Safecracker/Review
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In Short
If you like puzzle games, you gonna love this. There are a lot of nice head scratchers in there. The puzzles range from short to very long and often require a lot work to get done or at least a lot trying. It looks great and the sounds give it a nice little atmosphere, but you are not playing this game for either.
Gameplay
Puzzle games of this nature (like the old Myst) show you a very detailed world when you look around and lead you from one puzzle to the next. Sometimes you can do multiple things before advancing, and so it is with Safecracker. And old and rich man died, his family has tasked you with finding his will. The trouble is, the man had an affinity for safe's and locking mechanisms. So you have to open up all the safes and solve all the puzzles in the house to get to the will. At first you come to a combination lock on a door. To your right through a couple of small rooms is a safe with 3 rings. You have to align the lights in those rings in a certain way for the safe to open up. In the safe is the combination to the lock at the door. And on it goes.
In your quest you collect and use items. Mostly you will have no idea what they are for at the beginning and then all of a sudden you get the light bulb feeling and you can make progress. The whole game is not made to be easy and played through fast. Even if you are a seasoned puzzler, you will need a few hours to go through all the rooms. A bit over 30 puzzles, some of them requiring you to look closely at your surroundings, reading items and look at them closely as well, will keep you busy for a long time.
Graphics
As usual with games of this type it looks great. There is nothing fantastic or overly big about it, but in general it simply looks good. You can't say much about graphics in a game that mainly concerns itself with puzzles but here some puzzles actually involve the environment you are in so looking closely at the details is the solution to many a solution.
Sound
For any puzzle game you usually have no big need for sounds, the same applies here. What sound there is does the trick more than well. On another positive note there is no sound that will go on your nerves after a while so you can puzzle without too much distraction going on.
Conclusion
| Review Score | |
| Gameplay: | 82 |
| Graphics: | 87 |
| Sound: | 75 |
| Overall: | 81 |
Safecracker is a pure head game. There is nothing in it that requires reflexes or a feeling of balance for anything. If you like figuring out why the control panel in front of you prints out different numbers every time you press a button or what notes on the wall might mean in terms of opening a safe, this game is for you. It is more directed than Myst so it is not only for hardcore fans but also beginners in this type of games.
Written by Christian Riesen March 1, 2008
