Pelit magazine reviews The Silver Lining!

[Cez]

The magazine gives Episode 1 82 out 100 and Episode 2 85 out of 100, and gives the "Pelit seal of approval"!

Thanks to our own Mikael Palsio for the translation:

Read all about it:

http://www.postudios.com/blog/?p=990

[sahara]

They definitely had a lot of great things to say about the game!  I like the wine analogy at the end.

Anyway, I don't mean to be annoying or nitpick, but just wanted to mention that you might want to go over that English translation (see below) to fix grammatical and spelling errors.  There are quite a few mistakes in there, which is understandable if English isn't the translator's first/primary language.  Again, not trying to nitpick.  I know I don't always use perfect grammar or spell everything correctly... far from it.  I would definitely need copy editing for anything I'd publish.  It just looks kind of bad when you have all those errors on your main site.

Anyway, this is my favorite line from the review... it sounds kind of funny:  "The only exception to the swinging voice acting is the annoying female narrator, who opens her mouth every time there is even a small excuse."

The death of adventure games seems to have been greatly exaggerated. Why, there giving them out for free!

Roberta Williams left an eternal mark on the adventure game genre. With her husband, they were the founders of Sierra On-line, which created the foundation for the whole adventure gaming industry.

King's Quest was Sierra's oldest and most beloved gameseries. This favorite child of Roberta Williams, grew from its cradle in to eight sequels in length, but the latest 3D-actionthingie was to be the end of the series.Now the child has gotten a new home in the hands of dedicated collection of fans and after years of silence, the series is getting an unofficial sequel. Made with the strength of amateurs, The Silver Lining is, despite its crude exterior, pure gold.

Because King's Quest and its characters are still under copyright protection, the route taken by The Silver Lining, that is released in five episodes, has been long and rocky. Luckily in the end, reason won. The first episode was released with the blessings of Roberta Williams, so this is the most official fan product you'll ever see. This project done with volunteer work is free and there are already two full episodes done.

Wedding straight from hell

A proud father has to do much more harder work than your normal toast, when in the middle of a wedding, Alexander and Rosella, the heirs to the king of Daventry king Graham, are cursed and they fall into a coma. Gray-haired Graham is off to his final adventure to search for a cure.

The troubles of the opening scene are really simple, so even beginners can get a hold of the plot easily. During the first episode, one doesn't travel far from the beginning island, but the apperatives of the story efficiently waked up tastebuds. After the brooding opening of the second episode, the world is once again painted with candy colors and the serious rescue mission gets some humor on its side. The story hits on a new gear and finally Graham and his company gets to travel around the big world. The second episode also improves the puzzles, but you'll hardly get stuck anywhere.

Now the story starts to feel like a grand adventure. The episode ends just when the plot starts to thicken, so the excitement is strong while waiting for the third episode.

Sierra or Escort?

The interface is so Sierra. With the right mouse ear you can sail through the actions, while the left button executes it. The gameworld does not have any hotspots, so you'll have to keep your eyes open. The king's adventure in this three dimensional kingdom requires some handhelding, since the pathfinding algorithm seems to have been born premature. As a small beauty flaw Graham walks like a robot, but luckily you'll get used to the stiff main character pretty quickly.

Despite being blessed with a golden heart, the exterior of this fanproduct is unfortunately not as golden. Record blurry textures and blocky character models are something from the last millenium, with higher resolutions the problems are more apparent. Atleast the pixels cover up some of the jagged edges. To counter the apathetic graphics the soundscape is extremely well made. The music offers some melancholical piano notes and there is nothing to complain the voice acting. The monk choirs of episode 2 even managed to raise the hair on my back.

The characters say their lines, with a few exceptions, without overacting, and the gout graphics engine tries its best to make the characters look like they're displaying emotions. The only exception to the swinging voice acting is the annoying female narrator, who opens her mouth every time there is even a small excuse.

With great interest, I'm waiting to see where does this adventure go. The game already feels like a real King's Quest and the love of the authors to their work is clearly visible. Usually in these kinds of projects, the schedules get longer, but getting two episodes out is a strong sign that the latest adventure of the Daventry family will see an ending.

The Silver Lining( reminds me of homemade house wine. Preserved in a Mehukatti can it's hard to make the flavor taste like a mass produced alternative. After the long gestation period you have something homebrewn that is to be enjoyed in small portions, of which the final opinion can only be said when the the cup hits the lees.

[Lambonius]

Oh yeah...ouch.  Haha...someone who speaks English properly definitely needs to go over that translation.  It reads like it was just run through babelfish and printed as is. 

[Cez]

yeah, Katie, you should probably clean it up. It's actually more of a direct translation, since Mikael did include notes as to what certain things meant in Finnish. I cleaned it up a bit, but we are uploading the press release build as we speak, and things are more than a little crazy.

[MikPal]

It reads like it was just run through babelfish and printed as is.

Well, then my brain works more like a computer software than I thought.

But Cez, feel free to pin the bad translation on me.

Like I said earlier, I tried to make it as word for word as possible. Just so, that a person who understands english, could atleast understand what it is trying to say. I'm no professional translator and to be fair, I was once in a project where we had a professional translator, and we were re-translating the damn thing even during the recording session. The fenno-ugric lanquages are so very diffrent in style when compared with the indo-european. For example, there are no gender based pronouns (he/she). You can write whole articles about what somebody is about to do without addressing yourself or anybody else. And the whole article is written in such a way that slang is used all over the text. Words like "pianonpimputusta", "toimintahässäkkä" and "kupletti" just roll out from your toung like sweet honey, but when you try to translate them into english without wanting to offend or totally confuse anyone. That's a totally different story.

[LightWarrior]

Dismal graphics?

Heh, at least I've seen most reviewers go a bit easier on our graphics department due to uh, this being a "Fan made game"...

[MikPal]

Dismal graphics?

Heh, at least I've seen most reviewers go a bit easier on our graphics department due to uh, this being a "Fan made game"...

The author of the review also said this about Gray Matter:
"The polygonfolk are also having troubles, because the characters look quite blocky".
He said that, about this. So, no need to take it too personally.

[snabbott]

Nice Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference!
"right mouse ear"

I think people will be pleased with the changes to the narrator's lines. She's a LOT less sarcastic!

[Enchantermon]

Nice Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference!

Hah! I was just about to say that!

[Cez]

It reads like it was just run through babelfish and printed as is.

But Cez, feel free to pin the bad translation on me.

I'm not pinning a bad translation on you. I know you tried to translate it so that it stayed true to what it was saying, which is why I didn't bother much translating it to something that made more sense in english other than cleaning a few things. That, and I don't have the time right now

Thanks again for it!

[Vyerna]

I'm so happy about the "candy-colored world" comment. That's what I resent the most about most of the games that come out these days. They are so somber!! Why, for me, if I'm playing a game, I like it to be cheery and bright! Even more so if the story is sad A game's no place to be sad! It's the only place where you're pretty sure you can make it right! Anyhow, seeing how Sierra always had cheery colors, I feel it appropriate that they were maintained in TSL!

Omg, tomorrow is the SEVENTEENTH!!!! How will I ever be able to study?!

[LightWarrior]

Dismal graphics?

Heh, at least I've seen most reviewers go a bit easier on our graphics department due to uh, this being a "Fan made game"...

The author of the review also said this about Gray Matter:
"The polygonfolk are also having troubles, because the characters look quite blocky".
He said that, about this. So, no need to take it too personally.

Oh no I'm sorry I didn't mean to come off as taking it personal.

I follow a fundamental rule that you can't please everyone.

I ment to note we got off easy in other past reviews. I know personal the fans are impressed with the quality for a "fan made game".

It's just interesting to see.