Zanzarah - The hidden portal
| Zanzarah - The hidden portal | |||
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| Studio |
 Funatics Development
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| Publisher |
 THQ
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| Erstveröffent- lichung |
April 26, 2002 | ||
| platform | Windows | ||
| Game engine | RenderWare | ||
| genre | Action adventure | ||
| Subject | Fantasy | ||
| Game mode | Single , multiplayer | ||
| control | Keyboard , mouse | ||
| system advantages preconditions |
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| medium | 1 CD-ROM | ||
| language | German | ||
| Age rating |
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Zanzarah - The Hidden Portal is a computer game that belongs to the genre Action-Adventure and was developed by the Oberhausen company Funatics Development . It was published by THQ on April 26, 2002 ; the English version was published in December of the same year.
action
You play the 18-year-old London girl Amy, who arrives in the land of Zanzarah with the help of a magical teleportation rune. This is a parallel world that has served as a refuge for the magical beings of our own world since they were driven out by the Inquisition . While the inhabitants of Zanzarah can switch between worlds with the help of their magic, this is actually not possible for humans. Amy is now seen as part of an ancient prophecy which says that a visitor from the human world will restore the lost balance between the two worlds and reduce the influence of the dark elves.
Game principle and technology
The game itself consists of two basic parts. On the one hand, you control the main character freely through a 3D world that, in the style of a classic adventure game, offers opportunities for interaction with NPCs and the environment. This part is used to tell much of the backstory and to advance the plot by solving puzzles and completing tasks. Certain trapped fairy skills help remove possible obstacles, and there are a number of smaller games that must be played with certain actions in order to be successful. The preparation of the battles that will be fought with the help of captured fairies in this game is also carried out in this part.
In general, this game is classified as a kind of first-person shooter , which should, however, be a question of interpretation, because: Unlike in first-person shooters , fights are not the primary goal here, but a means to an end. They also do not lead to the death of the opponent, but a spell is placed over the defeated fairy, which makes it incapable of acting for the moment after the fight. Amy is also not the shooter herself, she uses a maximum of five fairies that she finds suitable to represent a fight. These are controlled by Amy through an arena, which the player encounters by chance and represents one of many possible (programmed) arenas. Amy's employed fairies try to defeat the opposing fairy (s) with magic spells. Amy's currently used fairy fights the attacking fairy (s) with an imaginarily extended wand. Defending their arsenal of fairies themselves, they never attack themselves, which is what makes the encounters so special and their charm. In addition to being assigned to an element and different basic values such as speed, agility or jumping ability, each fairy has two spell combinations (one offensive and one defensive spell), between which you can switch during the fight as well as between the use of one of the five Fairies that can be brought into a fight at the same time. The offensive sayings aim at the opponent as precisely as possible. The fairies gain experience through fighting, and some develop evolutionarily as they reach certain levels. Another argument against a first person shooter is that it is not mainly about the fights, but primarily about other puzzles or getting the necessary fairy equipment such as mana , magic potions, fairy balls, magic spells and other means (such as money, crystals, fairy cards or evolution stones ) as well as overcoming numerous obstacles that require coordination skills that go beyond a pure adventure game and a first-person shooter: Patience, skill and a certain degree of strategy are essential requirements for the player. Many game characters such as elves, goblins, dwarfs, owls, pixies and dark fairies and their leaders ensure dynamism and communication. The aim is to dissolve the hostility within the illustrious society of Zanzarah, which has arisen through a consciously brought about, well-founded isolation from the people, through a person who has been called to play, the player in the role of Amy.
Zanzarah can therefore not be compared with other, supposedly similarly designed games, as it contains parts of the adventure , jump 'n' run and action genres .
In the multiplayer game, the player can choose to compete against other human opponents with self-captured and trained fairies or with a collection of fairies put together at random, or exchange fairies with them.
In contrast to many other computer games, the system requirements have been given very generously. Thus Zanzarah be contrary to the indication of the manufacturer , a Pentium II with 500 MHz is the minimum requirement, even on a Pentium II or AMD successfully play K6 450 MHz. However, the graphics card must be a second generation with at least 16 MB of its own memory . The required DirectX 8.1 is included. The game can also be played on older computers with the Windows 98/2000 / ME and XP operating systems . But also newer operating systems such as Windows Vista, Windows 7 (32- or 64-bit version) and Windows 8 are backwards compatible with Zanzarah, so that this PC game from 2002 can still be played today without any problems.
Production notes
Originally an expansion was planned for this game (no name for it yet, fans refer to it as ZanZarah: The Lost Settlement ), but it was discontinued during development. Apart from a handful of screenshots, a video and the main musical theme, little information about it has become known. In August 2015, the publisher Daedalic published a version of the game that could run on modern systems via the Steam distribution platform .
The game's soundtrack, composed by Matthias Steinwachs, Lars Hammer (alias King Einstein) and Karina Gretere - from whom the main theme she sung comes from - has received numerous critical acclaim. After the development of the expansion was discontinued and marketing of the game's music was judged not to be feasible, Lars Hammer published the entire soundtrack of the game as a farewell gift to the fans in the game's forum.
reception
Zanzarah has received critical acclaim for its audiovisual design and has been compared several times with the Pokémon games . In fact, the two games are only comparable to a limited extent, as Zanzarah is aimed firstly at predominantly young and less childish players and secondly, linguistically and essentially, it sets itself apart on a higher level, which includes adults as well as children and adolescents. The plot has nothing in common with Pokémon either. The programming of the game is to be located in Oberhausen / Germany and not in Japan.
The Four Fat Chicks website criticized the monotony of the repetitive fights in the game and the concept of collecting instead of more conventional game mechanics:
"Frankly, for this gamer, the fairy fights and even the collecting became something of a pain, redundant, even mind-boggling. [...] With its stellar graphics, fine level design and wonderful sound, Zanzarah could readily have earned one of our coveted gold stars if the gameplay had been more purely adventure, or even action / adventure, in the sense we typically experience it. Instead, in an apparent desire to be creative and different, the designers went with a strange collecting game coupled with a substandard shooter. "
In his review for G4tv.com, Greg Bemis praised the gameplay , which stands out from its role model, and criticized the plot, which was too simple:
"Yes, it's a lot like" Pokemon. " But "Zanzarah" is more than a mere wanna-be. There are plenty of additions and improvements to the tried-and-true game mechanic. [...] If there's a failing in "Zanzarah" it's that the story doesn't have nearly the epic quality it deserves. Amy, the main character, has very little personality. "
Matthew Gallant explains on gamespot.com the contrast between the visual design, which for him is more attractive to women, and the intensity of the fights as well as traditional role-playing elements, with the fact that the game aims to appeal to male and female players alike. The game offers a change from common role or action games .
“[…] Though the game's somewhat effeminate art direction may seem a bit unusual, it seems somewhat appropriate in contrast to the intensity of the game's battle mode and its traditional role-playing elements. Zanzarah attempts to be a PC game that appeals to traditional interests of both male and female players […] While you could say that the game plays like a Pokémon clone, Zanzarah has some surprisingly great production values in terms of both art and music, though it could certainly have benefited from a better plot and more character development. It ultimately falls short of being an excellent game, but Zanzarah is definitely good and at the very least offers a relaxing change of pace from more-traditional PC role-playing and action games. "
The main criticism of the redundant, long-winded leveling up of the fairies, whose twelve species with different characters, possible uses and properties are fundamentally different from one another, cannot be dismissed and often hinders the progress of the game in a considerable way. A total of 77 fairies can be caught, but this is not necessary for the course of the game.
Web links
- Official website
- Soundtrack at Zanzarah Universe
- Zanzarah - The Hidden Portal at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Four Fat Chicks : Game Review in September 2002 (English, accessed January 23, 2008)
- ↑ G4 : Game review from January 29, 2003 (English, accessed on January 23, 2008)
- ↑ GameSpot.com : Game review from January 8, 2003 (English, accessed January 23, 2008)