"Amy lonely." "Amy want friends." "My toy. Go away." The voice is that of a child. This particular child is a young gorilla named Amy ù the first creature one meets upon reaching the brink of the lost city of Zinj. Her voice is transmitted through a voice pack / synthesizer which translates her ASL (American Sign Language) into words. If this sounds familiar, perhaps you've read Michael Crichton's Congo the book. Or if not, perhaps you've seen Viacom Inc.'s Congo the movie. Here, we are talking about Viacom New Media's Congo: The MovieTM: Descent Into Zinj, which I am fond of calling Congo-the-Movie-the-Game ù or simply Congo.
Based on Crichton's best-selling book, Congo takes you into the jungles of the Congo (surprised, are you?) on a search for diamonds in the name of the prestigious Travicom conglomerate. Project Director Karen Ross is in contact with you via communications device, as is R.B. Travis, the we-don't-know-whether-to-trust-him-or-not Chairman of the Board. You, however, are actually traveling alone...or are you? Although you know your party members are remote, something apparently is not. At first, little (!) Amy turns up and disappears intermittently; you must try to follow her. She has something you need, and she doesn't trust you. "Amy not like." One of the best parts of the game is the tension generated by the feeling that somehow, while nothing assaults your senses tangibly, someone or something besides Amy is out there. The feeling is eventually confirmed when mutant gorillas tear you very tangibly limb from limb...but you knew it was coming, right?
Initially, you are treated to a quite plausibly realistic vision of what it might be like to wander through the jungle. "Oh look, greenery!" "Oh look, more greenery!" Oh look, brown greenery!" And just as you begin to tire of tropical vegetation ("Is this the fiftieth or sixtieth time I've passed that purple-tinged shrub?"), something more interesting either appears, occurs or leaps forth. "Oh look, a rotting corpse!" As we approach the middle stages of the game, the leaping forth proliferates as we die, die and die again at the hands (and claws and teeth) of the fabulous mutants. But no need to ascribe to the save-early-save-often approach to adventures ù here when we die in many creative ways, we are revived just a few steps prior to our indiscretion.
Normally, I consider such simple revival to be "wimpy." Here, however, given the number of times you buy the farm (each occurrence marked by a snarl-accompanied gorilla silhouette), it's good to know that you don't have to complete the "Choose Menu, Choose Load, Choose Game to Load, Confirm Loading Chosen Game, Yes I'm Really Sure I Want To Do This" sequence (the ol' Double Load-or-Delete Confirm being a companion move to the famous Triple Dog Dare).
The rich musical score and intricate sound effects really punch up the Being There feeling, but most importantly, the gameplay is splendid. Initially you have nothing but the requisite knife, but eventually you discover (piece by piece) a whole arsenal of high-tech gear and weaponry. What sets many of the items apart from inventory items in most other games is that you very often need to do more than "use item with object." For instance, you might be able to collect data with one item, and then need to analyze it or additionally process it using another tool. It makes for very engrossing gameplay, and tougher puzzles. I wish, though, that there was an available description of inventory items. After collecting several items, I had no idea what they were or what I could possibly do with them. How are we to know that the small CD-looking object is a tracking device, or that the silver bicycle fenders are actually ammo clips? Eventually we gain that knowledge, but it would save a lot of time if they were labeled, or otherwise described.
We are carrying a device which serves as a communicator, a video library, an audio-playback machine and an overhead mapping feature. All of these features play key roles in puzzle solution, and most require you to (drum-roll) think before using. Fancy that ù thinking! Getting from the borders of Zinj into the next game stage (the Mines) is quite a Herculean task, with dozens of pre-required components. Quite a few may need hints in this area. Fortunately the puzzles are intuitive, and the mazes are really quite painless, even though the ape's heavy breathing is ubiquitous. In this case, heavy breathing is very tension-producing (not usually its job...)
The locations are beautifully detailed and, although initial perusal may scream overly leafy at us, we begin to realize that a jungle is quite leafy, and besides, there are wonderful ruins and runes (hieroglyphics, actually, but near-homophonic pairs are hard to resist...) strewn about. Once we descend into the depths of the mines of Zinj, things get particularly hairy ù literally. Most of the locations are very dark and foreboding, but this is the jungle as I imagine it to be; the darker it gets, the closer those things seem to be.
I've not seen all that much discussion on-line about Congo, which is surprising, to me. It's got some of the most solid gameplay of recent releases, and provides a lush tropical atmosphere just waiting to be explored. Pick up some mutant gorillas today! "Buy nice game. Amy like."
