Review: The Harpsichord Riddle for S60 3rd Edition Review
Version Reviewed: 1.0
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The Harpsichord Riddle for S60 3rd Edition
It's a bit tricky writing a review of this game, as it's not really got much in the way of interactivity or tasks. In theory it's a 100 location adventure game, but in practice it's actually a dozen multiple choice questions with a short musical puzzle at the end.
The plot involves you exploring old ruins, meeting ghosts, and finally having to make your way to a magic harpsichord at the end of the game which will remove a curse if the correct tune is played on it.
Harpsichord Riddle depicts each location with a photograph in the top half and a text description in the bottom half, with the options menu for that location appearing when you click on the direction pad. In most locations there's only one option, and you can only travel by one linear route through the game, so it's mostly an illustrated short story. There are about fifteen locations where you actually have to make a choice, but these usually aren't the kind of choices that can be guessed.
The text, originally in Italian, is fairly well-written, and the translation seems good although there are minor quirks such as referring to guards as "guardians". The illustrations used are good quality, but all are stock photography and indeed there are 50 to 100 photographers in the game's credits section! The music is also very good, although the tunes on each scene do tend to end a bit abruptly in each scene, it would have been nice if they had faded a bit first.
The game is fairly easy, and mostly a question of trial and error. There's the occasional reference that might help you, for example your choice of pizza in a restaurant has serious consequences later in the game, and a knowledge of Caesar will be of use. However, because the game is linear and the questions are all multiple choice with only two or three answers, you get the questions right just by trying again. If you die during the game, you don't have to start again but just go back a few locations. You can save the game and exit at any time by pressing the right blue soft key, and get help from the main menu by pressing the left blue soft key.
There's no score on this review because this doesn't feel like a full game. It feels more of a technology demo for the publisher Somusar, to show off their SoProMach development software which allows script-based generation of S60 applications (Harpsichord Riddle apparently had 98.5% of its code generated using SoProMach). There's a free version of SoProMach available from the Somusar website, and you can also view Flash demos of the generator in action.
Having said all that, there's potential for Harpsichord Riddle's format as a sort of cross between an interactive ebook and a graphic novel. This kind of multiple-choice game is apparently very popular in Asia, and if done correctly this could suit a Western phone audience too, especially if it's marketed at the right price. What it needs though is more plot, multiple paths through to the end, and original artwork. Imagine a long, well-written, well-illustrated multiple-choice graphic novel featuring popular characters from literature or cult characters from the works of Neil Gaiman or 2000AD. The story and artwork alone might be worth the asking price, just as they are with real life books, and the interactivity and portability would give it a new twist.
You can see a video of The Harpsichord Riddle in action on the Unofficial Nokia Gaming Blog.
Note: This game was reviewed on a Nokia E61, using the Symbian S60 3rd Edition version of The Harpsichord Riddle.
Reviewed by krisse at