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Monday, 26 January 2015

Missed Classic 4: The Scoop - Final Rating

Written by Kenny McCormick

 Finally, I can take off my rose-tinted glasses and start getting really critical on this game. I had fun while it lasted but that sudden ending really sucks. Do they have cellphones in the 1920s? Now, the gloves are off. Get ready for my punching, Telarium!

Puzzles and Solvability

As an adventure game, The Scoop lacks the “use this on that” convention so widely and prevalently used by its contemporary peers. Instead, you use it to show it to people whom are most likely to have certain knowledge of these items to unlock more people you could ask about or even new locations. It is rather refreshing but lacks a certain action-y part that may endear it even further to adventure buffs. Since there is only one big puzzle to solve, I will have to be pretty harsh on this and give it a 2; 1 point for the murder and another 1 point for creativity.

Rating: 2

Interface and Inventory
Its no-nonsense Interface is very clean and user-friendly. Inventory, however, is not sorted out in a more bird’s-eye-view manner and relies on the player to scroll through each of them one-by-one with the arrow keys. Serviceable but not astounding. What is great, though, is that there are no pixel-hunting nightmares. You only need to click the Search command followed by a Take command (if there is something to be taken) to grab your shit.

Rating: 6

Story and Setting

It’s written by Agatha Christie and 5 other accomplished mystery writers. That’s 6 writers. Repeat after me, S-I-X. Very good! Joking aside, this game is chock full of content. Each NPC have loads to say about one another and so many locations to visit that one could get lost in it. This is no easy feat for a game that has no stupid mazes to entrap players. 1 point for each writer!

Rating: 6

Sound and Graphics

The monochrome backgrounds do a good job in lulling you into thinking of an old-timey black-&-white noir thriller. Juxtaposing that with brightly-clothed characters that burst out of the screen that demand your full attention whenever they appear and you have a never-before-seen application of this pop-art style in this medium. It will not be until 1998 when we see a similar attempt in the Movies, Games & Videos sector. That said, the character portraits look horrible. Also, there is no music other than the little introduction ditty. Sounds are limited to the little steps your character make while walking and the screeching of tires made by taxis.

Rating: 4

Environment and Atmosphere

I’m a little torn here. On one hand, we have a huge gaming arena filled with many real-life locations. On the other, probably because of aforementioned pop-art style, the game gives a more Andy Warhol vibe rather than a Film Noir vibe. The locations fail to give me an “I was there!” feeling as I felt more alienated to the black-&-white background because of the characters’ colors.

Rating: 2

Dialogue and Acting

This is where The Scoop truly shines. Each character has his/her own agenda. All of them are colorful, not only because of the graphics used, but because of their pronounced differences from each other. You only need see Fisher once to remember him as that Rich Fat Boy.

Rating: 7

Total

We have a nice round number of 45. Closest guess was Andy Panthro's. Congratulations! I’m off for a second run. This time, as a hot chick!



Cap Distribution

50 CAPs for Kenny McCormick
  • Classic Blogger Award – 50 CAPs – For blogging his way through The Scoop for our enjoyment
231 CAPs for Canageek
  • Biched Bicipitous Bicorn Bibbing Bibulously? Bibble-babble! - 25 CAPs - For finding new innuendos for Kenny
  • Mega Genre Support Award - 201 CAPs - For announcing plenty of sales
  • Meticulour Linker Award - 5 CAPs - For linking each played game to a library of DOS games
50 CAPs for Joe Pranevich
  • Classic Blogger Award – 50 CAPs – For blogging his way through Merry Christmas for our enjoyment
20 CAPs for El Zoof
  • Cartographer Award - 20 CAPs - For finding out what's missing in Joe's map on Adventure
 20 CAPs for Kenjab
  • What's Your Story -Award - 20 CAPS - For sending in answers for What's Your Story -questions
20 CAPs for Laertes
  • What's Your Story -Award - 20 CAPS - For sending in answers for What's Your Story -questions
20 CAPs for Aperama
  • Barber Award - 5 CAPs - For recognizing Sonny Bonds' hair
  • Black or White Award - 5 CAPs - For revealing the ultimate fate of Michael Jackson
  • Biscuit Award – 5 CAPs – For finding new innuendos for Kenny
  • Crow Award - 5 CAPs - For guessing Kenny's movie quote
15 CAPs for Rowan Lipkovits
  • Christmas Spirit Award – 15 CAPs – For finding three Christmas themed games for Joe Pranevich
15 CAPs for Andy Panthro
  • Psychic Prediction Award - 10 CAPs - For getting the closest prediction for the final rating
  • Christmas Spirit Award – 5 CAPs – For finding a game involving Santa Claus for Joe Pranevich
 15 CAPs for TBD
  • Birrotch Award – 5 CAPs – For finding new innuendos for Kenny
  • Genre Support Award - 5 CAPs - For announcing a sale on Steam
  • Genre Support Award - 5 CAPs - For announcing a sale on GOG
5 CAPs for Deimar
  • Genre Appreciation Award – 5 CAPs – For linking to a library of DOS games
5 CAPs for Laukku
  • Genre Appreciation Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a preorder of Grim Fandango Remastered
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9 comments:

  1. Joe Pranevich26 January 2015 at 16:28

    I'm just catching up on all of these, but it seems "The Scoop" may have been more fun than I gave it credit for at first. I may have to add this to my play list... some day.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ilmari Jauhiainen26 January 2015 at 20:08

    CAP boards updates! There's quite a bit of movement in the top 10: both Canageek and Aperama have climbed one place up.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Andy_Panthro27 January 2015 at 06:29

    Wow, I actually managed to get the closest score! Oddly proud about that.

    Thanks to Kenny for blogging through this missed classic!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kenny McCormick28 January 2015 at 15:29

      Not a problem. I enjoyed it, actually. If I did not have a job, I'd probably have finished the game AND writing up all the posts in a single session.

      Delete
  4. TBD28 January 2015 at 13:32

    The MacVenture games from the 1980s are now available on Steam and for sale.

    Includes Shadowgate, Deja Vu, Deja Vu 2 and Uninvited, as well as the Shadowgate remake from last year.

    http://store.steampowered.com/search/?developer=Zojoi&snr=1_5_9__408

    ReplyDelete
  5. Paul Franzen6 September 2016 at 23:03

    I'm saddened to see this is the only playthrough done by Kenny! #BringBackKenny!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ilmari Jauhiainen7 September 2016 at 04:10

      Sadly, Kenny hasn't yet been interested in playing another game for us. We are waiting for you, Kenny!

      Delete

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