Derek

Sep 2nd, 2008 by cm1

Download Derek

Following on from my preview last year, I’m fortunate to be able to review Derek, the sequel to Nacah. The creator, Cheyenne Wolford, kindly allowed me to play the game at various stages while he was developing it. I have seen it grow from a very interesting concept to the full-fledged game it has become on final release. Throughout this process, I provided him with honest reflections about all the game’s components and friends and family have provided him with inspiration and other ideas. The development of the game is covered in “The Making of Derek”, a movie included on the game disk alone worth buying the game for. Cheyenne is casual, yet compelling, as he tells the tale of Derek. Like Nacah, the game was a struggle from the get go. Those familiar with Nacah know that Cheyenne lives on a property that does not have electricity except that provided by his many generators. The filming is very high quality and a joy for all of its 10 (!) minutes.

Derek screenshot – click to enlargeThis game is far superior graphically to Nacah. It may be cliché, but the first thought I had on viewing this demo was Riven. What makes this so fascinating, though, is that this game looks like Riven but was designed by one person. There is always a sense of wonderment on entering any new area. There are subtle effects such as shadows, rippling water, and ambient noises that complete the feeling of immersion in another world.

As with Nacah, the game is played from a first person perspective and is mouse driven. Inventory items are easier to recognize than those in Nacah are and feature two new enhancements: they are well labeled and can be examined using the magnifying glass.

Derek screenshotThe game is no longer just static background, now it has real time effects most notably in water shimmering. QuickTime cutscenes still have a pixellated quality but are far better than Nacah. The game has some characters, with which there is interaction, and even a choice or two. The acting inspired chuckles and grimacing in me and if some of the actors aren’t reading their lines, I’ll eat my hat. Sound quality is notably poorer in the spoken parts than that in the rest of the game. I hope subtitles are added. Another quirk was that if music was playing at the same time as voice-overs, the lines didn’t play. I emailed Cheyenne about this, and apparently this did not occur on other test computers.

Although far from having a thoroughly developed story, the story is no less developed than that in Myst, Riven, or any other games of this ilk. Primarily, the game is a series of puzzles that bring the player one step to the end of the game. In the islands of Derek, the Matteh are a people living without God. They had their Bible taken from them by the Dalaq, a dominating force. But there is another people, the Qadas, who hold a copy of the Bible in the Matteh language. Your goal is to recover the guidance of the Bible to a people who have been without their faith for some generations. This is a huge step over the complete lack of story evident in Nacah. There is a definite goal and events in the game make sense when considered within this storyline.

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desperadosS @Warez-bb.org

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