Download Ring II: Twilight of the Gods (Windows)

archcorenth 2021-12-28 1 point

I enjoyed the first Ring game except for some of the voices. But this one had some problems. Basically, it adapts the opera Siegfried (whereas Ring 1 adapted Rheingold and Die Walkurie). The entirety of Gotterdammerung is condensed into a 3 minute cutscene at the end (I suppose they ran out of money?) In many ways, however, this is not a sequel to the first game. The first game had a science fiction plotline I didn't totally understand where you had to reconstruct this myth in order to defeat something called the Nemesis. Here you just play through a loose adaptation of the Siegfried story, the sci-fi story completely forgotten.

The gameplay is also very different. I suppose you might call the first game Myst-like, but with an inventory. This is more like...Dizzy I suppose. You directly control Siegfried and can only carry things in your two hands, which means a lot of walking back and forth as you pick up and drop things when you see that you need them. The new direct control allows for some action/platformer/stealth game stuff that is not welcome due to poor controls.

Yet another negative I must mention is the music. The first game was spread over several CD's and featured a good deal of Wagner's music, with many songs given a sort of music video treatment. It was all gorgeous and a good reward for the somewhat tedious puzzles and (sometimes) obnoxious voice acting (Charlotte Rampling excluded). There's none of that here. Just the briefest of looped tracks in the background. No musical cutscenes at all. Even the cutscene of Gotterdammerung mentioned above, is not choreographed to the music and just cuts off in the middle of a melody when it finishes.

So, on the whole everything feels cheaper this time around...however, there are a few good things. For people who didn't like not being able to understand the plot the first time, you can follow it here. Also, there's a very nice idea that your hero is growing older as you play, and throughout the game you play him at (3?) different ages. Also the game looks pretty good, and it's nice seeing more of Druillet's costume designs and sets. So, I think maybe even though I give it a pretty hefty thumb's down, it is still worth your time. I just wish the opera would actually be produced with Druillet's design.