Shadows on the Vatican - Act I: Greed

Nel fu Gamestop della mia città mi capito sotto gli occhi una copertina che prometteva intrighi, violenza e una Roma sulla sfondo a fare da palcoscenico. Non ricordo perché non comprai in quell'occasione Shadows on the Vatican Atto I: Avarizia. Però complice anche i saldi e una sana voglia di punta e clicca, ho fatto ammenda. Ci troviamo di fronte ad un punta e clicca con una storia intrigante scandita da complotti, corruzione, vendetta, rapimenti e le ombre sul vaticano giungo subito a imporsi! Bella anche la grafica in stile cartoon, Broken Sword deve aver insegnato molto bene, ben ricostruite le varie locazioni a Roma, peccato che come episodio finisce molto velocemente, quasi fosse un semplice prologo. Andiamo con il prossimo!

An intriguing and atmospheric adventure with a captivating storyline set in Vatican. The art style is stunning, and the puzzles are well-designed, providing a satisfying challenge. Highly recommended for fans of mysterious and immersive games!

Avventura tutta italiana divisa in quattro atti. Il primo l’ho giocato in una sera ed ho subito avuto voglia di proseguire con il secondo. Non si parla di un capolavoro ma di un punta&clicca molto carino. Le scene e i personaggi sono molto godibili a livello grafico, i dialoghi e le scene animate sono realizzate in stile comics. Il comparto audio è ottimo ma devo dire che non ho gradito per niente il doppiaggio italiano che spesso mi ha rotto il mood della scena. Gli stessi dialoghi a volte li ho trovati “imbarazzanti” proprio per i contenuti. Sugli enigmi secondo me si poteva fare meglio, ce ne sono pochi davvero interessati mentre gli altri sono banali, ti scivolano via dalle mani e neanche te ne accorgi. Le interazioni con l’ambiente sono davvero scarne. La trama invece è interessante, intensa, a tratti cruda, e ricca di dettagli che valorizzano il contesto della storia. D'altronde è quella che tira tutto. A parer mio questo gioco merita la sufficienza. Non è un gioco tecnicamente brillante ma nonostante delle cose negative è stato comunque divertente e sento di aver speso bene il mio tempo i miei soldi.

Along the years, I've played many questionable point & click adventure games, simply because it's one of my favourite genres. So, I decided to also give this one a go. Sadly, it disappointed me more than I had expected. I still enjoyed it just enough to want to play the next act, but the bad really outweighs the good here. The good bits are some of the music, a few of the static backgrounds from the streets of Rome, as well as pieces of the story. Despite the very uneven pacing and filler content, there's a genuine mystery and intrigue here, about a larger Catholic Church conspiracy, some assassins and shady financial dealings. I didn't really like James, the American ex-priest and now Chicago doctor who comes back to Italy, because he has very little personality to begin with, save for the ex-priest persona. I didn't really like any of the characters for that matter, excepting Anna Marcano and maybe Mario, but the story remains passable despite this. The first act ends on a cliffhanger just when a new character is introduced and things are starting to get interesting. That's all the good things I can say about Act 1, so I dearly hope that Act 2 improves on at least some of these aspects. Now, for the bad. The game looks very wonky, and I cannot for the life of me imagine why they went for 3D instead of a hand drawn 2D style, which would have suited Rome perfectly. This leads to one of the most awkward walking and bending over animations I have seen. There are nice touches here and there, such as the football games on the bar TV and the AS Roma memorabilia lying around, but very few and far in between. The sound is very barebones, with very little environmental ambiance, and very poor voice acting. I thought that James was bad, but then I heard Silvia and changed my mind, it only gets worse. All of this could have been excused if the gameplay had been good, but sadly it isn't. There are some pretty okay puzzles here and there (the book with postcards one stands out in a good way for me), but a lot of them are really dumb, and come down to randomly using items in your inventory on things in the environment. The way conversations and interactions with objects and locations flows is also problematic: the game really misses out on one of the small delights of the genre by cutting any monologues from things that don't go together almost entirely. James will only comment when something works, and mostly everything else is 'I don't need this' or 'I don't want to go there' or 'I don't feel like doing that'. Even when the solution is obvious, you'll have to first click on the necessary items before, just to unlock the possibility to interact in some way with another thing - the grappa bottle puzzle, for instance. Other things, I had combined items in my inventory, only for both the combined items as well as the separate items to still show up - made the candlestick puzzle a nightmare for a few minutes. And on the whole, it really feels like the item puzzles are their own thing, really fragmenting the flow of the game and not working together towards its benefit. I absolutely understand that the devs here didn't have the resources they wanted, but still wished to tell an interesting story. However, the decision-making when it comes to aspects of the game is at times baffling. Yes, I will be playing Act 2, but without much enthusiasm or interest.

Shadows of the Vatican – Act I: Greed is a pretty enjoyable point-and-click adventure with an interesting story and atmosphere. The character animations look poor, even for the game’s age, but the Vatican setting still gives it a unique feel. The puzzles were generally okay and not too difficult. Only a few required a bit of extra thought, but nothing particularly special. They were still enjoyable to solve. I also found the achievement farming easy, which is a nice bonus for completionists. Not a perfect game, but definitely worth playing if you enjoy classic adventure games and mystery stories.

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