Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy - Part 1
Score: 70% ESRB: 4+ Publisher: Anuman Developer: Microids Media: Download/1 Players: 1 Genre: Adventure
Graphics & Sound: Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy - Part 1 brings a fairly good adventure game onto iOS systems like the iPhone and the iPad... well, the first half of the game anyway. While I was a bit wary of playing a full blown adventure game on a system with such a small screen and only a touch screen as my input device, I think the porting team did a pretty good job of making the game both pretty and usable for the iPhone. Graphically speaking, The Last Prophecy looks about as good as I remember it on my PC a few years ago. Both the landscapes of 16th Century France and the interior surroundings found throughout the game are fairly easy on the eyes. Character models are good as well and do a pretty competent job of looking their various parts. The game's music and voicework also comes through the mobile device's speakers quite well. Of course, for the best quality, you will want to keep your headphones on, and since all of the dialogue is fully voiced, this really is the preferred way to experience the game's story.
Gameplay: Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy - Part 1 starts off a story featuring an old Nostradamus who is asked by the King's mother, Catherine de Medicis, to investigate one of his prophecies that seems to be coming true. The prophecy talks of deaths in the royal house. Unfortunately, the great astrologer explains that he is too old to take part in the investigation and claims that his son, Cesar, will get to work on the case immediately. The problem is, Cesar isn't home right now and he asks his daughter, and your character, Madeleine, to dress as Cesar and see what she can find out. While a good bit of the early portion of the game involves getting the Cesar costume together, the ability to switch between the two sexes adds an interesting dimension to the game since different people will react differently to Cesar and Madeleine. On top of the gender-switching conversations, you will also find various recipes that you will have to cook up in order to progress in the game, as well as dabble in some really early forms of forensic investigations.
Difficulty: While the original release of Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy offered an interesting challenge, there are a couple of issues with the iPhone version of Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy - Part 1 when difficulty is considered. For one, and this is an issue with most point-and-click adventure games, since I've already played and beaten The Last Prophecy, it comes off a lot easier to me than it did originally. While I don't remember every solution to a game that was released in 2007, the more I played it, the more I started remembering. Even given the assumption that those who played the game originally on the PC several years ago won't re-buy and play it on the iPhone, the way the game has been changed in order to make it usable on a touch-screen-only system makes it a lot easier, but I'll go into that more in the next section. Suffice it to say that since there is no mouse, the developers had to find another way to let you know what you can click on, and as a result, the game practically lays itself out in front of you.
Game Mechanics: Basically, Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy - Part 1 just shows you all of the hot spots and the items on the screen that you can interact with. While there is no pixel-hunting (thankfully, considering the size of the screen), there is also very little effort put into knowing what you need to do next. Granted, there are still many of the more nit-picky parts of this game that keep it from being a total cake-walk, namely the recipes and forensic aspects, but a lot of the original point-and-click adventure feel goes away when you don't have a mouse to work with. All that being said, Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy is a fairly good adventure game, but I wouldn't recommend the iPhone version over the PC one, or maybe even the iPad one given the bigger screen. In other words, go for the iPhone version only if you are really big into adventure titles and can't get the game in any other format.
-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer
Related Links: Game Vortex’s Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy Coverage
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