Presented in Retrovision: S.O.S.
My tastes in video games tends to fall into the categories of eccentric, weird or experimental. I enjoy titles that feature quirks and new game play elements, and more often than not I tend to overlook outrageously bad game mechanics if a developer adds a single feature that I consider to be unique. The game I chose for this week is no exception. When released, many players found this game broken in more ways than one. I, however, think that this game is a diamond in the rough. This game is Human Entertainment's S.O.S. for the SNES.
S.O.S. (or Septentrion as it was known in Japan) is an eccentric title, at best. The game contains no villains, it is short with little over an hour of play, and puzzles regularly require simply talking to people in a specific order. You are a man against the weather, himself, and a ship: The Lady Crithania.
In an unexpected storm, the ship is having tremendous difficulties. Large waves are engulfing the luxurious cruse ship "Lady Crithania" and it's beginning to tremble from stress.The date is September 13. The time is 7:11 P.M.
The Captain reports in the ship's log that the severity of the storm causes him to lose control of the ship.
This is to the the largest passenger shipwreck to date.
There are a reported 2300 passengers aboard. The voyage will turn from ecstasy to catastrophe.
The ship is in total chaos. Passengers and crew alike begin to panic, as they near the grip of Death.Now the real tragedy begins...
After starting the game, you have your choice of one of four male passengers to play. Each passenger begins in a different portion of the ship, with his own background and story. Initially, you can walk around, converse with your companions and get general background story. Shortly after the play stops, the Lady Crithania begins to violently shake. The screen fades to black and shows a photo of the Lady Crithania capsizing.
At this point, the game is heavily inspired by the book/film The Poseidon Adventure. You wake from unconsciousness on the ceiling (which is now a floor). Most of the passengers are dead and scattered about the boat being normally found in mangled heaps. Amazingly, very little changed during the game's localization. Depending on your character, you have to navigate the boat to get yourself to safely. The boat tilts and careens as the ship slowly loses buoyancy, which further complicates your ability to reach certain areas. A wall may be scalable, if only for a moment, for it will then shift without warning and send you falling to your death. Each major injury removes 5 minutes to a counter which is constantly counting down to a watery grave at the bottom of the sea.
You have just one hour to find safety. The game plays much like Prince of Persia, but with the major exceptions being the movement of the ship, lack of levels and the addition of companions. Additional survivors can be convinced to follow you to safety, which provides for more optimistic endings depending on how many survivors you save and who they are. Saving survivors is, of course, much more difficult than saving yourself.
As a leader, you are more physically capable of scaling walls, jumping and climbing. Most of your companions are feeble at best, and often, for the lack of a better word, stupid. Companions frequently get stuck when performing the simplest jumps and they may even kill themselves from following you. Plotting a safe route through the ship covers a majority of the challenge. The lack of intelligence is less often a problem than you might imagine for players can call companions from a room away allowing them to "warp" past complicated points.
Many of the events that transpire in game are also time critical. Survivors move, disappear and appear depending on the time left on the clock. Often getting the best ending for a specific character requires a bit of trial and error to locate all his personal companions. Missing a single character can result in your death, even if you manage to best the countdown.
Even with the countdown, the game can often feel begrudgingly slow. Climbing up a room can take several minutes, and, to make matters worse, the leader is incapable of running, which limits movements to a deliberate walking pace. Dialog is scarce at best, and it usually only occurs when rescuing survivors. This is likely done intentionally to make the player feel anxious about getting where they need to be.
I won't claim S.O.S. is perfect. In fact, it is far from perfect. It is much like an ugly puppy you see at the pound. You know that it has problems, but you want to love it in spite of it's inherent flaws. Fortunately, S.O.S. makes that easy. It is not a game that requires a large amount of time to be invested, as the game's clock is so limited. For the time, the concept was revolutionary from pitting players against a constant natural force with only realistic obstacles and physical limitations. The story is broad and detailed, even with the lack of dialog. The game includes several playable story arcs, each with multiple endings, and little to no cross over between other characters. Unfortunately, no sequels were ever released outside of Japan.
Asterick
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 10 April 2008
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: agetec, ascii, human, presented in retrovision, septentrion, sinking ship, sos, survival horror
Could you say that this game was sort of a precursor to the ClockTower games? I know that there was one in Japan on the SNES.
I would say this is more a precursor to the Disaster report / Raw Danger series.
The play style of the various games is rather different as well, Clock Tower (up till the most recent release) had a command cursor (option to be driven by a mouse), SOS was pure platformer.
The only real correlation between the two titles are the developer and the need to survive and save people. :D
When I first saw the title, I thought you were going to talk about a different S.O.S. for the SNES. There was a quirky, Lost Vikings-like puzzle game called "Sink Or Swim."
Well, even though that wasn't the game you were reviewing, I'm getting a little urge to check it out again. :P
As for this SOS, I dunno. Maybe I should play it(if I can find it >_>), but an hour of play and slow, clunky controls?. You didn't exactly sweetened the deal. =D Meh, I'll go for it, you usually recommend very interesting games. I'm still grateful that you made me aware of titles like "Day of the Tentacle" and the über-kawaii "Princess Maker 2." XD