Twinsen's Odyssey

"One of the best games for PC"

Twinsen's Odyssey is, in my opinion, one of the best PC games ever made for a few reasons: great graphics, good story line, and excellent music. But if your not a fan of long adventure games don't buy this one.

Storyline - 10/10
WARNING: Small spoilers below

It's the typical bad guy from the first game is back and badder than ever, but with a twist. He has convinced an alien planet that he's their god and they have to blow up your planet. It starts off kind of slow but once you clear the storm it gets going. The story is very long but it's quite engaging and takes a couple of days to beat even if you are a master. The first time around it will probably take you a few weeks. I suggest playing the prequel Relentless before you play this one as it's also a great game and will introduce you to the interface and characters.
Anyway, the story is very good and unravels as you go pulling you deeper and deeper into the game.

Graphics - 10/10
Absolutely magnificent graphics, especially for the time (1997). They've improved since the last game, now when there is a close-up, it keeps the detail, and they improved on the dino-fly a lot. Overall, the graphics are just better. The 3D is great and you don't need a 3D accelerator (I don't think they were around back then). The cut scenes are some of the best I've ever seen.

Controls - 8/10
They take a while to get used to but they're ultimately better. Instead of going to the right when you push the right arrow button, he rotates right. So the only way to make him go somewhere is to push the up arrow, witch makes him go in whatever direction he's facing. The spacebar is the Action button and it does different things when your in different modes. That's an other thing, when you press control (or maybe shift, I can't remember), you can check on your health, magic, and money, and you can change your mode to normal, sporty, aggressive, and discrete.

Gameplay - 10/10
There is a ton to do just following the storyline, but you can just wander around and talk to people if you want to. You can even go to other planets and gamble, and you can fly on a dinosaur like thing. The great improvement over relentless is that when you run into something, it doesn't hurt anymore, that was so annoying.

Sound - 10/10
Is there anything in this game that isn't great. Well the sound certainly is great. Next to The Curse of Monkey Island, Twinsen's has the best music in a game ever. If nothing else, just buy this game for the music. The sound effects are good too but they are a little weird. The voice acting is nice but not the best I've heard, Twinsen's voice is a little annoying, but some of the voices are quite funny.

Replayability - 8/10
I've beaten this about 10 times and I'm actually starting to get kind of tired of it. The second time around is just as good as the first, but I suggest you don't play this more than twice a year because you'll get too tired of it too fast. But this is not one of those games where you can only play once, it's too good.

Overall - 10/10
Great, great game. If you ever see this on sale, GET IT!!! Unfortunately, this game is very hard to find (I got it when it came out so I didn't have a problem there). If you ever go to Europe, look for it. In Europe it's called Little Big Adventure 2.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/21/03, Updated 05/21/03