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RESONANCE
Platform: PC
85

Resonance Review

A purely old-school title and a homage to the classic adventure games

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It took quite some time, a lot of devotion and a Kickstarter campaign to make Resonance a reality, but this is not the only reason this indie game is a pretty unique case. Resonance is a 3rd person point-and-click adventure game in its purest form. Above all, the game is a homage to the classic adventure games of the 90s. Every single aspect of Resonance, including the music, the storyline, the atmosphere, and yes, the graphics, looks and feels like something Sierra would have created 17 years ago. The developers decided to defy the notion that adventure games are a “dying genre” and the trend of making them less challenging in order to appeal to more gamers, and created a purely old-school title.

Resonance game

The story has a Sci-Fi theme, taking place in the near future, when the not-so-accidental death of brilliant scientist Dr. Morales triggers a series of events revolving around a new and dangerous technology that he has discovered. The first unique feature of the game is that it has four different protagonists: Ed, a nerdy scientist working for Dr. Morales; Ray, a reporter who doesn’t hesitate to use a couple of dirty tricks in order to get his story; Detective Bennet, a middle-aged cop who has his own ways of getting the job done; and Anna, a young doctor and also Dr. Morales’ niece. After learning about this hazardous new technology and the tremendous potential it has to either do a lot of good or cause a huge disaster, the four heroes begin working together in order to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands and avoid an imminent catastrophe. After the brief introduction of each character, the player takes control of all four and can switch between them whenever they want. However, a large number of actions can only be executed by specific characters, as they possess the necessary skill or authority to complete certain tasks.

Resonance game

Resonance has been in development for quite a while but this is not necessarily a bad thing as it soon becomes evident that the creators paid great attention to detail. The voice actors do an excellent job in portraying their characters, making them sound both believable and natural. The story, though it is based on the usual international conspiracy scenario, is well written and the way it unfolds through the experiences of the four characters is interesting to say the least. On the downside, the whole chain of events is supposed to escalate on a global level, but most of the time this is implied and not shown. Additionally, not all characters are well developed; giving a few more background details would have helped the player care more about them and understand their perspectives. Nevertheless, all four characters are unique, with different personalities, approaches and skills, and a major twist which occurs near the end of the game is believable enough, yet not that easy to predict. Another pleasant surprise about the game is the soundtrack. Composer Nikolas Sideris has managed to create a great score – including a noteworthy end-credit song – which not only suits the game’s theme very well, but also manages to maintain the whole retro feeling of the title.

As a classic old-school adventure game, Resonance has its fair share of puzzles. Fortunately, almost all of them are interesting and challenging enough in order to keep the player intrigued, and at the same time they are completely rational, so with some logical thinking one should be able to get through the game without ever needing a walkthrough. A great and innovative aspect of the game is the memory system. This new feature allows the player to not only store items in their inventory but memories as well. The long term memory (LTM) feature automatically stores important events which have occurred, allowing the player to view them again, use them in conversations and of course to solve a few puzzles. The short term memory (STM) feature on the other hand allows the player to make their own selection, storing items, parts of the environment or faces to a separate menu and using them in a similar way as with the LTM. The only problem during gameplay is that, although the control of four different characters is brilliantly executed, it can become tiring at times when the player has to use more than one character in order to go through a certain action. This of course is quite logical, as characters have different inventories and different STM lists. On the plus-side, a couple of frustrating puzzles have alternative ways of being solved (or avoided), but this of course gives you a lower score in the game’s point system.

Resonance game

Judging Resonance for its graphics and overall appearance is a tricky task, as the game looks 20 years old on purpose. On one hand, the essence of old-school adventure games is captured very well. There is certainly a fair share of different environments, from Ed’s messy apartment to a big hospital and a lab destroyed by an explosion; all of the game’s areas are full of detail and it is obvious that Vince Twelve and his team invested many hours in perfecting their project. The one major issue concerning the graphics is that they seem to suffer under higher resolutions. There are a few filtering and anti-aliasing options, allowing the game to be played in numerous different resolutions, as well as an option to smoothen the pixilated graphics which unfortunately makes the game way too blurry when run in full screen. However, the windowed mode is just as fine and the game runs perfectly in almost every system.

Resonance was certainly a pleasant surprise. Although it is an indie title created by a small team with little budget, no aspect of the game lacks in detail or quality. Though it is not clearly stated, there are a few different endings the player can get based on the dialogue choices they make during the final scenes. These choices have a few significant consequences which are revealed at the very end. On the other hand, a seemingly important choice that the player gets to make during the game has no consequence at all, making the whole option rather unnecessary. Even if there is room for improvement, Resonance unquestionably does not disappoint. The game has a solid story, interesting characters and pleasantly challenging puzzles. Any fan of adventure games, whether they do remember the 90s or not, will certainly enjoy playing it, especially as so few good adventure games come out each year and as its price is already significantly low.

Our ratings for Resonance on PC out of 100 (Ratings FAQ)
Presentation
80
A lot of attention was given to the details. The graphics could have used a bit more polishing in order to make the game look better in higher resolutions and still maintain its retro style.
Gameplay
85
The puzzles, the inventory and especially the long term memory/short term memory system are all brilliantly designed. Sometimes though controlling four different characters and having to repeat certain actions can become a bit frustrating.
Single Player
85
As a whole, it was a very pleasant experience. The puzzles are logical but tricky enough, the story is intriguing and the whole old-school theme is quite well executed.
Multiplayer
NR
None
Performance
90
The game runs in almost any system. The smooth scaled sprites option could use some more work in order to not make the graphics so blurry, other than that the game has no significant issues whatsoever.
Overall
85
The game reeks of nostalgia but at the same time feels pretty fresh and original. It has a good story with clever and challenging puzzles, making it an excellent homage to the classic point-and-click adventure games of the 90s and a game most fans of the genre will certainly enjoy.
Comments
Resonance
Resonance box art Platform:
PC
Our Review of Resonance
85%
Great
The Verdict:
Game Ranking
Resonance is ranked #175 out of 1957 total reviewed games. It is ranked #21 out of 145 games reviewed in 2012.
175. Resonance
176. Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag
PlayStation 3
Screenshots

Resonance
10 images added Sep 14, 2012 00:28
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