Memories - Shadows (The)

Advantages: Great premise, well developed characters, multiple plot paths.
Disadvantages: Easy solutions, unwarranted repitition.

...Eike Kusch has just died. Murdered while strolling through the German town of Lebensbaum, he shall never know the motive behind the murder. Or at least he shouldn't, but he awakens in a bizarre, inter-dimensional realm where a disembodied voice offers him the chance to go back in time and prevent his death. Despite initial misgivings about the intentions of his mysterious saviour, who admits a vested interest in Eike's survival, he accepts and wakes up in a coffee shop with a time travel device, half an hour before he is destined to die. The race is on. And what follows as he puts off the first attempt on his life, manipulating the past to secure his future, makes up the first of ten chapters in Konami's 2001 PS2 adventure game, Shadow of Memories (Shadow of Destiny in the US). This chapter sets a general template for the game: after... Read review

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Advantages: great action scenes, reasonable characters
Disadvantages: pulpy

...Somebody once said that there are only two plot lines in classic fantasy: an unexpected simpleton (child, beggar, heathen, girl, commoner) saving the world (e.g. Frodo) and a king threatened by the usurper (e.g. Arthur). This is, of course, a major simplification, but still, many, many fantasy novels follow one of those plotlines. The Way of Shadows seems to be an example of the first one. Azoth is a guild rat, grown up in the slums, poverty and fear, beatings and abuse his daily reality. When, in a sudden flash of justified anger he crosses the Fist of his guild, he has to make some hard decisions, quickly. His life is at stake, and the only way out he sees is apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint: the best assassin in the city. Azoth changes his identity to Kylar Stern and has to leave his old life in the slums of the Warrens to face... Read review

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Advantages: A great story, and very well presented
Disadvantages: Not for people who like fast paced action

...In a bizarre twist to most games the opening event the Shadow of Memories is your character dying, and from that moment on, you die a few more times as well. To put that into perspective, you play Eike Kusch (where do the come up with these names?), who in the opening scenes gets stabbed in the back whilst walking down an alley and dies. Eike then ?awakes? in a musty ruined room (for want of a better word) and a strange voice starts talking to him, offering him the chance to go back in time and save himself. However, just stopping yourself being stabbed is just the start of it, you have to go back and tear out the very root of what happened, and thus the plot explodes. I have not finished this game yet but the plot is very engrossing and has crossed about 4 time periods so far. The graphics are absolutely stunning and you can... Read review

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