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The Neverhood

starstarstarstarhalfstar
Released: 1996 Manufacturer: Dreamworks Interactive
In Brief:
Funny, beautifully animated adventure game.
Puzzle Quality: very good Visuals: wonderful Difficulty: pretty hard
Dramatic Effectiveness: excellent Ease of Interface: good
I was out in Redmond, Washington learning about the advanced features of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 4 for work, and my coworker was desperate to go to the fabled Microsoft Store, where you could buy any Microsoft software for half-price. It was the whole reason he'd finagled his way into the trip.

I didn't want much myself. We had a limit of something like $100 we were allowed to spend there, but all I wanted was a copy of Visual C++. But looking around, I saw The Neverhood, a game done in claymation, and for the price ($10 or $20) I couldn't resist. I just had to see how a claymation adventure game would look. Then I let my friend use the rest of my Microsoft Store limit to get as much software as he could carry.

Anyway, The Neverhood is great. I've always liked claymation, and this is done beautifully. The game is extremely funny, with a couple of hysterical cut scenes that would do well at an animation festival. The puzzles start easy and get harder and harder and eventually ridiculously hard (I cheated a lot on this, although my games-writing friend didn't). The music is a lot of fun, and there's a radio with a whole lot of channels with some amazing stuff on it, such as a sound effects record comprised entirely of silent things (a mime, grass growing). It's funny, beautifully animated, and just as about as much fun as any one person can stand.

-- Charles Herold -1997