[slow, thumping beat]
[typing]
The 7th Guest.
Once it became a huge hit in 1993,
CD-ROM full-motion video adventure games became the newest fad.
Games like Phantasmagoria, Black Dahlia,
and The 11th Hour followed,
each promising to be better than the other.
And then you had Ripper,
a game by Take-2 Interactive Software from 1996
for MS-DOS and Macintosh computers.
It was yet another FMV game
claiming to be the most amazing experience yet.
And, as a result, had lots of hype,
as evidenced by a quote in a 1996 issue of Business Wire, stating:
Quite the bold statement.
Especially since I had no freakin' clue
that non-interactive gaming existed.
This is the MS-DOS PC release of Ripper,
featuring what appears to be...
the Ripper?
Er, the face of some kind of cenobite crossed with the Incredible Hulk.
As well as a sticker
noting that it's received the Golden Triad Award,
as well as being "CP Recommended"–
W-wait...CP what?
Oh, that's a different kind of CP. Thank goodness.
On the back, you've got your typical marketing blurbs,
as well as an abbreviated list of the Hollywood actors
to show up in the game, including Christopher Walken,
Karen Allen, Burgess Meredith,
and John Rhys Davies.
Yes, one thing that set this game apart
was the assortment of relatively famous people
who were coerced into acting in front of a green screen for the game.
Another nifty feature of this box
is when you place it on your game shelf,
you're greeted with Christopher Walken glaring at you.
To be honest, it becomes mentally disturbing before long.
Inside the box, you get a basic manual,
as well as a CD sleeve with Christopher Walken
in a top hat with his mouth open.
Ripper comes on six CDs,
and like most every other game like this,
the content is streamed directly from the discs
as you play the game so you don't use up too much hard drive space.
Ripper starts with a rippin' intro movie,
with an interesting choice of Blue Oyster Cult's
"Don't Fear The Reaper" as the theme song.
["Don't Fear The Reaper" plays]
Uh, considering the game is based in the future year of 2040,
and the game is called Ripper, not Reaper,
it seems like somewhat of an odd stretch of a choice at first.
But whatever. The song is good enough, I suppose.
WALKEN: I got a fever!
And the only prescription...
is more cowbell!
LGR: And some hot chick walks in slow-motion to her abode,
only to fumble with her keys like a moron.
And then scream two identical screams
at an unknown assailant.
[woman screams]
[woman screams again]
Apparently, this dual screaming has cost her her life.
And it's revealed that she is the third victim
of a serial killer using the name The Ripper,
after Jack the Ripper.
I guess all the other cool names were taken,
so it's time to recycle.
It's your job as reporter Jake Quinlan,
played by Scott Cohen,
to investigate these murders and discover the killer's identity.
And perhaps get a more complete hair dye job along the way,
because those roots are seriously distracting.
Before long, you meet an assorted cast of characters
who will have some part in telling you what to do or where to go,
like Christopher Walken here playing the role of the cowboy cop,
Detective Vince Magnotta,
who proceeds to chew something forever until you talk to him.
It's quite entrancing, to be honest,
and I have no problem admitting
that I've spent far too long pondering this.
When you come across a character you can interact with,
you'll get a set of things to speak to them about,
either random things to ask
or something to persuade them of something.
So just click on them to see what they have to offer.
Make sure you enjoy the harsh language and somewhat forced dialogue.
JAKE: You have any clues?
WALKEN: No sign of forced entry. Nothing's disturbed.
Two set of prints: hers and her mother's.
The only thing not where it should be
is this woman's insides.
- But what about witnesses?
I mean this guy must have been a bloody mess.
Even if it's 3 o'clock in the morning, it's Greenwich Village.
Somebody musta seen him.
- As far as I know, he left us one witness,
and she's feeling a little fragmented at the moment.
This guy
is un-FUCKING-believable!
LGR: A stunningly accurate description of yourself there, Walken.
When you're not talking to someone,
you'll largely be wandering around a location 7th Guest-style,
waiting for the unskippable traveling animation to stop,
and seeing if the cursor indicates that you have something to interact with.
Often this will be a clue or object
that can be collected and added to your inventory,
but other times you'll come across a puzzle that must be solved.
These range from typical logic puzzles,
like putting a broken coffee mug back together,
to completely obtuse puzzles that barely make any friggin' sense,
even in the context of the game.
And some of them are straight up games within a game
that can take some serious time to get through,
and one of them that comes late in the game is particularly ridiculous,
requiring you to consciously break the fourth wall to solve it.
I mean, there's thinking outside of the box,
and then there's thinking outside of the Ripper,
and...you just...have to do that.
Once you do realize what to do, many of these are trivial,
but it's figuring out what the designers of the game had in mind
that the problems arise.
And when you don't have puzzles or walking around with lengthy animations,
you've got these arcade action sequences,
which are really quite silly.
It's a simple case of react quickly enough to the enemy
and shoot them constantly in the right place
or avoid a certain type of enemy
and shoot another ambiguous type.
Yeah, it's the world's simplest rail shooter,
and while I might could have forgiven one or two in the game,
there are several,
and none are what I call enjoyable.
At least you can adjust the difficulty of these things in the options menu,
but, unfortunately, you're still stuck with them no matter what.
Now, I'm totally fine with puzzles and action in an adventure game in moderation,
but these types of diversions,
and in particular ones amidst an interactive movie,
often just end up distracting from the level of immersion and atmosphere.
And the atmosphere in Ripper is actually quite engrossing.
It's got a dark, sci-fi, cyberpunk, noir-ish setting,
and with its references to things like Cyberspace,
Metacognition and Decking,
along with an enjoyable grim and subtle soundtrack,
it's mostly believable stuff.
And when you throw in the weird acting and spotty dialogue,
you've got a pretty memorable game,
for both good and bad reasons.
And yeah, the acting is really pretty bad at times.
It's especially noticeable from actors like Walken,
who is weird anyway,
but really it just looks like he's reading from a cue card
being written on the fly.
WALKEN: You're lucky I'm in a good mood today only because
you come this close
to finding out what it's like
to be a human shish kabab
rotating in one of our fine penal institutions.
But, you're way off on that.
LGR: Maybe these actors didn't have much time to prepare
or practice their parts, or maybe they just didn't care.
But whatever the case may be,
there are some seriously wonky performances here.
Which actually kind of makes it more enjoyable,
in one of those "watching a train wreck happen before your eyes" kind of ways.
MAN: Giant rats, minefields, monkey balls, you name it.
I can't tell you how to prepare for that world, brother.
You's on your own!
LGR: So would I recommend playing Ripper?
Well, yes and no.
Yes, because it's got an intriguing story
with oddball characters and a dark cyberpunk atmosphere.
And no, because of the obscure puzzles and annoying arcade sections,
the unskippable and awkward navigation,
as well as the story that's chock full of red herrings.
Oh, yeah, the story has four possible endings,
which is randomly chosen each time you start a new game.
This was actually one of the big selling points of the game.
It's possible for the Ripper to be any one of four suspects,
and this is supposed to inflate the replayability of the game,
as well as provide new end-game content.
However, what this ends up meaning is that each time you play the game,
you'll be greeted with the exact same set of tedious puzzles and clues
all the way up until right about the end,
where one of those suspects will have to be singled out as your Ripper.
The thing is, each one of them IS the bad guy.
As you're playing through the game, these people seem as guilty as sin,
but it's not until a certain point that it becomes a bit more clear who it is.
Purposely misleading information CAN make fiction enjoyable
when it's written into the story properly,
but in Ripper, that's just not going to happen
because of an arbitrary element of randomness near the end of the game.
It's kind of a neat idea, but since they tell you about it up front,
you always have it in the back of your mind.
And the story itself should have just had more changes along the way to really make this work,
which probably wasn't very reasonable,
considering the enormous amount of extra CDs they would need.
Ah, well, it's still an intriguing game,
and I did have fun seeing the story play out.
But almost all the other elements
tended to just get in the way,
and while it may be some people's cup of tea,
it's more like my cup of Pepto-Bismol.
If the situation calls for it, fine.
I'm not going to argue.
But I'm also not going to seek it out for casual consumption.
WOMAN: If you don't mind...
MAN: [sighs] I mind.