Les Misérables: The Game Of the Book (141Mb)
‘Enter the Story’ have a project by Chris Tolworthy to make adventure games from 20 all-time great classic novels. The first of these Les Misérables, is now freeware for the full version; and when all 20 are finished, they will act together as the biggest computer adventure game ever. You can buy a package of the next three (Dante’s Inferno, Hesiod’s Theogony, and A Tale of Two Cities, for $14.99 or £11.87, these being 384Mb in total. Do note if you buy these as a complete package that the download is called ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ but also contains the three previous episodes. The shortcut is named Engine 3.0 by default in the Start Menu - Info HERE).
Next in the series are due to be The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame all which I eagerly await! We will probably even see War and Peace in this adventure series eventually!
By way of context, Victor Hugo the book’s author himself had fled from Napoleon’s coup d’etat to write Les Misérables having to reside in the Channel islands away from his native and loved France. The plot is a mixture of detective story and historical romance, with larger-than-life characters facing a series of moral dilemmas, and fighting off contextually based evils.
Les Misérables and the subsequent games in this point-and-click adventure series are really something very special indeed as adventure games go. Les Misérables has hand-drawn sketch type scenes that fit admirably with the story and given the length of the story, makes for a very long adventure game! The sketch scenes - some of which have animated characters, are either black and white or in pastel colored monotones, and the story is elaborated by conversing dialogues in great detail. When you get a character to talk, after the initial conversation, you can sometimes get many more conversational titbits, by repeatedly asking them to talk.
The music is compelling and very atmospheric throughout the game. No doubt it will help to have read the book, but this is by no means essential. Victor Hugo's Les Misérables is a story of love and death, and passion and sacrifice. It stars Jean Valjean, a man sent to prison for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving children. In this game one of those children is called Peri. She plays a very important part in the story as an angel, to save Jean Valjean from his sinful ways. The game has over 250 different characters to interact with (where every character can interact with every other character, and with every item in the game), a map system to change locations and a very useful help feature accessed using the ‘F1’ key that acts a a guide whereby Peri can get tips from her uncle in Heaven as to how to proceed, very useful for when you get stuck and can’t think what to do or try next. Pressing the ‘Esc’ key gives an option to quit the game.
You play in fact as Peri, and there’s an interesting control system where you can right click on any character then right click on any object or other character and they will take on a ‘suggestion’ for acting with that object or character if they think it’s a good idea. This can be extended to other scenes, so you can get a character to interact with items or other characters that appear in other different scenes that are not close by, by carrying the right click on to the next screen. Travelling in and around Paris and across France is made all the more compelling and interesting, given that the sketch type scenes accurately portray the different localities, features and atmosphere. Peri cannot touch or interact directly herself with characters, other than listening to conversations, and thoughts and making ‘right click’ suggestions. Dialogues are a most important part of the game, which is intentionally dialogue heavy and it is also of course character heavy. But this does give the game great character itself.
The entire setting is very elaborate and immersive and it is often very enlightening too to explore what members of different social orders think about a particular person or to read their conversations about current events and of course sometimes see their biased or very biased view of things. The game’s setting and dialogues are closely based on events and true-to-life characters from the book and the book’s period. Random character to random character dialogue’s will rarely advance the game’s progress though, and is a feature to be omitted from The Count of Monte Cristo onwards in the series. You will certainly compare states of happiness and unhappiness in this adventure with each other and the scenes portrayed, with the realization that each is only relative to the general condition. Can poor = happy? At least in early 19th century backstreet Paris? But enough philosophising, it’s a truly fascinating and in depth adventure to play!
It is played using the mouse, with left mouse button to move, double click left button to speak and right button to hear people’s thoughts, when they do not wish to conceal these from you. Right click is also used to get characters to interact with things and other people.
It can be difficult to follow if you’re not familiar with the book, though there are plenty of book synopsis’s out there to give you a concise and general idea. Even just the chapter list from the book’s five volumes can give you good idea of what is needed next.
The game is quite challenging, especially if you haven’t read the book and even with Peri’s uncle’s tips, may still at times have you scratching your head as to what to do or where to go next. Adventure buffs should enjoy this game to the hilt. There simply aren’t other adventure games out there like this, but be warned, try this one seriously and you will be wanting all the others in the series as they come out!
As the first in the series it may not be totally bug-free as it possible (though less than likely) for characters to get into places it is difficult to click on them, and some items are hidden and not visible until clicked on, and hence difficult to find.
It runs in XP, Vista and Win 7 full-screen and is an interesting and refreshing, though complex adventure. Even if you don’t play it right through, it is a must to try it, just to see the absolutely gorgeous graphics. These might entrance you into playing further into the game, they are so good!
The book itself is in the public domain, available as a free ebook of all five volumes in one download from Gutenberg HERE should you wish to read or refer to it.
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This isn't the first game made using Les Misérables as a basis, though purists will no doubt frown upon the (very popular!) Japanese fighting game ‘Arm Joe’ Download 127Mb HERE about which you can read more Here . Suffice that the Japanese game is a fighter with characters and costumes from the book! It’s entirely in Japanese but eminently playable. Video for Arm Joe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnOn2pUgMoM.
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Today’s main download is for the really very excellent point-and-click adventure based accurately on the story and plot from the book. I love this game. It’s a truly stunning and hugely impressive achievement! In fact magnificent, to do it full and true justice!
Download Les Misérables: The Game Of the Book (Full version) free HERE
