Another Code: Two Memories review

The Nintendo DS is practically made for strategy, puzzle and adventure games. It kind of makes sense to have a pointing stick in point-and-click adventures right? Perhaps you are one of the hopeful that was waiting for classics such as Monkey Island, Sam & Max, Broken Sword and all the others to magically appear on the DS? This sadly hasn’t happened, though now we have Another Code: Two Memories… But it’s not really the same.

It all began with… me going on vacation
The history begins with 13-year old Ashley receiving a package from her dad who she hasn’t seen since she was three years old. The package contains a strange piece of equipment – a so-called DAS, which could easily be mistaken for a Nintendo DS. The DAS, unfortunately, can’t play any cool games, instead it plays DAS cards should Ashley be so lucky as to stumble upon some. She can also use the DAS to save photos etc.

The Island

After receiving the package Ashley embarks on her quest to find her missing father. Accompanied by her aunt Jessica heads for the mysterious Blood Edward Island, where her dad supposedly is. I will not give away more of the plot here – suffice it to say that the story goes on (and backwards too) through conversations between Ashley and the (few) persons she meet, and the information she gets from the various DAS cards in the game.

Somewhat kind of not really scary

The story takes place in our own time (with flashbacks to events from the post-war era) and the graphics resemble certain anime games such as Serial Experiments Lain (but not so pretty). The game uses different points of view and attain some nice looking 3D effects when Ashley is shown from a bird’s eye perspective as she moves under trees; arches and so on (back in the days we used to call that sort of thing parallax and I guess that term still applies).

It all adds up to bring a sense of suspense, though nothing scary ever really happens. Actually nothing in the game manages to stir up your emotions which ends up with you not really caring for the characters.

The plot twists that actually are in the story are given away with such long notice that they don’t really surprise you at all. And let me add to that that I think the persons who have designed the sound portion of the game are the same as the ones responsible for the story. I haven’t checked if this is correct but it can hardly be a coincidence that the sound is just as dull and uninspiring as the story?

I want my Sam & Max

In every good adventure game there are puzzles to be solved, and I’m sure you have some favourite moments of solving intricately designed puzzles. No such moments exist in Another Code. The puzzles (if that’s what you want to call them) are either ridiculously easy or they are completely devoid of logic and impossibly hard. On several occasions the game forces you to go back to areas where you have already been and strangely new items have appeared where there was nothing before.

This really is anything but encouraging for your desire to go on with the game, but on the other hand it prolongs the game (which is probably a good thing since it can be completed in about 10 hours, assuming you don’t fall asleep before!). I’ve actually heard of people completing the game more than once (!) and certain elements in the game should change the second time through. I haven’t tried because that frankly sounds like torture to me.

The time of Adventure games isn’t over. The last couple of years have seen good stories and solid gameplay. Fahrenheit is also waiting just around the corner and Dreamfall should be in stores next year. Obviously we will also see great adventure games for the DS, but Another Code isn’t one of them.


Source: Boomtown DK
English version by: Julian Henlov (Progrock)