Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy

A strange, ambitious game from the same developers as [i]SafeCracker: The Ultimate Puzzle[/i] and [i]Return to Mysterious Island.[/i] It's far better than SafeCracker, you have handful of character you interact with and can even see your own character which makes it feel more alive than a lonely with practically no direction. That said, this is a [b]hesitant[/b] recommendation and I'll get to why in a moment. Madeleine has a journal that keeps track of things; [i]you flip pages via the bottom two corners,[/i] this isn't said anywhere in the game itself. You also have a large inventory space, and a little case full of handy tools. One of which is a magnifying glass used to inspect different items because some have secrets. If you're feeling lost or forgot what you were supposed to be doing, looking in both the diary and the dialogue tracker on the bottom tab of the book can be fairly useful. The first day is devoted to you figuring out how to best disguise yourself as Madeleine's brother. This includes making appear more masculine and creating a salve to alter her skin tone. It's honestly rather neat they go to so much trouble and I think it's a good way to start the game before sending you outside. Of course, it's also where we're introduced to some of the game's problems. If you open the menu with [b]right click[/b], you'll see [i]score[/i] under Madeleine's paper doll. This is something that should not exist in an adventure game this because it indicates that you can screw yourself over. It made me feel like I almost needed to consult a guide in case I overlooked some vague hint or important item. You will also note the Sun icon in the lower right and [i]that[/i] is how you access the save/load menu; it took me a while to discover this, it's not immediately recognizable as a button. The thing, though, that pushes me to make this a [i]hesitant[/i] review is because of how frustrating some of the puzzles are. A few of the them are very obtuse with either unclear directions or none at all. SafeCracker had this problem, as well. You may well look it up and find yourself thinking "how would I have guessed that?" Some of this seems to go back to the game not making it clear you can inspect items, which certainly has me stuck a couple times early on. One final note is the endgame portion: it's [b]timed[/b]. Make sure you have multiple saves at all times. The whole thing was very stressful and ran against the grain of the otherwise relaxed pace of the game. At least it isn't Phantasgamoria's crappy "cinematic" endgame. Oh, and since this [i]is[/i] an old game, I should note that unlike some I had no issues getting this to run right out of the box after installation.