Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals

Released on July 30, 2009 by Meridian4

From the art and stories of famed graphic novelist and filmmaker Enki Bilal, and the studio created by adventure game legend Benoit Sokal comes NIKOPOL: SECRETS OF THE IMMORTALS.

A rather interesting game.

Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals was a pretty decent game. It is a surreal Sci-fi point and click adventure puzzle game.

Taking me around three and a half hours to complete, it is definitely a game that can be completed in one sitting and gave me something fun to do while my power was out.

Even from the main menu, the graphics are absolutely beautiful. The opening scene is that of Nikopol's apartment and I was impressed by the amount of detail from cracked plaster to the artist's paintings. It gives you the impression that Nikopol knows what it means to be a starving artist.

When starting the game, you get a dynamic cursor that allows you to interact with the... Read All Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals was a pretty decent game. It is a surreal Sci-fi point and click adventure puzzle game.

Taking me around three and a half hours to complete, it is definitely a game that can be completed in one sitting and gave me something fun to do while my power was out.

Even from the main menu, the graphics are absolutely beautiful. The opening scene is that of Nikopol's apartment and I was impressed by the amount of detail from cracked plaster to the artist's paintings. It gives you the impression that Nikopol knows what it means to be a starving artist.

When starting the game, you get a dynamic cursor that allows you to interact with the environment around you, picking up some objects while simply reading others or getting a back story. You have to be very through and at times, I felt like I was combing a beach, having to run my cursor back and forth across every surface if I was missing something.

You get right into the action of the puzzles, although sometimes the puzzles felt a bit out of place, like the puzzle was there just to be there and those had a rather pointless feel to it. But other puzzles were strong in the storyline and there were quite a few puzzles where you really have to sit and thing about what you're doing. While some puzzles were incredibly frustrating, it's a small triumph to beat them.

There were several timed "missions" in the game, and usually you don't know it's timed until you die. Expect to die a few times until you get the hang of what you're supposed to be doing. There are no directional arrows and very few hints and until you get every step right, you'll become familiar with the fade to red death screen.

The game is definitely immersive, with good voice acting (mostly) and music that sometimes adds to the suspense of the game.

The few things I found lacking for the game wasn't enough to make a poor game, for me.

There were times I felt like I was supposed to know the story or that I was missing out on something. After looking up the game, I found out that the game is even better if you play it in conjunction with reading the graphic novel Cave of the Immortals by Enik Bilal (on which the game is based).

The save function was also a bit hard to find (hint, main menu and far to the right) and I would have rather enjoyed a quick save of some sort.

All in all, not a bad game at all. If you enjoy tricky puzzle games with a good story, this is definitely a game to try.