Another Code: R - A Journey Into Lost Memories

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Like its DS forebear Another Code, the snappily titled Wii sequel Another Code: R -Journey Into Lost Memories is a text heavy adventure that unlike the inventive original, which utilised the DS to its full potential, only makes limited use of the Wii's Remote motion sensing capabilities to complement the gameplay.

If however, the notion of an interactive storybook sounds like your cup of tea than Another Code: R could be right up your street. And it's a real slow-burner too, beginning when 16-year old girl and returning protagonist from the DS original, Ashley Mizuki Robbins takes a trip down to Lake Juliet to meet up with her estranged father.

Things immediately take a turn for the worst when a shadowy figure swoops in from nowhere, stealing Ashley's bag the very moment she steps off the bus. From here on in, mysterious events steadily conspire, triggering dormant memories for Ashley that surround the suspicious yet tragic death of her mother when she was just three-years old.

Another Code: R's narrative unfolds at a glacial pace, with slow scrolling text providing the admittedly well-written (if somewhat bland and humourless) dialogue between the animated characters that meet up via split-screen exchanges. As such, the game is a fairly passive affair, requiring minimal effort on your part except for all the reading through reams and reams of fairly banal chat between the cast.

During the rare occasions that you're let off the leash to interact and explore, Ashley's movement is limited to just four directions to a variety of locations that present you with a selection of objects to examine that turn yellow when highlighted with the Remote. Normally, your objectives are straightforward and obvious with the majority of the puzzles consisting of take object A, to point B to get object C and unlock D, or wave the Remote around until you find the right bit. When the early highlights include lighting a barbeque, you'd be forgiven for not feeling particularly compelled to continue playing.

By the two-hour mark, you'll be starting the second chapter, piecing together disparate fragments from Ashley's memory having met a whole host of different characters who each have a separate agenda. The limited interactivity is enhanced by the inclusion of the DAS and TAS, a DSi-style communication cum camera contraption and Wii Remote-shaped hacking tool respectively, but freedom of movement and more instances to inspect the environments and objects therein would have been enormously welcome. Add to this the occasional failure of the control system in translating logical gestures and movements into certain interactions, and you'll find yourself encountering instances of genuine frustration as you're required to try and work out what the developers were thinking when they implemented the controls.

However, by the time you've clocked up an hour or two playing Another Code: R you'll more than likely play it through to the very end. Whether that decision is down to the fact that you feel genuinely embroiled and immersed in the story or simply because you want to justify the time you've already put into playing the game, you'll want to resolve Ashley's story and piece together the fractured puzzle locked away in her head.

The cel-shaded characters and watercolour backgrounds make for a cohesive and charming art style that manages to gently hypnotise you as you play. A complete lack of spoken dialogue means that the only audio is wispy, soothing, synth noodlings that help to coax you into a trance-like state as you pore over more text. Like any book that's even moderately interesting, Another Code: R is strangely gripping, it's puzzling mystery holding your attention until the conclusion, especially if you've already invested the time in getting there.

And getting there partly depends on whether your tolerance level can cope with Ashley's constant whinging asides, where she addresses the camera head on, in front of a black background to moan and complain about whatever springs to mind. Granted she's a surly teenager, which goes some way to explaining her incessant whining, but boy, after a while the soliloquies really begin to grate. This isn't the only irritant as during certain conversations, extra topics pop up for you to broach once the main line of discussion has dried up. You can exit the exchange if you like, but you're forced into touching on the topics anyway before being allowed to progress, so why bother to highlight them at all? Pointless.

Suffice to say then that Another Code: R really requires a great deal of patience in order to wring the maximum enjoyment from its premise. If you're the kind of gamer who skipped through every cut-scene in Metal Gear Solid, then clearly this isn't going to float your boat. If on the other hand an interactive storybook with a bit of Wii remote twiddling thrown in for good measure sounds like the perfect antidote to bullets, blood and action, then the game has much to recommend it.

Most of the puzzles are pretty straightforward and as we've already mentioned several times in this review, there is a lot of text to get through. Still, we can extol the virtues of Another Code: R if you're looking for a decent tale to while away the hours between decapitating monsters, shooting faces, kicking brains or whatever. It's inferior to developer Cing's own Hotel Dusk and occasionally rather dull, but as far as Wii titles of this ilk are concerned, Code: R is your best bet.

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By Richard Walker