Retro Game Reviews: Benoit Sokal's 'Paradise: Storm of Storms'

'Paradise: Storm of Storms' is the most recently done PC project by visionary game developer Microids and visionary game creator and artist Benoit Sokal. Sokal, who is French by descent, has been considered a master of the different and exotic when it has come to his artwork and since then, Microids has been making it their sole duty to use his original styles and concepts to make some of the most innovative and engaging games that the software company has had to offer.

With the current successes of their first two projects, 'Syberia 1 and 2', which dealt with an innovative and mesmerizing tale involving a lawyer, an old man, automatons, and the search for wooly mammoths, Sokal's visions were quickly winning awards and turning the heads of many gamers who were looking for a totally immersive experience. Now, with 'Paradise', there had been great hopes for this game and unfortunately those hopes are quickly dashed as you run into logic puzzles that are not logical, clues that do not make any sense as to what to do with them when you pick them up, and a storyline that's ending really left something to be desired.

The story revolves around an amnesiac named Ann Smith (* taken from a book written by a famous fictitious naturalist) who is shot down over the fictional country of Maurania in Africa. Once she is rescued by a prince of the small country, Ann soon learns that there is a journey that she must undertake. It will involve the delivery of a black leopard to the jungles where it came from, as the animal has become too wild and uncontrollable by the prince, who uses the animal to keep out prowlers that would encroach upon the palace grounds. But, Ann's journey's are not without pitfalls, as she soon finds that the country is in the clutches of a civil war where the rebels are quickly advancing on the country at an alarming speed, with reports of rapes, suicides, and murders are quickly blaring over propaganda radio as the country is in a state of turmoil as Ann not only is journeying to release the black leopard into the wild, but also learns her true identity as to who she is throughout the whole journey. When the story does fimnally reach its climax though, you may end up wondering what the whokle purpose of this story was as the end leaves a very disdainful and bitter taste in the mouth.

The graphics are beautiful, thanks to Sokal's constant influence on making every image seem real and feel as if you are actually there. His concept graphics that deal with ancient civilizations and mystical beasts is breathtaking. You will be introduced to such wondrous creatures as gazelines, frog boxers, palettes, palette falcons, and polopolobats. All these creatures are brought for in brilliant color and detail. The civilizations are brought to live with great and imaginative landscapes. There is even some machine puzzles within the game that almost like a trademark from Sokal (* especially with his sketch books where most of his ideas can be found).

Now, for the bad news, unfortunately. The game controls are very, very clumsy. In most adventure games that are story-driven, there is a simple point-and-click interface that will help you with directions to different locations. In 'Paradise', this system definitely is there, but there were other places that were important where the directional arrows did not come up at all and you had fumble around with your mouse to get where it was to get that important piece of the puzzle. (* There were also instances where the arrow would disappear at the corner of the screen where they once were and you would have to fiddle with the mouse again to make sure that you character moved to the right spot).

Next, the puzzles were amazingly unorthodox and illogical. Each time you picked up a new piece that was needed and added it to you inventory, you had absolutely no logical way to dtermine what it was used for. Most of the puzzles involved such things as making a perfume, tieing three sticks together to make a pole, and so forth, with absolutely no idea what it was used for. This alone, did not make for an enjoyable experience for me, as when I do logic puzzles, I at least like to know half-way what I am using items for.

Thirdly, while the story of Ann Smith was intriguing, 'Paradise' came forward to me as nothing special. The story itself revolved a lot around mankind and its undeterring taste for greed and power. While it managed to disguise itself as an ecological story that the player may at first embrace and think 'Hey, this is all right', you are quickly thrust into the nightmares of war, where some of the scenes showed such violence as people hanging themsleves and people blowing their brains out. All of this, and a teen rating , also? In my opinion, this needed to be greatly screened and possibly given an 'M' rating due to this kind of suggestive content. Even though you may not see it in full living color, you know immediately what is happening. Also, it was very politically charged. There are lots of references dealing with revolutions, war, propaganda. It made me feel like I was playing a WWII simulation game! It made me ask the question of why include it in gaming when it is something we already know a great deal about from watching the news?

In closing, 'Paradise' was not one of Sokal's more endearing projects. When I first played the 'Syberia' series when I first learned of it, I was quickly addicted to the game as the storyline was so intriguing. It made me want to play further to see the story advance as well as see the wonders that Sokal wanted us to see. Wolly mammoths in the present day living in Russia? That alone made my ears prick up! It is my hope that if Benoit Sokal decides to undertake another project that he would stick with what he knows best: building a sense of wonder by creating something beautiful to make our world even more beautiful.

If you would like to try this game anyway, you can order it from this website: http://www.justadventure.com Also. This is a game that can easily be picked up at Traget as well for $10.00 on the cheap game aisle.