Last requests: On “Mourir En Mer”

Title: Mourir en Mer
Author: “Dorcan” (Daniel Muller)
Release Date: 2003
License: Freeware; click here to download
Author’s Site: Digital Mind Studio (under reconstruction)

I’m currently enjoying our remaining weeks in training, or at least trying to. Apart from having to absorb a lot of information (even for someone who’s worked fairly long in tech support), I’m planning how to possibly finish TGR and do my other stuff within the next 1 to 2 weeks. Hmm. We’ll see.

In the meantime, though, I’ve finished playing Daniel Muller’s adventure game Mourir En Mer, thanks to a Len Green hint near the final stretch (yeah, yeah, so much for playing with no walkthroughs). The original game was released on 2003, and, if I remember correctly, was supposed to be part of an AGS game competition.

[SPOILER ALERT: This section of the article contains several spoilers.]

Mourir En Mer revolves around disease and deformity, two subjects rarely used in games. Without giving too much away, your objective here is to help fulfill a young man’s last request: “mourir en mer,” to die at sea (or near one).

One cannot help but feel pity for the player’s character in this game; more so, I believe, than in Stephen Bond’s IF piece “Rameses.” The section on the attic alone, though it was generally easy, provides enough motivation (especially when you don’t make it the first time) for the player to keep plodding on. Muller nicely had the foresight to create auto-saves so I didn’t have to worry about getting caught red-handed.

The plot was handled delicately, focusing more on accomplishing the central character’s request than commenting on societal reactions. There are still situations wherein “normal” reactions could be seen (e.g., the fast food section), but for the most part, it was really about getting him where he wants to go.

During the first few times I played Mourir En Mer, I strangely felt nervous again at the thought of going back to the attic. Just to catch a damn mouse? The thought of facing the character’s father again made me shudder. Fortunately (after about 2 tries), I was able to do it and get out just before he opened the door.

I appreciate that kind of reaction to a game. It was similar to what I felt while I was playing Croshaw’s 5 Days a Stranger: the tension one feels when you’re nearing the end of a good movie when you unwittingly hit the Stop button on your remote. When you find yourself screaming “WTF?”

The only beef I have with the game? The length. It would have been great if Muller expanded the game further, but this doesn’t really deter the quality.

Overall, Mourir en Mer is a brief, solid adventure game with a big heart. If you don’t mind feeling a bit somber after playing an adventure game (and can read French), try it.

AGFW: Space adventure and more

Title: Adventures in the Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment
Author: Ben Croshaw
Release Date: July 2005
License: Freeware; click here to download
Author’s Site: Fully Ramblomatic

Finally finished Ben Croshaw’s Adventures in the Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment (henceforth called “AGFW”) after several hours this morning. Well, all right, granted that there are certain elements in the game that I no longer completed (like the research quest), and that I heavily used the walkthrough, I was still able to enjoy it.

The story begins when you as Daniel Gordon gets berated by your boss playing a game 5 minutes before your shift ends. Seeing where this would eventually lead, Daniel decides to take a bus home…where he gets abducted and sold as a delivery guy to a group of alien mercenaries en route to their target. However, the mercenaries’ target disappear, along with their own captain. Since this is the only way to get back to Earth, you agree to cooperate (”I can’t believe I’m being threatened into management”) and lead the group in looking for their captain.

Normally, I would have passed it over for the next day since I was expecting, more or less, something like 7 Days A Skeptic. But then I got into the whole trading bit and then bounty hunting and zapping those Lesser Culthorpes and Rough Justices — and then I realized it was already 5 am. Geez, I started at around nine in the evening.

What impressed me were the different game elements that Croshaw had fused into the adventure game. The dark mazes, the fishing bit, plus the whole space cruise wherein you have to earn credits by trading and upgrade your vessel — it was amazing, certainly a testament to the author’s game design abilities. Top that with lots of humor and sarcasm, plus well-drawn and smoothly-moving graphics. AGFW is one cool and very replayable game.

AGFW is set within the same universe as the Rob Blanc trilogy, but it’s not necessarily a sequel as 7 Days A Skeptic was. I haven’t really played Croshaw’s older games, but seeing how far he’s advanced in using AGS (the engine used in developing the game), I wouldn’t mind if the author did a Daniel Gordon sequel instead.

If you’re looking for more than just an adventure game, give AGFW a try. You’ll like it.