screen so there’s only a set amount of things to do, and it was cool how the game let me think I was doing the right thing but still end in failure – yet that failure allowed me to modify my tactics into a more effective trap, which made me feel quite smug. The escape from the tomb is also clever, including a lot of fun usage of the Activate spell on the remains of the stone guardians – like possessing a stone arm and having it “bat” a metal ball by flailing about.
I haven’t played the full game yet obviously, but there were two things I noted with regard to the puzzles. Firstly, this is probably the most linear adventure game I’ve ever played. Puzzles regularly are confined to one or two screens, and barring a brief appearance of the adventure game standard “three trials” requirement list in Andergast I only had one goal at a time. I’ll have to see how this fares in the long run but so far I’m not too bothered. Secondly though one thing that did bother me was a section of the demo set in a foggy forest. It was near identical to the “Melee Island Treasure” puzzle in the original Secret of Monkey Island as it involved walking aimlessly around a murky forest hoping to find the correct path, but unlike Monkey Island there was no map to buy. So it’s just the aimless wandering around a forest. It’s tedious, it’s frustrating, and thankfully Daedalic realised this since it can be skipped... but then why include it in the first place?! Hopefully it won’t make an appearance in the final game. If it does, expect me to criticise it properly.
 |
| You can’t say the views aren’t nice |
The puzzles then are linear but generally fun so far, but the one thing that has sucked me in is the story. Mixed between Geron’s search for an answer to Fahi’s riddle and the ongoing tale of Sadja which I was told right at the start wasn’t going to end well, the deepening plot on both sides (which manage to connect well despite being supposedly centuries apart) makes for thrilling reading. Most especially, for a fantasy game it’s distinctly personal, and like most modern fantasies there are a lot of shades of grey on every side... not to mention the best characters having s***ty things happening to them. I won’t spoil anything as the regular twists and turns are what kept my interest, but the writing is pretty good so far. I can’t comment on the acting though, since it was all in German. Hopefully Daedalic won’t slip up with the English voices as they have in the past – nothing ruins great writing like poor acting.
I’m genuinely intrigued, and while I don’t personally believe game-wise Memoria will beat Night of the Rabbit it could at least be an interesting, engaging adventure. Then again it could blow me away entirely. It already looks lovely as it retains Chains of Satinav’s grimy, hand-drawn medieval look, with all characters offering a modicum of animation to feel alive, and while linear the puzzles were mostly intelligent enough to satisfy me so far. Memoria’s out on PC and Mac at some point later this year, and I’m certainly going to be playing it just to find out what happens next. Just please fix that forest section Daedalic...
Most Anticipated Feature/Element: I could say how Daedalic weave the magic powers in with the puzzles, but mostly I’m looking forward to seeing the end of Sadja’s story.
