Lifeline

"Voice Action Adventure or Boring Slow Adventure. You decide."

Introduction: Part Survival Horror
"Am I going to piss my pants?"

LifeLine takes place on Christmas Eve at the grand opening of a futuristic space hotel. You and your girlfriend have been invited to attend and are enjoying the party when suddenly the hotel is attacked by aliens. You find yourself alone locked in a monitor room where you have access to all the security doors and cameras and can virtually watch the entire hotel. When you see a young waitress named Rio on your monitor abandoned as well, the two of you decide to team up to save your girlfriend and escape together. With only your voice to guide her, you act as her "guardian angel" through a maze of monsters and strange characters. As the Operator you need to tell Rio what to do, when to do it, and make every decision for her so she can save you from the monitor room.

Before you jump to conclusions this is no Silent Hill or even a toned down Resident Evil. The game is not "jump out of your seat" or "gross out" scary, it's more like a good suspense mystery novel that you feel like you're a part of. Do not buy this I repeat do not buy this for a scare, it's just not that kind of game.

Part Text Adventure, hmm...or should I say Voice Action Adventure
"What's this I hear about text, I thought you talk to the game?"

You do "talk" to it but it has its root in the classic genre. You see LifeLine is the natural evolution for PC text or graphic adventures, the next step up if you will (even though it's on a PS2). You see the core mechanics are something you'd expect out of the original King's Quest or Zork titles, but the execution is entirely new. Its major innovation is its utmost reliance on your voice instead of your keyboard. You will give Rio all the typical text commands but actually say them, you'll tell her to "check", "look", "use", "open", or "take" everything you can. To play you don't even really use the controller, the main character Rio does whatever you speak into the USB headset (yes it is required).

This is NO action game. Not only will you not be fiercely pulling off combos, jumping over chasms, or running and gunning you won't even be walking the character around with the joystick. Sound interesting? I know what you just said out load "NO!", but before you write this game off as garbage read on. You may like what you hear.

Game-Play or Game-Snooze. Zz zz zz...
"Is it fun or not?"

If it seems simple it is, maybe too simple. Basically there's two modes of gameplay: field searching and fighting. The former is where you'll spend most of your time. As the Operator you'll tell Rio to hop from room to room in the hotel and explore different "locations" within each room such as the bathroom, living area, etc. Then you'll find a number of - usually between 3 to 6 - ??? (unknown) objects that you need to identify before moving on. If you can't tell exactly what they are you can give some descriptive words like "green book" to help you out.

Seems easy enough? Well the problem is a few are very hard to figure out exactly what they are and even coming up with descriptions is difficult. Trust me some are so obscure you'll want to throw the game out the window! In all honesty there are only a handful like this and with a little patience you'll figure it out within a few minutes but sometimes it feels more like a chore than anything else. I can't deny though that you get a tremendous amount of satisfaction from guessing the ??? objects and is really quite fun, especially if you're a fan of text adventures. When all is said and done this is a minor complaint.

Undoubtedly most gamers will be so bored with this part of the game they'll be falling asleep (I'm not exaggerating). No one can deny that the pace of this game is super slow and very monotonous which can be a huge turnoff for a lot of gamers. The rooms look similar, the locations are all the same, and the items are the same. You pretty much tread along at a snail's crawl going through the motions until you get in a fight or have to solve a puzzle. If the game still sounds interesting read on to what is one of the games better features, the fighting.

Things get real spicy in the battles. To fight you'll have to aim for an enemy's weak points like the "head" or "tail" all the while screaming "dodge!", "flee!", and "recover!" (heal). The frantic action of having to be on your toes and barking out orders at a fast rate is quite enjoyable. There are quite a few commands and even a few extra ones you find that add some interesting abilities like auto-fire and a grenade launcher. I have heard many other reviewers complain about the split second reflexes - normally reserved for action games - are extremely difficult to pull off by "saying" them in LifeLine. Unfortunately what people don't seem to realize perhaps from writing off the game as unfair and giving up too soon is that there is a trick. It could be a glitch or maybe just not really emphasized in the game tutorial, but you can actually say the command and wait before you execute it. This completely knocks out the problem of having to perfectly time your commands with the enemy's actions. Now I'm starting to go beyond the scope of this review so let me get back to one of the game's best elements, the plot.

Concept, Story and Gameplay all rolled into one
"Alright the game sounds kind of fun but what about the story? How does the voice action complement what I see going on? Will I want to watch the cutscenes or skip through them?

LifeLine has a solid story that slowly unveils as you delve deeper into the hotel, but might be too predictable for some. However the game has a phenomenal last 30 minutes that speaks for itself and dishes out some excellent surprise twists that save what could have been a niche ending. That's not to say its spectacular all the way through, it does have its ups and downs and can take a little too long to unfold, but the plot is a big plus that pushes you forward in the game.

But what really makes LifeLine great is how well the concept, story and gameplay complement each other. The idea of you guiding a girl through a deserted hotel and watching her safely from the outside captures a suspense that's hard to put into words. The fact that you really feel like you're talking to her from the safety of your room through the headset only elevates that feeling of actually being in the game. It truly does create an amazing atmosphere that fits that cliche of "Am I going to survive?" that few others do.

I must say it's absolutely incredible how well the gameplay mechanics fit this concept. Rio depends on you for everything from opening locked doors, to guiding her in battle, to picking up clues in her surroundings. You think there might be a key under a piece of paper on the table, well all you do is say "go to the table" and "check under the paper" and she'll do it. A giant alien is about to kill her from behind, you tell her to "turn around, dodge and shoot". One thing I absolutely love is that you get that feeling of being on the outside looking in, something the voice activated gameplay multiplies by 10! This is without a doubt one of the most innovative titles in ages and quite possibly the future of the genre.

Music, What Music?
"All I hear is talking?"

Well that's one thing you have to appreciate. The lack of (or should I say non-existent) music and sound effects is actually what makes the game so endearing. In LifeLine you won't hear much but Rio talking to you in the camera, other than her voice its pretty much silent except for the fights (the music & sound effects are pretty standard). However that sensation of being alone with Rio is what creates the amazing atmosphere. This probably won't make sense until you play it but the peaceful serenity makes you really feel like you're bonding with Rio. As the game progresses you'll build an intimate relationship with Rio and share many quiet conversations, just the two of you. The game does such a great job drawing you in, you'll really fall in love with Rio's personality and feel like you're actually good friends.

The sound you will grow quite familiar with is Rio's lovely voice. Played by a solid actor the dialog never seems forced and the script is actually quite good and even the occasional humor is funny. Rio's voice is soothing and comforting and never gets on your nerves, but is still very believable when she's scared or angry to how a real person would react in such situations. The script and voice breathe so much life into her that she really comes off as a realistic heroine. In fact her character and personality really shine at the climax of the game so much so you'll weep when you find out Rio's dilemma. Or maybe I'm just a big sap? ;_; Even if you don't cry at movies you should still enjoy watching Rio pulling it together in the face of tragedy.

The Graphics Make the Character
"Who's that hottie on the cover?"

You know what makes listening to Rio even better, watching Rio, because of the astonishing graphics of her character model (and did I mention she's quite cute). Thanks in part to the amount of graphics resources the artists had available to them, they were able to go all out in this game. Since there isn't a whole lot of action or movement taking place on screen or by the player, the artists were able to bulk Rio up with a lot more polygons than usual. Rio's entire body and especially her face look so smooth and finished that there isn't any signs of clipping or obvious jaggies. She moves her body so true to real life that it almost feels like your watching an actor in a movie. She'll frolic around the room, crouch in fear, run in terror, and fight like a gunman in battle.

Even more impressive is the artistic detail put into her face. Her facial expressions are some of the best I've ever seen. When she talks directly into the camera she really looks, for lack of a better word, human. You can see her smile when she laughs, her face grimace with disappointment or fill up with anger, the fear in her eyes, and that disgusted face when you say something stupid. This game outshines the competition in regards to realistic facial expressions and body movement. Rio is one of the best thought out character designs I've seen in a long time.

To top it off the few hi-res cutscenes in the game have a soft dream like feel and look absolutely amazing (the final boss scene is awesome). Bringing it down just a notch are the background and enemy graphics which are solid but not nearly as remarkable looking as Rio herself.

Love it or Hate it?
"You praise the game so much it deserves a 10 right?"

Well the downside is I have 3 major gripes with the gameplay that hurt the overall fun factor. First, remember the ??? things you have to identify. Most of them are useless and don't add anything to the game, in fact useless is an understatement. In most games interactive parts of the environment have some value whether its to add tidbits to the story or to provide clues to a puzzle. Not in LifeLine 60% of them are things like a coffee cup, piece of fruit or shampoo and all you get for checking them is "its just (fill in the blank) I can't use that". Its such a waste of time, even the old text and graphic adventures didn't have so much worthless junk to check out. I recommend you use a FAQ to find out what you can skip. Ugh!

Second, there are way too many battles with too little variety in enemies. Even though the fighting is fun it's gone way overboard. There's really only 6 different types of aliens you'll fight over and over again, with of course the classic color change to up the difficulty. Trust me after the halfway point you'll be begging for it to stop. To make matters worse there are just 2 bosses to challenge and they aren't that hard, but I have to admit the final boss fight is quite cool.

And third, the amount of puzzles. A typical adventure game like this where the only real depth comes from challenging the player to think logically, is lacking tremendously in the puzzle department. After all if you don't have frantic combat and have slow walking around and exploring instead your mind needs to be entertained a little don't you think? The few brain teasers in the game are solid and integrated into the gameplay but there's just not enough.

Conclusion. You have to decide for yourself?
"LifeLine sounds cool but I don't know it sounds kind of different from what I'm used to."

Well it really depends on what you think makes a fun game. Do you enjoy action games or adventure games? Do you appreciate innovation, when a game tries something completely different that no one has done before? Do you want something fresh?

To sum up, LifeLine does 3 things superb: putting an innovative spin on an old concept, drawing you into the game like no other, and far surpassing most every developer with the main character design. Its remarkable achievement in the area of voice recognition does not just create a different experience for this one game, it's the future of gaming to some degree. This is one of the few truly revolutionary advancements I've seen in gaming in the last 5 years without a doubt. Let me just say that this is also one of the best examples I've ever seen of integrating gameplay, concept and story seamlessly.

To those of you who I've convinced that LifeLine provides a faulted but no less one of a kind experience, let me give you a little warning. You'll either love it or hate it. Kids who grew up on pure action games will probably be bored to tears. The slow (and I mean slow) pace and enormous amount of patience required to get through this game will be too much for some. As I see it this game to some extent was made for a certain audience, mainly text based or point & click adventure fans. Remember those classic adventure gems King's Quest I-IV or the most recent hit Syberia. If you have fond memories of helping Graham become a king or helping Kate find Hans you'll find a lot to love in LifeLine. But even if you don't remember these games you might, just maybe, find something so undeniably endearing and utterly unique about LifeLine that you'll enjoy what it has to offer.

Positives
Innovative one of a kind experience
Excellent main character design
Rio looks gorgeous
Amazing voice acting, realistic facial expressions, and body movement
Solid Plot with a couple of surprise twists
Concept, story, and gameplay complement each other like no other game out there

Negatives
Requires some patience
May be too slow for most gamers
Somewhat repetitive
A lot of useless things to "check"
Not enough variety in enemies
Not enough puzzles

Final Score 7

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/21/04, Updated 08/24/04