I'm convinced

[haradan]

I played the demo a while ago, but I hadn't the chance of posting this.
Honestly, I wasn't very impressed at first. The western theme didn't appeal to me, some of the puzzles seemed weird (like that key thing on the piano) and (and I know you've probably heard this A LOT by now   ) Al Emmo's voice gave me shivers (is he supposed to be a chipmunk? I thought).

First time I got stuck, I almost stop playing for good. Almost.

For some reason, I returned to the game a couple of days later. Then I found the humor. And I found the characters. And I appreciated the backgrounds, the music, the voices (even Al's   ). And by the time the demo finished, I was really convinced, and I even felt a little sad that I couldn't see right away what would happen next.

My point is this: yes, you already knew you were making an unappealing main character, that's essential to the plot actually, BUT it is a little risky. A simple-minded gamer (read MORON) like myself might not give the game a second chance, and not discover the wonderful depths of the game. I'm glad I was able to cross that superficial first line, but many gamers (specially today's gamers that are used to BRING 'EM OUT kinda games) could not have the patient. If there's a lesson there for the future, I don't know, I just share my experience.

On the other hand, I'm thankful I could see these things, and I'm ready to buy the game (I haven't yet cause I'm moving out of town in a couple of weeks, so I was waiting to see if the game came out before, but now I see I'll have to order it from my new town). Thank you for devoting so many years to the adventure genre and to this game. I really wish you the greatest success with it and I hope gamers like me who are not specially fond of westerns, are able to "cross the line" as well. Cheers.

[Snake5172]

I will chime in here. I thought I had registered here already but it seems it was at the AGS site and not here..

I have had the demo for a few weeks and my typical game playing is left for the cooler months of the year. In the summer I am so busy I hardly have time to play a game all the way through.

I just played through Loom and Scratches over the Labor Day weekend and now have an early appetite for adventure games... I went through Scumvm last night and loaded up The Dig and Day of the Tentacle.. Watched the intros and moved on. Partially because I wanted to check a few more games before deciding. I then threw in Torin's Passage and watched that but figured I would save it to play with my wife or my little sister (I am 27 she is 5).

So before I shut off my PC last night I loaded Al Emmo. This was the second time I loaded it up. The first I watched the intro with the wife and immediately shut it down due to a laundry list of things to do personally.

What can I say besides I got off the PC an hour and a half later than I originally intended thanks to the demo! The announcer is great (although over tries in a very few remarks) I walked west and found the grave yard and I was sold.

I have played it maybe 2 hours total now, and really haven't done much because I am enjoying just walking around and clicking everything in sight.

All I can say if it keeps being this impressive I will be incredibly happy about the collectors edition I am about to go purchase.

So far so good and its nice to see that given a clean slate the team is able to produce all of the characteristics of a classic.

Keep up the  GREAT work!

[Erpy]

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

It does indeed seem the game has a slightly steeper "getting into"-curve than we initially expected. Whenever we sent the game to someone, we always got very positive reactions. Thing is...before the demo shipped, those people were mostly beta testers and reviewers. Beta testers don't shut off a game after a few minutes and start playing something else and most reviewers know that unless they play the game all the way through, people are not likely to give their review much credit.

The good thing is that things can only get better. We've had people who loved it from the start and loved it all the way through and we've had people who had their reservations at the start, but grew to really like the game as they got into it. We still have to find people who started liking Al Emmo, but grew less and less enthusiastic as they progressed through the game. I'm pretty sure that mouth-to-mouth advertising about the full game will convince a nice amount of people who had their reservations at first to try and get into the game again and come to the discovery that it's a very fun thing to play.

[Fribbi]

Al Emmo's voice gave me shivers (is he supposed to be a chipmunk?

When I heard that voice in my first time I thought it was a woman behind that voice.  

[Aperama]

Yeah, I think that the voice of Al could have been a little less grating. I've referred the demo etc to several friends (all adventure game afficionados) and the title character's voice was enough to drive a lot of them off of it. They might come back some time in the distant future; I expect them to, in fact. After a fair bit of time to grow accustomed to it, I had practically no problem with it. At the same time, I was among those screaming "ARGH CAN I KILL YOU DAMMIT" to begin with, and may have taken the same route had I not committed myself.

If you think about it, Gabriel Knight (1) was a great game with an unbelievably irritating narrator, though. Most people were willing to sit through the narrator there - but again, a different era, not to mention the fact that the narrator could be disabled without disabling Tim Curry's lovely Southern accent. (I'll admit it; I was amongst those who did it. I know that it fit the whole "voodoo" scheme of things, but goddamn was that voice irritating.) Long story short - you may have gotten a few more customers offa the voice, but would have had to change the storyline entirely. I'm aware that the voice was (at least partially) used to make Al even less likable (much like Larry Laffer, he's the man you love to see get snubbed in the face, because he really does deserve it - although, in this case, it's for being such an irritating weakling) - and I'm willing to accept that. Besides, while playing through, I found myself hoping that Al would get beaten up more - that's the great thing about a character like that.

I'll admit, though - I felt kinda sorry for Larry. At least his demands were reasonable.

[GameDevChris]

I found myself hoping that Al would get beaten up more...

[spoiler]Well, he can get shot at the end, does that help? [/spoiler]

 

[NightShift]

I think that kinda proves something, though.  Where, different people feel differently about separate performances.

Al's voice fit his character perfectly, if you ask me.  As a matter of fact, I might be one of the few people that would've had the biggest problem with Al's voice.  Doing the lip syncing in 3d, you constantly go over the same words again and again and again, fast, slow, normal, fast, slow, super slow, again and again.  And his voice didn't bother me at all.

To continue, I absolutely loved the narrator in Sins of the Father.  Her creole drawl was brilliant in my eyes.  I thought that she fit in with the whole Voodoo atmosphere of the game perfectly.  The voodoo lady in Monkey Island was also masterful, although she wasn't as prominent as Al or Miss Narrator for Gabriel Knight.

And all things voodoo, I loved Naomie Harris in Dead Man's chest, as well.  Awesome.  Just wanted to throw that out there.

[eriqchang]

To continue, I absolutely loved the narrator in Sins of the Father.  Her creole drawl was brilliant in my eyes.
And all things voodoo, I loved Naomie Harris in Dead Man's chest, as well.  Awesome.  Just wanted to throw that out there.

I agree. The narrator in Gabriel Knight 1 was superb. Totally fit the game. I haven't completed it so I'm not sure if I would grow to dislike it but I don't think so.

Which character was Naomi Harris in Dead Man's Chest? (Pirates of the Caribbean right?).. was she the voodoo lady in the swamp? OOOH that was a great character. What a great film that was. Those FX were out of this world.

[GameDevChris]

Ironically, I didn't like the narrator in GK1. But that was mainly because she read the descriptions so slowly, and by the time she'd finished speaking, I could have read what she was saying three times over.  I've never tried playing GK1 with the narrator left on, but I'm sure if I did then it would grow on me.

I first played GK1 without voices, and it took quite a while for me to get used to Tim Curry's voice as Gabriel. I'd imagined Gabe's voice not to be as deep. And at first, I kept picturing the guy from Rocky Horror Picture Show or the concierge in Home Alone 2.    It didn't take me too long to get used to the voice though, and now I can't picture it any other way.

Many people also tend to be confused about the definition of bad voice acting. You could get a person with the clearest diction on the planet and have them read, but their pronunciation may be completely monotone and sound very wooden. To me, that's bad voice acting because the actor hasn't convinced you that they're playing a believable character and they still sound like an actor reading from a script. (QFG5 had quite a few voices like this.)

On the other hand, voices that are 'unappealing' in some way are not necessarily badly acted. For example, the GK1 narrator wasn't a bad actor at all. It was simply the slowness at which her lines were read that caused some people to grow impatient with waiting for her to finish. But if a character's voice, regardless of its appeal, can still convince you that they're a believable character and not just an actor reading from a script, then in my opinion, that's still the single most important factor when selecting voices.

Personal opinions on the pitch, tone, delivery, speed etc. of a voice are always going to vary. But everyone can tell when an actor's performance sounds forced or like they're reading lines. So as long as that's avoided, everything else just comes down to character traits and a player's personal preferences.

[GameDevBrit]

I actually really liked the voice of the narrator in GK1 as well, Nightshift and Eriq.  I know the voice bothered quite a few people though, although I was not one of those people who was bothered by it.

I agree with Chris that there is a difference between somebody not liking a character voice, and the actor performing badly.  I know that the squeekiness of Al's voice has annoyed quite a few people, but outside of that, I think that Al's lines were performed superbly.  He's always remains in character, he is believable, and he always emphasizes the right words.  He has a lot of presense.

[opitzs]

It does indeed seem the game has a slightly steeper "getting into"-curve than we initially expected.

That may be true, but I like it better, that way, as the result encharms you even more.

Sven

[Aperama]

Ironically, I didn't like the narrator in GK1. But that was mainly because she read the descriptions so slowly, and by the time she'd finished speaking, I could have read what she was saying three times over.  I've never tried playing GK1 with the narrator left on, but I'm sure if I did then it would grow on me.

I first played GK1 without voices, and it took quite a while for me to get used to Tim Curry's voice as Gabriel. I'd imagined Gabe's voice not to be as deep. And at first, I kept picturing the guy from Rocky Horror Picture Show or the concierge in Home Alone 2.    It didn't take me too long to get used to the voice though, and now I can't picture it any other way.

Many people also tend to be confused about the definition of bad voice acting. You could get a person with the clearest diction on the planet and have them read, but their pronunciation may be completely monotone and sound very wooden. To me, that's bad voice acting because the actor hasn't convinced you that they're playing a believable character and they still sound like an actor reading from a script. (QFG5 had quite a few voices like this.)

On the other hand, voices that are 'unappealing' in some way are not necessarily badly acted. For example, the GK1 narrator wasn't a bad actor at all. It was simply the slowness at which her lines were read that caused some people to grow impatient with waiting for her to finish. But if a character's voice, regardless of its appeal, can still convince you that they're a believable character and not just an actor reading from a script, then in my opinion, that's still the single most important factor when selecting voices.

Personal opinions on the pitch, tone, delivery, speed etc. of a voice are always going to vary. But everyone can tell when an actor's performance sounds forced or like they're reading lines. So as long as that's avoided, everything else just comes down to character traits and a player's personal preferences.

Bingo. The delay on the narrator was craaaaazy long. I read rather fast. I didn't have any troubles with Al (or from the same perspective, the GK1 narrator) because I felt that the sound quality was poor, or the sound actor was just pathetic. Instead, the voice that was intentionally chosen irritated me. It was less a "Wow, how whiny" and more a "I don't think I can sit through that for too long" at first. My first playthrough may have been text only, but I decided I'd have to take it to continue and feel good about myself.

But to find Curry's Gabe Knight off? It was perfect! Could that accent have been more facetious or Southern? I think not!