"What a dreadful mess!"

Also known as FAUST - or FAUST: SEVEN GAMES OF THE SOUL - this is one messed up game!

Point-and-Click adventure games have always been hit-and-miss. So often they are disregarded as simple "Myst" clones, other times the creators try to really do something different. Sometimes they succeed (Syberia, Longest Journey) other times they fail (too many to note)

Unfortunately, SEVEN belongs in the latter category. The concept is neat enough - Mephistopholes is a demon of sorts who makes deals with individuals: he gives them something they desire, they give him their souls.

From what I understand of this game, God and Meph have a disagreement about seven of these particular souls, and one or both of them decide to bring an unbiased third-party to judge. I think that is the set-up, because the game's cut scenes do NOTHING to make this clear! From what I gathered, you play a character named Marcellus Faust - and your job is to explore the various settings where each of these characters lived their lives to determine whether or not they deserve hell or heaven. As such, the game is divided into 7 episodes, one for each character you are researching. As it turns out, they were all members of some circus or travelling show. You have a pair of Conjoined Twins, the creator of the circus, a man who filled the bill as a circus freak playing the "man who was burned alive," the costume designer for the various performers, a tiger tamer, the dwarf, and the fat lady. Most of these are set in and around the circus. Bear in mind, this is all based on what I could gather from the various cut scenes - they were very hard to piece together.

As you play the game, you wonder around each scene collecting various objects which sometimes trigger cut scenes which each tell part of the story of that person, how they met and made the deal with Meph, and what the result was when Meph came to collect. So, up to this point you have a very promising set up for a game. Sounds really interesting, right? Well, it SHOULD have been!

Well, it isn't! It's a big mess instead, mostly because it is very difficult to figure out what the heck is going on in each episode. You will leave each story wondering, "what just happened? What was the point of all that?" What's worse, in the end, you don't even make a final determination about which characters deserve heaven or hell! The whole issue of their eternal resting places remains unresolved! Instead, you are given the decision of whether or not to keep the circus park operating! WHAT?! Where did THAT come from!? Is this the ending to a DIFFERENT game or something?

Add to that some VERY messed up puzzles. We are talking there was one room that had everything shifted 45 degrees! That means if you want to open the drawer, you have to click on the bare patch of the wall where the drawer WOULD have been if the designer had laid everything out right! There is NO excuse for such an error in a finished game!

Sometimes you SEE that you picked up an object and placed it in your inventory. Other times, you do not. You will open your inventory and say, "when did I pick THAT up! How long have I been looking for something I already picked up!" Along with that, the cursor is inconsistent. Sometimes it shows you to do one thing, other times when you need to do the same action, the cursor is different! I know that is confusing to read, but you'll understand if you play it.

Now, there are a few good things about it. For one, the soundtrack is all Blues/Jazz - actually, old time recordings from the era the game is set in - the mid-30s. It's a very nice touch - however, even that is not without it's issues - mainly, that the BG music is on about a 30 second loop (you'll be turning it off in Episode 4, I guarantee it!)

Also, the stories are very dark, which is unique in the Adventure genre. Were talking murder, flaying, rape, animal rape, ghost lovers (in an FMV that MUST have been edited for American release, because they are the only scenes in the opening trailer that you don't see in the actual game), and other things . . . I will warn you, this is M-rated for a reason - I mean, it's not porn, but it is very racy!

So what went wrong? I don't know. Just plain old poor direction, I guess. This game must have been rushed to market, because they had a really good idea going in. I'll tell you officially not to buy this unless you find it REALLY cheap and just LOVE the Dreamcatcher Adventure games.

Instead, I'll recommend two other games that took the same idea and did well with it. AMBER: JOURNEYS BEYOND - for the same idea of exploring the settings of a deceased person's home and trying to figure out how they died - and ETERNAL DARKNESS: SANITY'S REQUIEM (Gamecube Only) for the idea of the episodic approach of visiting the same locations over several different time periods to watch different stories unfold. Skip SEVEN GAMES at all costs!

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/06/04