The Gamer's Hub - Article: Simon 4 Chaos Happens Review

I have to admit that I may be showing my age a little when I say that I haven’t played a good "point and click" game since I was in high school. Back then playing pre-rendered backgrounds through a story-line was ahead of its time. I have to say that Simon The Sorcerer 4: Chaos Happens is a pleasent mixture of the way things were with the way they should be.

Though this is my first in the Simon series, I did do a little research on the previous 3 titles. I found that each game had its own set up pros and cons, but as each game progressed the fan base seemed to grow. Simon 4 comes back to the true "point and click" interface after Simon 3 (or Simon 3D depending on where you read) tried a more personable interface. From what I am seeing the makers of Simon 4, Playlogic, certainly listen to the feedback they receive and build on it.

The story starts out with a young boy and his brother basically fighting over a remote in his bedroom. One bump on the head and Simon has a vison that he has to return to the Magic Kingdom, as it is in grave danger. Using his dimension traveling wardrobe Simon is quickly back to the Magic Kingdom where the real story begins.

Upon arriving in The Magic Kingdom you quickly learn that there is an imposter making trouble for poor Simon. You must use items and the people you meet to help you on your quest. As with any point and click game you take everything you can and you talk to everyone you meet. Sometimes talking to them again is needed to get you that one item you are missing. As far as puzzles go this one gets you thinking. If one combination of items doesn’t work then try another. When all else fails you can get the next hint from all the others that got stuck on the internet. I am not ashamed to say that I had to make a couple of visits there myself. But make sure you know how to read interpreted Russian, as this game appears to be mainly based in the Eastern World.

Though the story is one nice component of the game, the characters will keep you interested and laughing. When you meet Little Red Riding Hood near the starting point of the game ... I have to say the "Hood" part is right. She rides along on a skateboard, nad talks you into helping her get her cool black hat back. What she leaves out is that it is guarded by a flesh eating ... blood drinking ... rabbit. And there you are with your arm in it’s hole. What is wrong with that picture?

The graphics are great. All of the back drops are beautifully done prerendered interactive backgrounds. Your cursor will automatically change to show items that can be looked at, picked up, talked to, etc. The animation of the characters is very fluid and natural looking. From what I saw there were no flaws in the design, and I wish other companies took the same time to look thier work over.

I have to admit that I expected the sound to not be top notch based on past experiance with this type of game. I’m glad to be very wrong here. The entire game has a great variety of background music, ambient effects, and very cheesy dialogue. Simon isn’t your typical "Harry Potter" type innocent teenager. At every turn he throws one liners and sarcasm like we breath air. But he takes it as well as he dishes it out. And when I say cheesy, I don’t mean that in the worst way. I actually found myself laughing at a few of them.

Overall I think this was a pretty fun game to come across. If you can pick up a copy I would say to get out the caffeine and get prepared to have a sore butt from the time you will sit in your chair. From the research I have seen I believe the games get better with each one. I’d like to see how the 5th release will be myself.