[PC] Experience 112 aka Experiment 112 aka THE E.X.P.E.R.I.M.E.N.T feat Q-tip and Jay-Z

Lexis Numérique, developer of In Memoriam, returns to the experimental adventure scene with a lovely new title that hopefully all PC gamers will eventually notice. The game recently won the Grand Prix for Best Computer Game and Best Scenario at the Festival du Jeu Video 2007.



You wake up in a run-down ship, inside a control room filled with monitors and equipment. You have no idea how you got there or what the place is altogether. On one of the monitors you see a woman wake up on an operating table. This woman is Lea Nichols (who also has no clue where she is or what's going on) and the two of you need to work together to escape the facility and find out what exactly took place there.

So far pretty familiar. A woman in distress and an abandoned facility to explore. It could be almost any survival horror game, actually.

The trick in the setting and the gameplay, however, is that Lea can't see you and (at least initially) you have no way of directly communicating with her. You can hear her if there are active microphones present, but otherwise you are stuck in the control room, forced to watch over her and help her any way you can, by operating survaillance equipment, security, door locks and even ventillation. Lea will eventually know you're there, but she has no idea who you are.





The second trick comes from the fact that Lea is completely controlled by AI. She will have a will of her own and act accordingly. Throughout the game (as far as I understood), depending on how you play and help her, she will develop a certain level of trust or distrust for you. Help her out and she will feel safe knowing you watch over her and do your best to help. Bring her to danger and she will start to get hesitant of doors you open for her, clues you try to give her. She may completely ignore your help if you break her trust badly. Hopefully this has been implemented with care and subtlety, as opposed to simple crude status bars.

You need to use the equipment at hand to best guide Lea around and warn her of any dangers that might be there (gas-filled, contained areas, hostile beings). At certain points you may be able to improvise crude, basic communication with Lea using equipment and machinery (moving a camera around to indicate a nod or shaking your head, for instance).

I'm guessing the structure is otherwise familiar adventure gaming. Lea needs to pass obstacles and puzzles and she should be able able to suss them out as best as she can. At times you operate door locks and such to help her forward, with certain puzzles requiring a more hands-on help from you (guiding a remote controlled robot carrying a key card, for instance).

The story is promised to be pretty gripping, with scientific experiments and conspiracies. Hopefully they keep it relatively tight and don't go overboard with supernatural stuff.


Either way, the execution and spin on the typical adventure game mechanics are intriguing enough for me, but I love the setting and visual style as well.


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The game was released in France on October 11th by Micro Application. Dreamcatcher is supposedly releasing the game in the US under the name Experiment 112. Their initial release date (according to amazon.com) slipped over to next year though, but since their own website has no mention of the game, I'm having a hard time confirming when they plan to release it.

Promisingly, the english language website Experience 112 gets updated every now and then, so hopefully that means a European english release is in the pipeline.


Pics:





Playable demo (in english):
http://download2.microapp.com/experi...12_Demo_en.exe

Adventure Gamers preview:
http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,654/_

UK trailer:
http://www.microapp.com/contenus_pro...railer2_uk.zip

Original french trailers and old teaser:
http://www.gametrailers.com/game/4958.html_

Official website with more screens and stuff:
http://www.experience112.com/_

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Man, I hadn't checked the site for updates for a while, downloading now. The demo is also downloadable from the official site.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Just tried it and doesn't start for me either
I hope they fix it and release a working installer soon. Meanwhile, I'll try if the french demo works.

And Slayer, it's not survival horror, it's a PC adventure. Since you don't control Lea directly, there's no combat system. I'm pretty sure there's some horror elements to the storyline though.


Well damn, the french demo installs and works, but I'm getting no sound And because of the french notes, I can't tell if it's some driver I don't have up to date or what. Looks very moody though.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Welcome to PC gaming~


Judging by Amazon and a few other sites (still no sign of the game on the publisher's own site, though), Dreamcatcher is releasing the game in the US on February 8th, under the name The Experiment. Who knows when the release date slips again.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by kupomog

Damn this game looks really neat but yeah, demo pooped out on install.

I just installed the French demo instead, which is probably a stupid idea since I won't understand shit, but I really wanna see what it's like. So far it's pretty cool but I'm totally lost as to what I'm supposed to do. I just like listening to Lea talk. I more or less figured out how to work the cameras, how to get multiple windows, how to make one of three windows the largest, smallest, etc. At one point I hit a camera view nearer to the floor and nearly looked up her skirt. I've just been turning on lights and objects everywhere, not knowing how the hell to get her to do anything other than stand around and cough.

I did feel a sense of satisfaction at turning the lights on for her and her being happy though, heh. I assume I am supposed to survey the area for her at this point. My comp is starting to slow down though so it's making it very hard to play this without everything taking forever to register.

EDIT: Grr, I guess she won't do anything if I have everything already turned on. So I'll have to leave them off and then do it one by one. My comp is a bitch though, so I can't continue

One interesting thing that did happen after I got Lea to activate a new camera option for me was

Spoiler:

seeing a guy run down the hall behind her with some manner of backpack. Looked like he was just wearing like..a shirt, shorts, and mandals. He tripped, ran up some stairs, then disappeared again in the direction she needed to go.

Daaaamn, I'm so pissed I couldn't get any sound in the french demo. Sounds really intriguing so far.

I'm fairly certain my audio drivers are simply not up to date or something, but I can't really tell.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I got it working as well. Well, kinda.

It's the same problem as with the french demo, it starts and works, but I get no sound. I have sound for the Microapplications logo video, but after that nothing. The game probably requires a sound card or driver of some certain kind and my old one isn't up for scratch. I'll see if it'll work on my parents' laptop better, so I can at least play it.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Neat. They sure changed Lea's appearance for the US cover, though =x

I'm still hopeful they'll have multiple audio options or a french audio patch on the European release so I can play the game with original audio and english text~

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Xardion

I started playing this back in February, but I got stuck looking for some key and quit. Didn't really get very far. Runs a hell of a lot better than the demo did on my computer, though.

How's the AI faring? Did they leave that part out entirely or is there some non-scripted trust/mistrust noticeable anywhere?

Anyone want to buy the US version for me and mail it? I will send you PS3/PSP promos and chocolate ;________;

How ya doing, buddy?

I got this through Skills a bit back and have been playing it since Sunday. I'm really, really loving it so far. The atmosphere is excellent, it's visually arresting (even if technically probably not that top of the line), music is wonderful and the whole concept is something I can't get enough of.

It's actually a lot more orthodox than I expected. It's slightly disappointing that Lea doesn't act freely after all and so far I'm not seeing any hints of trust or distrust. It's very difficult to spot when something she does is prescripted or something that occurred because I guided her there. If you can manage the hickups (stuttery animation, stop-start reaction, etc), the illusion of a more alive game character is still splendid. The whole thing is structured much like a regular point & click adventure, but the interface makes it much more organic and natural. You don't really feel like you're solving puzzles, more like exiting setpieces.

It does feel fairly traditional at times. When you first notice you're actually just telling her where to go by switching lights and operating door locks, it's slightly disappointing. Get over this fact and the experience really is awesome.

It's much like FFXII to RPGs in that many will bemoan the automation of standard genre devices, but it feels far more plausible and natural here. Instead of clicking pick up key, use key on door, open door, pick up next item, Lea will investigate scenes if there is something interesting, pick up what matters and use it later where it's needed. There is wonderful attention to detail in this. One time she discovered a note with a password (after searching a safe twice) and tried to show it to me but I couldn't read it even with camera zoom, so she eventually wrote it on a chalkboard. I don't know if the game REALLY registered that I shook my "head" with the camera when she asked if I could read it, but it doesn't really matter.

The main story is interesting enough to keep me playing, but what really makes the game sing is the computer system itself.

Operating security cameras and lighting alone is a joy. What makes it compulsive is the login system. Each member of the ships crew had their own username and password, which, when discovered (through whichever way) can be used to access their personal files, notes and emails, in order to find more clues.

For instance, you'll need access to a door that's locked by a code. A crew member that was in charge of that section of the lab may have the door code in their files, but you'll first need to gain access to their files. Sometimes you run into clues in other people's emails or files, sometimes Lea finds info on the ship and tells you. The whole thing is entirely nonlinear, so you may run into someone's password and read through their files, then later find their password mentioned in passing in someone else's emails, meaning had you first looked there you would have gotten it that way.

Most of the adventuring is nonlinear as well. The only thing limiting it is Lea's priorities. Meaning if you originally set out to find some crucial chemical, she won't enter a certain room where she says she doesn't need to access before finishing the previous task.

Of course this kind of stuff is pre-scripted, but it's all covered up really well. It's also possible to discover items and information in entirely different order than someone else, and Lea's determined focus is really just there to keep you on the right track.

What really deepens the setting and characters is, again, the computer system. Reading all the emails and notices is entirely optional, but while they often provide very valuable help and sometimes direct solutions to issues at hand, they're very worth reading because of how much background story they provide. I'd till now only briefly leafed through stuff, browsing for the most crucial puzzle clues, but once I started reading the personal emails and diary entries, research reports and comments, I started to get a much clearer picture of what was going on at the facility and its crew, their motivations and personalities and in general felt much more drawn into the world and compelled to keep Lea safe and discover more about the facility's story and its previous occupants.

I can't stress how much the backstory adds to the atmosphere. It was intense and creepy originally, now it's complimented with sadness and melancholy. Some of the research reports on the test subjects are really tragic.

The username system adds a great nonlinear meta-layer to the whole thing, dipping in and out of the main structure, providing crucial for both gameplay and background information. Each character has personal files and a protected section that requires a second password. Accessing these usually gives vital clues to the puzzles but also reveal new secrets about the characters and the story <3


Edit:
Oh, and the sweet soundtrack is available for download at mp3.com
Experience 112 soundtrack - LouisWarbeck - Song Listings

I'll probably get around to properly naming and tagging the songs and then uploading to somewhere, but use that one for now. I'm especially fond of the opening theme (Cinematik "The beginning"), the three tutorial themes and "Level eco intro". A lot of it is more moodsetting ambient than listeneable music, though. Still, very cool~

Jam it back in, in the dark.

So I just finished it. The ending was actually kinda disappointing. A lot of the game was subdued, but this was almost anticlimactic. After reading the creator's comments on the ending, I understand a little better why he made those choises, but first time you see it, it's all rather confusing and feels rushed and unfinished.

Despite the abrupt ending and minor niggles with some of the puzzles (I myself didn't actually encounter any bugs), this was quite something. It's been a long time since I've played an adventure game altogether so this was very special.

A shame Just Adventure+ only gave it a D in their bitter review (looked like his entire argument was that the game was not "fun". Which lead to the writing somehow being bad and the story being dull. Or something). I can only imagine how many point & click fans skipped the game cause of that

How ya doing, buddy?

Well there's certainly nothing with similar gameplay, but for me it renewed my love for story driven games in general and especially point & click. Preferably the type that doesn't take too long.

I have an embarrassingly large backlog of old adventure games to play and am currently going through Beneath a Steel Sky. Like Revolutions previous game, Lure of the Temptress, it's both fascinating and terribly boring. The visuals are all kinds of brown and grey despite still having character, the story so far hasn't gripped me at all, while the dialogue is often funny and engaging. And puzzles, in typical old Revolution style, contain a LOT of pixel hunting, much to my annoyance. Hopefully it picks up a bit soon.

I'm a bit at a loss of what to recommend to someone who enjoys 112. On one hand, reading a lot of the optional backstory reminds me of elements from Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed and Metroid Prime. The structure is much closer to regular adventure clickan (while the flow is entirely different). I'd say definitely play Lexis Numerique's previous title In Memoriam (or Missing: Since January as I think they renamed it for the US) as well as, oh, say Still Life, Secret Files: Tunguska, Blade Runner and the Gabriel Knight games. Most of the other really good adventure clickan are a lot more humorous (Grim Fandango, Maniac Mansion, Legend of Kyrandia etc)


One thing to consider for your backlog, though. The game is pretty short at the end of it. Even with reading all of the files and emails I had access to, I finished it in a good five evenings, about 10-15 hours at max. So you could easily squeeze it in there before tackling longer games.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.