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 On 03/11/2014 at 05:17 PM by Ranger1 See More From This User » |
Games should be fun. Otherwise, why play them?
Afrika is a game that I should be loving. You play as a photographer in Afrika accepting assignments to take pictures of the wildlife. I love photography, wildlife, and taking pictures of wildlife, so this game sounded like it should be right up my alley. I've put in four or five hours so far, and it's failing on the fun end of the spectrum.
First off, you have to wait forever for the game to install on your PS3. I fail to see the point of that, as I'm playing the game on a disc, for crying out loud, but anyway. After waiting out that eternity, you then have to create a save file, which takes another eon. And anytime you want to save or load a game, it takes at least a minute and 17 seconds, if your lucky. I'm averaging over a minute and a half per save/load.
Once you finally get control, you choose one of two characters to play as: a French guy named Eric with a stupid knit cap, or a skinny American chick named Anna. I chose Anna because her character model sucked less than Eric's. You can rename the character you play as, but that's as far as customization goes. Actual game play goes like this: you check your email, accept assignments, get issued crappy camera equipment that you have to practically be right on top of an animal to get a decent photo, and are introduced to your driver, James. James then takes you directly to set areas to take photos and complete your assignments. The issue lies in implementation. All the wildlife is only in set locations, but you have to drive through vast areas devoid of animals to get to those set locations. And most of the time you can't stop to check anything out - James is going from point A (base camp) to point B with no stops in between. Once you're done for the day, you go back to camp, upload your photos and listen to the inanities of whichever character you didn't choose to play as. Eric basically sat on his ass and read magazine while I was out taking photos with inferior camera equipment and reminding me to check my email.
After a certain point, suddenly it's James' turn to hang around camp and do nothing, and Eric starts driving you...for a little ways, and then he makes you get out, he sits in the back, and you have to drive his useless ass all over the place while he does nothing but backseat drive and dispense useless advice.
The photography end of things is frustrating, too. You have to get up close to the critters to get a decent photo, because apparently you don't rate a telephoto lens. Most of the animals, this isn't too much of a problem, but I did get stomped all over by a cape buffalo. This results in getting transported back to camp, where the first thing you see is your partner's stupid face looking down at you, and the loss of all the photos in your camera. When you do fulfill an assignment, you email it to the client, your photo gets rated (but you're never told what those criteria are, even in the manual), and hopefully you get some cash to buy overpriced stuff from the pro shop. While you're out in the bush, sometimes you can climb trees, but only certain trees, and you're not told which ones. And it's all wash, rinse, repeat.
Graphics are ok, frame rate sucks enough that I notice it, there's no voice work, and one tune that starts getting on your nerves after a while. The animal sounds that I've heard so far are the correct ones, zebras yip like dogs instead of whinny like horses (that one always gets me going in movies), elephants trumpet, etc. There is a nice animal encyclopedia that you compile with every new animal you take a photo of and send in, done by National Geographic, so hard to screw that up, but that's one of the few good things so far.
All in all, this game is a huge disappointment. What could have been a fun, educational game is bogged down by poor design choices and gameplay. It tries too hard to be realistic in all the wrong ways and fails miserably as a game.
What they could have done better:
If you're not a big wildlife photography buff, avoid this game like the plague. Publisher Natsume's tagline "Serious Fun" lies - it's not fun at all.
Yeah... I just recently found this game at a local Gamestop (after years of searching for a good deal) and I was disappointed. It's so slowwwwwwwww. And you can't understate that install/save file creation time. I mean, good god, did that take a long time.
Honestly, I started it and was so bored after about an hour of "gameplay" that I never went back. I was really looking forward to it since it was announced, so needless to say, it was a huge bummer.
It gets a little better once you finally get a better camera, but honestly, the only reason I'm soldiering on is because of my OCD.
Sounds like it's best to stick with Pokemon Snap
Yeah, that would be advice. Or Dark Cloud 2, or Beyond Good & Evil, or pretty much any other game that lets you take pictures.
Ugh, how can they go wrong with this? Africa is a beautiful place for wild-life. I guess there's always Pokemon snap and Fatal-frame for "fun" camera action,Tami. 
There are a lot of games that get the camera/photo taking thing right. I'd just had such high hopes for this one.
Damn. That sucks. I didn't know about this game, but now I'll stay away from it.
Yes, you've been warned. Think of this blog as a public service announcement.
darn, this game sounds terrible. seems like such a great concept too. I'd play a wildlife photography game. it sounds like it would be so relaxing. Too bad this one isn't.
It's one of the biggest disappointments I've had related to video games. The worst part is that the game could have been fun had they made some better decisions. All I can think is that they neverbothered asking anyone if the game was fun before they spat it out into the retail market.
Hey now, go easy on Natsume.
Have you ever played Pokemon Snap? I bet you'd like it.
Funny you should mention Pokemon Snap... I actually hve it, Ive just never hooked up the $10 N64 to play it. I really shuld do something about that, becuse I'm sure I'd like it. And Natsume was just the publisher. Some company called Rhino Studios made the game.
I think I'll install BG&E soon.
I guess in their defense, the tirade you just wrote is probably a lot closer to the real thing than any video game, but as you said, who wants to play that?
The problem was too much reality in the wrong places. In reality, if I were going to be taking wildlife photos as a job in Africa, I'd have a goddamned telephoto and a decent camera before I even arrived! I don't mind the sitting around for the animals to stroll by, it's all the rest.
I was going to mention Pokemon Snap, but I see everyone else beat me to the punch. But yeah, Bravely Default is one game that has greatly disappointed me and considering the amount of time I put into that, it stings big time.
You seem to be in the minority with Bravely Default, most other people that I know relly like it. I have no opinion, not having the harware to play it on.
Darn, that's too bad. I wanted this game to be good too.
I'm thinking I should take a standard FPS and substitute all the weapons for cameras and all the enemies for animals and make a fun photography game. It'd be fast and dangerous. Like maybe Far Cry 3 with cameras.
Yeah, I've been going through in my head how I'd redo the game so it would actually be fun. I'm leaning more on the RPG end of the spectrum rather than the FPS end, I hate FPS games!
It's not horrible, because I'm still playing (or maybe I'm just a a masochist), but it's not great, either. I did finally get a better lens, which has lessened the frustration a bit.
An action RPG open world game like Xenosaga would be neat.
I'm trying to think about a turn-based RPG and how you would do that with photography. Might be interesting.
Ever played Dark Cloud 2?
No and I want that game. I have the first one but the screen shots I've seen of 2 look amazing.
Dang, that's a shame.
Yes, yes it is. I'll finish it, though. And then I'll sell it to KnightDriver so he can be disappointed, too. Misery loves company!
I find it hard to imagine being disappointed with a game that let's you upgrade your camera equipment but anything's possible I guess.
I forgot that game existed. It was such an early PS3 game. Wow.
But a very easy platinum trophy!
That's a shame that this game isn't better. You don't see many photography games and with this style, being in that environment, there is so much promise to not only show off what the PS3 could do, it failed.
It got better about a third of the way in, when I was able to access better equipment. But I was expecting a much better game experience than what I got.
the game sounds familair. But I'm glad I didn't bother with it. I'll stay clear.
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