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 Nibiru (Game release date: 2005) Poor game design and writing keeps this intriguing supernatural adventure game feeling like a clumsy first effort. Walkthrough page
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 | Highlights: Dramatic tension, gorgeous graphics, interesting premise |
 | Lowlights: Lousy pacing, awkward writing, little player input |
Style: Nibiru is a third-person puzzle-adventure game with a 3D point-and-click interface. You control a single
character. The plot is a murderous conspiracy and there are supernatural and science-fiction themes. The game is untimed except for a couple
of realtime puzzles, and no manual dexterity is required. Combat and leveling are not elements.
Series: Nibiru is not part of a series. It is a completely stand-alone game produced by the prolific Adventure Company.
Finding Nibiru: This is a relatively recent game which can still be found in many software
stores. Here it is for sale on Amazon.
If you're a fan of graphic adventure games in general, this is one of the games included on the
Adventure Collection DVD, so you could pick
up five decent-quality adventure games for less than $20.
Getting Nibiru to Work: Nibiru is a recent game and I encountered no
gameplay bugs while playing it. It can be a bit of a system hog, though; if your computer doesn't meet the "recommended" system requirements on
the box, make sure you go into the Options menu and turn off shadows to keep the game running smoothly.
Hints For Nibiru: You can check out my low-spoiler page of Nibiru hints
if you like. There is also a good hints page at UHS which
reveals only one hint at a time, so you won't accidentally learn the answers to future puzzles while scanning for the one you're stuck on.
Pitfalls In Nibiru: There are a few places in this game where your character can die if you don't act swiftly enough; however,
if you die the game will automatically restart you at the beginning of the challenge to let you try again, so you don't need to worry about replaying large parts of the
game if you make a mistake (a really nice feature.) Subtitles are available for the game's dialogue, but there is one puzzle that relies on audio cues, making the
game aggravating for players who can't hear well or are trying to play with the sound off.
Game Length: 15 hours, a bit short for a graphic adventure game.
Age-Appropriateness: Nibiru is rated T (for 13 years old and up) due to mild swearing ("hell" and "bastard")
and murder investigations including dead bodies.
(Good)
Plot and Quests: The plot is exciting enough to keep a player interested for the duration,
but it's rigidly linear, and unlike Black Mirror, there really aren't enough clues to figure out the solution on your own. The supernatural backdrop makes little sense,
and the ending is vague and somewhat unsatisfying.
Puzzles and Mental Challenges: Most of this game consists of rote inventory
exercises that pose no challenge at all, but there are a half-dozen true puzzles including a couple of tough spatial ones and a complex math problem.
Characters: You only get one PC in Nibiru, and you cannot customize or develop him at all.
You don't even have the choice of conversational options to help you feel ownership of his personality. Some of the NPCs are interesting; I wished I could have
interacted with them more.
Gameworld: Nibiru is set in a strangely generic version of Europe. It's only mentioned in passing
what country you're supposed to be in at any given point--Czechoslovakia, France, Mexico, another location I never did place--but every individual you talk to has a different
hammy accent and there's never any sense of place.
Gameplay: Except for the puzzle interludes, this game could be played by a trained monkey
clicking randomly around the screen until something happened and the next cutscene was triggered. The PC makes most of the decisions in this game without even
consulting the player, and at best you're left trying to figure out a way for him to achieve a goal that he seems to have randomly decided is important (like staying the
night at a particular hotel that is booked up, for example.)
Interface: Nibiru's game interface is graceful and unobtrusive, with invisible menus that appear to clutter
your screen only if you mouse over them. The game runs smoothly with few frustrations, though having to click on everything in sight with both the left and the right mouse button
is a pointless annoyance.
Ambience (Graphics, Sound, etc.): The graphics are beautiful, with remarkable use of
ambient details (leaves rusting in the wind, a trolley passing in the street.) The music swells nicely at dramatic moments. The voice acting is much better than Black Mirror's,
but the quality of the writing is so poor that there's often not much they can do with their dialogue. There's something ironic about the fact that they apparently got
Czech speakers to inadeptly translate the lines into English, and English speakers to inadeptly deliver them in fake European accents. If they'd had those actors rewrite the
lines and those translators do the talking, it would have been a much more immersive experience.
Lora's Recommendations: I would primarily recommend Nibiru only for people who are already fans of the graphic adventure genre--
the excessive linearity and main character whose actions you can barely control make Nibiru a bad entry point to graphic adventure games, but the gorgeous graphics
and smooth interface will make it a short but fun journey for adventure-game veterans.
If You Loved Nibiru: Then you will probably really love
The Black Mirror, whose flaws are similar to those of Nibiru but whose artistry and suspense level
are higher. For an absorbing computer game with greater interactivity, it's hard to beat
The Longest Journey. Other recent adventure games you may enjoy include
the supernatural adventures
Seven Games of the Soul and
Dark Fall, and the charming techno-fable
Syberia. If you loved being scared by a computer game, I can also recommend the surreal
psychological thriller Sanitarium.
Children's books
Indian baby names
Assiniboine
Bannock recipe
Authentic dream catchers
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