by Don Kwikshot

Created on: January 22, 2009   Last Updated: April 03, 2012

TOTEM TRIBE, BY ENKORD:

4/5 This is a playable game which begs you to keep on building things, exploring islands, finding jewels and other hidden items, and keeps you pretty much on the ball with your progress. There is the usual story-commentary for each level, which is pretty straightforward and could be easily translated to fit any number of games, but reading each section takes time, which one can ill-afford when playing a trial game.

Game play is sometimes a little hard to understand, and the battle symbol can only be put in one place at a time, which makes it rather difficult to eliminate the enemy. Sometimes it's hard to see what the enemy is or what it's doing, or what kind of ammunition you need in order to nullify it. It took me about fifteen minutes to get the hang of the pop-up with the buildings and what they actually do for you, but once you have this nailed, it's not too difficult. However, the search ikon only comes up from time to time, leaving you wanting to explore other areas and not being able to because the ikon is not present. I felt that I could have achieved much more if the controls had been more readily available. Also, the commentary and the goals don't seem to have much to do with the actual game play.

Graphics are creative and attractive, but not always easy to see - I found a considerable amount of eye-strain in trying to see some of the things. Various peoples and creatures tend to move in a rather strange way and it takes a while to get used to this.

Sound is really average for this type of game; there is the usual rather monotonous muzak which burbles away in the background and can become a bit wearing at times. Visually the game is enjoyable and realistic, in an unreal kind of way, and certainly caters for the more imaginative of tastes, but in the end it is the usual game of finding things and opening other things and, presumably gaining points. However, nowhere in the trial game did it tell me how many points I had amassed.

I found this not to be a particularly innovative or exciting game to play because it seems to follow the same lines of many of these seek-and-discover, collect various items to open other itmes sort of games. The ninety-minute free trial went past very quickly, but I didn't end up with a feeling of having achieved anything.

At the end of the day, it's not really the sort of thing that I would buy - but then I'm not very keen on this type of game because it goes round and round in circles and you find that, several stages later, you are none the wiser for the experience. So, all-in-all quite a playable and a passable game, but no real cigar!

Learn more about this author, Don Kwikshot.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.