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Speaking of Shakespeare…

Yesterday’s announcement that the BBC will be releasing free Doctor Who adventure games in the near future reminded me of another free BBC game I played a few years ago that I really enjoyed—The Seven Noble Kinsmen: A Shakespeare Murder Mystery. To be honest I don’t remember much about it except that it stood out as a really high-quality game, considering its zero dollar (or pound) price tag. But I guess that’s to be expected from the BBC.

This is a browser-based game that takes place in a creepy old theater. If I recall correctly, the premise is sort of like And Then There Were None, with a bunch of people invited to the theater who start dying one by one. There are even multiple endings. While mif2000’s Hamlet puts more of a surreal spin on Shakespeare, The Seven Noble Kinsmen is more dramatic and atmospheric. They’re like two ends of the spectrum.

Now that I have Shakespeare on the brain, I might just have to replay it…

The play’s game’s the thing… mif2000’s Hamlet

I’m doing contract PR for Alawar Entertainment, who just released an interesting game named (deep breath) Hamlet, or the last game without MMORPG features, shaders and product placement.

When I first heard about this game a few months ago, I was interested to check it out because I’m a big fan of media that comes at Hamlet from a new perspective — stuff like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Shakespeare in Love. So it was sort of a happy coincidence that I had the opportunity to help out with the game’s PR.

Hamlet was created by Russian indie developer mif2000 (real name Denis Galanin). It’s an adventure game, but not in the traditional “talk to lots of people and fill your pockets with random crap” sense. The puzzles are mainly logic-based, the storyline is presented by comics throughout the 25 levels, and the visuals are… well, not what you’d expect in a stage production of Hamlet! (Very eye-catching, though.)

The game can be downloaded from Alawar’s website and comes with a free 1-hour demo. If you want to play the full game, you can unlock it for $9.95. This trailer will give you an idea of what you’re in for…

For more details about the game — along with a couple of Hamlet references that I’m absurdly proud of — read the announcement press release. If you’re a member of the press looking for more info about the game, please contact me!

My preview of The Whispered World

I’m finally caught up with my GDC previews (all three of them) and my impressions of The Whispered World have been posted at Adventure Gamers. Going into GDC I didn’t know a ton about this game, besides the fact that it seemed to have been in production forever. After seeing it in person, I’m pretty excited about it. The graphics are gorgeous and the atmosphere has a fairy tale feel that reminds me a little of Telltale’s Bone games, as well as one of my Sierra favorites, Torin’s Passage.

It’s a humorous game, but it seems to focus more on revealing a good story than telling ten jokes a minute. (Not that there’s anything wrong with ten jokes a minute!) It won Best Story in the German Game Developer Awards last year, which gives me high hopes.

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