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Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated the PlayStation 3 version of Psychonauts in Video Games
May 8, 2020 (Updated May 8, 2020)
Whats In Your Head
Psychonauts- I remember playing this game on the oringal Xbox and PS2 and now with the second game coming out this year hopefully. At Pax East this year, I did see the Demo and it looks excellent.
Im going to review the first one. This is the PS3 remaster verison review.
Psychonauts- is a platforming game developed by Double Fine Productions that first released in 2005.
Psychonauts follows the player-character Raz (voiced by Richard Horvitz), a young boy gifted with psychic abilities who runs away from the circus to try to sneak into a summer camp for those with similar powers to become a "Psychonaut", a spy with psychic abilities. He finds that there is a sinister plot occurring at the camp that only he can stop.
The game is centered on exploring the strange and imaginative minds of various characters that Raz encounters as a Psychonaut-in-training/"Psycadet" to help them overcome their fears or memories of their past, so as to gain their help and progress in the game. Raz gains use of several psychic abilities during the game that are used for both attacking foes and solving puzzles. The player can assign three of these powers to their controller or keyboard for quick use, but all earned powers are available at any time through a selection screen.
The game includes both the "real world" of the camp and its surroundings, as well as a number of "mental worlds" which exist in the consciousness of the game's various characters.
The mental worlds have wildly differing art and level design aesthetics, but generally have a specific goal that Raz must complete to help resolve a psychological issue a character may have, allowing the game's plot to progress.
Within the mental worlds are censors that react negatively to Raz's presence and will attack him. There are also various collectibles within the mental worlds, including "figments" of the character's imagination which help increase Raz's psi ranking, "emotional baggage" which can be sorted by finding tags and bringing them to the baggage, and "memory vaults" which can unlock a short series of slides providing extra information on that character's backstory.
The story is set in fictional Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, a remote US government training facility under the guise of a children's summer camp.
Psychonauts is a platform game that incorporates various adventure elements. The player controls the main character Raz in a third-person, three-dimensional view, helping Raz to uncover a mystery at the Psychonauts training camp. Raz begins with basic movement abilities such as running and jumping, but as the game progresses, Raz gains additional psychic powers such as telekinesis, levitation, invisibility, and pyrokinesis. These abilities allow the player to explore more of the camp as well as fight off enemies.
Despite being well received, Psychonauts did not sell well with only about 100,000 retail units sold at the time of release, leading to severe financial loss for Majesco and their departure from the video game market; the title was considered a commercial failure. Psychonauts since has earned a number of industry awards and gained a cult following.
Its a excellent and phenomenal game and cant wait to play the second one.
Im going to review the first one. This is the PS3 remaster verison review.
Psychonauts- is a platforming game developed by Double Fine Productions that first released in 2005.
Psychonauts follows the player-character Raz (voiced by Richard Horvitz), a young boy gifted with psychic abilities who runs away from the circus to try to sneak into a summer camp for those with similar powers to become a "Psychonaut", a spy with psychic abilities. He finds that there is a sinister plot occurring at the camp that only he can stop.
The game is centered on exploring the strange and imaginative minds of various characters that Raz encounters as a Psychonaut-in-training/"Psycadet" to help them overcome their fears or memories of their past, so as to gain their help and progress in the game. Raz gains use of several psychic abilities during the game that are used for both attacking foes and solving puzzles. The player can assign three of these powers to their controller or keyboard for quick use, but all earned powers are available at any time through a selection screen.
The game includes both the "real world" of the camp and its surroundings, as well as a number of "mental worlds" which exist in the consciousness of the game's various characters.
The mental worlds have wildly differing art and level design aesthetics, but generally have a specific goal that Raz must complete to help resolve a psychological issue a character may have, allowing the game's plot to progress.
Within the mental worlds are censors that react negatively to Raz's presence and will attack him. There are also various collectibles within the mental worlds, including "figments" of the character's imagination which help increase Raz's psi ranking, "emotional baggage" which can be sorted by finding tags and bringing them to the baggage, and "memory vaults" which can unlock a short series of slides providing extra information on that character's backstory.
The story is set in fictional Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, a remote US government training facility under the guise of a children's summer camp.
Psychonauts is a platform game that incorporates various adventure elements. The player controls the main character Raz in a third-person, three-dimensional view, helping Raz to uncover a mystery at the Psychonauts training camp. Raz begins with basic movement abilities such as running and jumping, but as the game progresses, Raz gains additional psychic powers such as telekinesis, levitation, invisibility, and pyrokinesis. These abilities allow the player to explore more of the camp as well as fight off enemies.
Despite being well received, Psychonauts did not sell well with only about 100,000 retail units sold at the time of release, leading to severe financial loss for Majesco and their departure from the video game market; the title was considered a commercial failure. Psychonauts since has earned a number of industry awards and gained a cult following.
Its a excellent and phenomenal game and cant wait to play the second one.
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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Witness in Tabletop Games
Jun 12, 2019
A classic ‘game’ from my childhood (seriously, we played it all the time) was Telephone. You know the one – someone whispers something to their neighbor, that person whispers it to their neighbor, and so on until it’s made its way around the group. Hilarity ensues when the final person reveals what they heard – usually a far cry from the original message! So when Travis pulled out Witness, a modern twist on Telephone, I knew that all my years of training would finally amount to something!
Witness is a cooperative game of memory and deduction set in the world of the 1940’s comic “Blake and Mortimer.” You and your compatriots are working together to solve mysteries! But there’s a catch – you each only know certain information, and are limited in how you are allowed to disclose it to each other. If you could just say it outright, there’d be no fun! Each player gets a character book filled with cases and information. Everyone reads their information for the chosen case, and then, like in Telephone, and in a certain order, players whisper their information to the player next to them. Play continues until everyone has heard (through the grapevine, of course) all 4 players’ information. After all information has been relayed, players get a chance to write down any notes from what they remember – but only after everything has been said! Players then open the Questions booklet to their specific case and answer three questions about their specific puzzle. Players receive points for correct answers, and as a team, are attempting to achieve the highest score possible!
I think that Witness is such a neat game. It’s a fun mechanic – you’re trying to remember all of your information to accurately pass it on, only to hear more information to add to what you already need to remember, to then pass it on again! It definitely makes for some funny misheard information! Another aspect of Witness that I like is that it goes beyond a regular game of Telephone in the fact that there’s an end goal – you’re trying to piece together all of the information as you hear it second- or even third-hand to correctly answer some questions. There’s more pressure to communicate accurately because you and your team are striving for a compilation of perfect information to help you score the most endgame points. Witness ups the stakes more than your average game of Telephone, and that’s what makes it interesting and engaging for me.
The major downside of Witness is that it is a game for EXACTLY 4 players. You can’t play with 3. You can’t play with 5. It absolutely 100% must be played with 4 players. And sometimes that’s just not possible. We all know those game nights where maybe only 2 or 3 people are available. Or maybe those times when you invite a large number of people over and they all come. In either scenario, Witness is out, and that is a bummer because it is such a neat game. Since the information is divided between 4 books, there’s unfortunately no way to adapt it for other player counts. So you can either play Witness or you can’t – there’s no ‘maybe.’
Overall, I enjoy playing Witness. I think it’s a unique approach to a simple game. Unfortunately, I believe this game is out of print, but if you can get your hands on a copy, or you see it on a friend’s shelf, give it a play! Whispering to your neighbor and solving little logic puzzles never seemed so fun! Purple Phoenix Games gives Witness a mysterious 11 / 18.
https://purplephoenixgames.wordpress.com/2019/04/02/witness-review/
Witness is a cooperative game of memory and deduction set in the world of the 1940’s comic “Blake and Mortimer.” You and your compatriots are working together to solve mysteries! But there’s a catch – you each only know certain information, and are limited in how you are allowed to disclose it to each other. If you could just say it outright, there’d be no fun! Each player gets a character book filled with cases and information. Everyone reads their information for the chosen case, and then, like in Telephone, and in a certain order, players whisper their information to the player next to them. Play continues until everyone has heard (through the grapevine, of course) all 4 players’ information. After all information has been relayed, players get a chance to write down any notes from what they remember – but only after everything has been said! Players then open the Questions booklet to their specific case and answer three questions about their specific puzzle. Players receive points for correct answers, and as a team, are attempting to achieve the highest score possible!
I think that Witness is such a neat game. It’s a fun mechanic – you’re trying to remember all of your information to accurately pass it on, only to hear more information to add to what you already need to remember, to then pass it on again! It definitely makes for some funny misheard information! Another aspect of Witness that I like is that it goes beyond a regular game of Telephone in the fact that there’s an end goal – you’re trying to piece together all of the information as you hear it second- or even third-hand to correctly answer some questions. There’s more pressure to communicate accurately because you and your team are striving for a compilation of perfect information to help you score the most endgame points. Witness ups the stakes more than your average game of Telephone, and that’s what makes it interesting and engaging for me.
The major downside of Witness is that it is a game for EXACTLY 4 players. You can’t play with 3. You can’t play with 5. It absolutely 100% must be played with 4 players. And sometimes that’s just not possible. We all know those game nights where maybe only 2 or 3 people are available. Or maybe those times when you invite a large number of people over and they all come. In either scenario, Witness is out, and that is a bummer because it is such a neat game. Since the information is divided between 4 books, there’s unfortunately no way to adapt it for other player counts. So you can either play Witness or you can’t – there’s no ‘maybe.’
Overall, I enjoy playing Witness. I think it’s a unique approach to a simple game. Unfortunately, I believe this game is out of print, but if you can get your hands on a copy, or you see it on a friend’s shelf, give it a play! Whispering to your neighbor and solving little logic puzzles never seemed so fun! Purple Phoenix Games gives Witness a mysterious 11 / 18.
https://purplephoenixgames.wordpress.com/2019/04/02/witness-review/
Ross (3284 KP) rated Killer Dungeon (Euphoria Online Book 3) in Books
Jan 4, 2019
So much of the previous books is lost (3 more)
Sudden epic scope creep
Loose ends
deus ex machina abounds
I am (slightly) disappoint
I loved the first two books in this trilogy. The narrative was so detailed and descriptive that you truly lived the action along with the protagonist, you felt every blow, you were part of every strategy, you celebrated every unlikely victory. We knew we were in an epic online world that we hadn't explored yet but were happy with the dangerous little corner we knew inside out.
The book starts off with Chris, low-ranked newbie with a knack for strategy, being the new leader/castellan of Castle Winter, charged with defending, repairing and upgrading the castle, caring for its inhabitants, fending off the nearby army of the undead and still trying to discover the hidden treasure in the dungeon.
This change in his status obviously precipitated a change in focus for him, which is understandable - a castellan with all these responsibilities can't still go off exploring. But this started to feel like those boring aspects of games like the Witcher/Red Dead Redemption where you have to go shopping, play card games, train a horse, collect herbs etc and was relatively dull.
While a raft of super-strength gamers try to tackle the seemingly unbeatable Dungeon, Chris decides he needs to buy goods and services in-game with the help of the deus-ex style pot of money he suddenly inherits. He is taken to explore some of the online world in order to do so. This is where I started to lose interest, as the shopping and political aspects of the world and narrative now takes over, when all you want to do is get into that dungeon (you know, the one mentioned in the title of the book) with the rest of the true gamers.
In all the dungeon is just sort of solved. It just happens. We are treated to a re-telling of the action from some of those gamers but this was totally unsatisfactory. Three perilous rooms are in that dungeon and we get to see next to none of the action in solving them.
There is something of a race against time as Chris has a deadline looming to find the treasure hidden in the dungeon to deliver to the lord of the undead. This adds to the thrill somewhat but then the genre-required conspiracy starts to grow (the game was designed by the all-powerful AI to help save mankind from itself), and then the book loses a lot of its original charm for me.
I loved this trilogy, but can't help but feel Tucker had designed a massive world for the story to take place in, and suddenly realised two books in that he hadn't explored any of it (the first two books were very narrow in scope considering the size of the online world but did not suffer for that) and was nearing the end of the three books he had planned. In my view this story had at least another two or three books in it, I would have loved to have seen the dungeon rooms solved in the same detailed manner as the puzzles in the first two books, and would have liked a lot less metaphysical elephant-god mumbo jumbo. I can't help but feel Tucker realised he had set himself up with unsolvable situations and a character who couldn't really put himself in those positions.
In short: Great story, rushed ending ("sod it, say everyone else does the hard work and then an elephant god solves the unsolvable")
The book starts off with Chris, low-ranked newbie with a knack for strategy, being the new leader/castellan of Castle Winter, charged with defending, repairing and upgrading the castle, caring for its inhabitants, fending off the nearby army of the undead and still trying to discover the hidden treasure in the dungeon.
This change in his status obviously precipitated a change in focus for him, which is understandable - a castellan with all these responsibilities can't still go off exploring. But this started to feel like those boring aspects of games like the Witcher/Red Dead Redemption where you have to go shopping, play card games, train a horse, collect herbs etc and was relatively dull.
While a raft of super-strength gamers try to tackle the seemingly unbeatable Dungeon, Chris decides he needs to buy goods and services in-game with the help of the deus-ex style pot of money he suddenly inherits. He is taken to explore some of the online world in order to do so. This is where I started to lose interest, as the shopping and political aspects of the world and narrative now takes over, when all you want to do is get into that dungeon (you know, the one mentioned in the title of the book) with the rest of the true gamers.
In all the dungeon is just sort of solved. It just happens. We are treated to a re-telling of the action from some of those gamers but this was totally unsatisfactory. Three perilous rooms are in that dungeon and we get to see next to none of the action in solving them.
There is something of a race against time as Chris has a deadline looming to find the treasure hidden in the dungeon to deliver to the lord of the undead. This adds to the thrill somewhat but then the genre-required conspiracy starts to grow (the game was designed by the all-powerful AI to help save mankind from itself), and then the book loses a lot of its original charm for me.
I loved this trilogy, but can't help but feel Tucker had designed a massive world for the story to take place in, and suddenly realised two books in that he hadn't explored any of it (the first two books were very narrow in scope considering the size of the online world but did not suffer for that) and was nearing the end of the three books he had planned. In my view this story had at least another two or three books in it, I would have loved to have seen the dungeon rooms solved in the same detailed manner as the puzzles in the first two books, and would have liked a lot less metaphysical elephant-god mumbo jumbo. I can't help but feel Tucker realised he had set himself up with unsolvable situations and a character who couldn't really put himself in those positions.
In short: Great story, rushed ending ("sod it, say everyone else does the hard work and then an elephant god solves the unsolvable")
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem in Video Games
Oct 28, 2019 (Updated Oct 28, 2019)
Psychological Warfare
Contains spoilers, click to show
Eternal Darkness- why does no one talk about this game. It is amazing, its horrorfying, terroryfying, spooky, creepy, thrilling, chilling and so much more. Plus it came out only for the gamecube, which is huge because nintendo doesnt put out or release alot of horror games. This, luigi's mansion and Resident Evil 4 were the big horror games for the gamecube. Maybe more came out, but those 3 were the big ones. Lets talk about this game, shall we....
The narrative of the game's story switches between two phases. The main phase focuses on a series of chapters in which players take control of a new character each time. The other phase acts as an intermission. The game boasts twelve playable characters, split between four distinct locations, and from different periods of time.
The story features multiple paths that can be taken. This choice not only determines which of the game's three other antagonists are aligned to the plot, but it also has subtle effects on the gameplay in chapters and intermission periods. Some changes include slight differences in puzzles and items, but most changes revolve around enemy placement, which will determine how the player engages them. This can even have an effect on the relative difficulty of the game in certain situations. Red tinted enemies, for example, are tougher than their counterparts.
The other distinctive gameplay aspect comes from "Sanity Effects", the game's standout concept that Nintendo patented. Upon beginning the game's second chapter, players must keep watch on a Sanity meter – a green bar which decreases when the player is spotted by an enemy. As the bar becomes low, subtle changes to the environment and random unusual events begin to occur, which reflect the character's slackening grip on reality.
While minor effects include a skewed camera angle, heads of statues following the character, and unsettling noises, stronger effects include bleeding on walls and ceilings, entering a room that is unrealistic before finding that the character never left the previous room, the character suddenly dying, and fourth wall breaking effect such as "To Be Continued" promotions for a "sequel", and simulated errors and anomalies of the TV or GameCube. While the latter does not affect gameplay, they can be misconstrued by the player as being actual technical malfunctions.
Lets talk about the plot/story....
The story of Eternal Darkness takes place over four principal locations which the game skips back and forth between. They include an underground temple complex called the Forbidden City, in Persia; a Khmer temple in Angkor Thom, Cambodia; Oublié Cathedral in Amiens, France (not to be confused with Amiens Cathedral); and the Roivas Family Estate in Rhode Island, which also leads to an ancient underground city named Ehn'gha beneath the mansion. Each time a location is visited, it is done so in a different time period. Spanning from 26 BC to 2000 AD. Almost half of which take place in the 20th century. Each different era and character offers a different periodic and personal perspective on the location.
The chapters found in the game are not discovered in chronological order. Instead, to make the narrative more dramatic, each chapter jumps around the timeline of the plot. However, despite the overall story skipping back and forth through time, the chapters do follow chronological order within their respective locations. This is because each setting also has its own contained story.
This game is so good, its epic, im surprised that not of people know about this game and heard about this game.
I highly reccordmend playing this game.
Lastly shout out to @LeftSideCut for getting the hints/clues for this review.
The narrative of the game's story switches between two phases. The main phase focuses on a series of chapters in which players take control of a new character each time. The other phase acts as an intermission. The game boasts twelve playable characters, split between four distinct locations, and from different periods of time.
The story features multiple paths that can be taken. This choice not only determines which of the game's three other antagonists are aligned to the plot, but it also has subtle effects on the gameplay in chapters and intermission periods. Some changes include slight differences in puzzles and items, but most changes revolve around enemy placement, which will determine how the player engages them. This can even have an effect on the relative difficulty of the game in certain situations. Red tinted enemies, for example, are tougher than their counterparts.
The other distinctive gameplay aspect comes from "Sanity Effects", the game's standout concept that Nintendo patented. Upon beginning the game's second chapter, players must keep watch on a Sanity meter – a green bar which decreases when the player is spotted by an enemy. As the bar becomes low, subtle changes to the environment and random unusual events begin to occur, which reflect the character's slackening grip on reality.
While minor effects include a skewed camera angle, heads of statues following the character, and unsettling noises, stronger effects include bleeding on walls and ceilings, entering a room that is unrealistic before finding that the character never left the previous room, the character suddenly dying, and fourth wall breaking effect such as "To Be Continued" promotions for a "sequel", and simulated errors and anomalies of the TV or GameCube. While the latter does not affect gameplay, they can be misconstrued by the player as being actual technical malfunctions.
Lets talk about the plot/story....
The story of Eternal Darkness takes place over four principal locations which the game skips back and forth between. They include an underground temple complex called the Forbidden City, in Persia; a Khmer temple in Angkor Thom, Cambodia; Oublié Cathedral in Amiens, France (not to be confused with Amiens Cathedral); and the Roivas Family Estate in Rhode Island, which also leads to an ancient underground city named Ehn'gha beneath the mansion. Each time a location is visited, it is done so in a different time period. Spanning from 26 BC to 2000 AD. Almost half of which take place in the 20th century. Each different era and character offers a different periodic and personal perspective on the location.
The chapters found in the game are not discovered in chronological order. Instead, to make the narrative more dramatic, each chapter jumps around the timeline of the plot. However, despite the overall story skipping back and forth through time, the chapters do follow chronological order within their respective locations. This is because each setting also has its own contained story.
This game is so good, its epic, im surprised that not of people know about this game and heard about this game.
I highly reccordmend playing this game.
Lastly shout out to @LeftSideCut for getting the hints/clues for this review.
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Inferno (2016) in Movies
Jul 15, 2019
Inferno is the latest thriller based on the novels of Dan Brown that follow the fictional character of Robert Langdon who is a world renowned symbologist (study of symbols). Like The DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons before them, Inferno follows mostly the same story arch and structure.
Tom Hanks has reprised his role as Robert Langdon (this time with an appropriate haircut) and once again he travels around to beautiful locations of European art and architecture with a young woman by his side, trying to solve a series of clues in order to stop a billionaire madman who believes humanity is a parasite and his plague inferno is the cure. If this sounds like a film you have seen before, it is because you have. In the other two movies that have come before it
Once again, audiences will enjoy being whisked around to see beautiful cities, art, and architecture to solve historical literary clues as the film plays out like a late middle ages travel lesson. These are all good things.
The bad is that during the first half of the film, Robert Langdon has amnesia due to a blow to the head. He cannot remember much which of what he was doing, which makes him a less compelling character. Throughout the series of films, Langdon has used his “dizzying intellect” to solve clues the brightest minds could not solve. In Inferno, that “super power” is taken away and we are left with an average, middle aged man, who is somehow able to solve impossible puzzles and clues while being chased by seedy underground characters and the world health organization. Who for the purposes of this film, seem to have become the FBI/CIA in one. This setup does not work and makes for a boring first half of the film Eventually Langdon regains his memory and the film picks up a bit from there, but for some it might be too late.
As far as the performances go, Tom Hanks delivers a watchable, likable performance, much to his credit considering that the character of Robert Langdon is a relatively boring protagonist. Meanwhile Ben Foster plays the somewhat forgettable billionaire madman (Bertrand Zobrist) in a somewhat forgettable way. It is a shame because perhaps if we had a chance to understand the nuance of his character, like I assume can be done in the books, he would have felt like a more compelling character and caused us to think if he was to be on the right side of history. Unfortunately, any nuance from the book does not translate well to the film adaptation. But not all is lost. For me, the bright spot of the film was Felicity Jones who plays the gifted doctor Sienna Brooks. Brooks, who in helping Langdon with his injury, gets swept up into game for the fate of the world. In her performance, Felicity Jones shows a transition of her emotional resonance throughout the film as her character develops and we get to understand her more, for better or worse. I am excited to see Jones continue to grow in her career and look forward to seeing her this holiday’s Star Wars Story: Rouge One. She has the ability to carry a film, let’s hope she is given the opportunity to do so.
In the end, Inferno is not a terrible film, but it is not very memorable either. Unlike the two films before it, Robert Langdon is handcuffed by an injury that doesn’t allow him to use his intellect that made him compelling before Couple that with what seems like an inspector gadget plot, where the bad guy leave a series of clues to foil his own master plan, and you end up with a “Meh” film.
Tom Hanks has reprised his role as Robert Langdon (this time with an appropriate haircut) and once again he travels around to beautiful locations of European art and architecture with a young woman by his side, trying to solve a series of clues in order to stop a billionaire madman who believes humanity is a parasite and his plague inferno is the cure. If this sounds like a film you have seen before, it is because you have. In the other two movies that have come before it
Once again, audiences will enjoy being whisked around to see beautiful cities, art, and architecture to solve historical literary clues as the film plays out like a late middle ages travel lesson. These are all good things.
The bad is that during the first half of the film, Robert Langdon has amnesia due to a blow to the head. He cannot remember much which of what he was doing, which makes him a less compelling character. Throughout the series of films, Langdon has used his “dizzying intellect” to solve clues the brightest minds could not solve. In Inferno, that “super power” is taken away and we are left with an average, middle aged man, who is somehow able to solve impossible puzzles and clues while being chased by seedy underground characters and the world health organization. Who for the purposes of this film, seem to have become the FBI/CIA in one. This setup does not work and makes for a boring first half of the film Eventually Langdon regains his memory and the film picks up a bit from there, but for some it might be too late.
As far as the performances go, Tom Hanks delivers a watchable, likable performance, much to his credit considering that the character of Robert Langdon is a relatively boring protagonist. Meanwhile Ben Foster plays the somewhat forgettable billionaire madman (Bertrand Zobrist) in a somewhat forgettable way. It is a shame because perhaps if we had a chance to understand the nuance of his character, like I assume can be done in the books, he would have felt like a more compelling character and caused us to think if he was to be on the right side of history. Unfortunately, any nuance from the book does not translate well to the film adaptation. But not all is lost. For me, the bright spot of the film was Felicity Jones who plays the gifted doctor Sienna Brooks. Brooks, who in helping Langdon with his injury, gets swept up into game for the fate of the world. In her performance, Felicity Jones shows a transition of her emotional resonance throughout the film as her character develops and we get to understand her more, for better or worse. I am excited to see Jones continue to grow in her career and look forward to seeing her this holiday’s Star Wars Story: Rouge One. She has the ability to carry a film, let’s hope she is given the opportunity to do so.
In the end, Inferno is not a terrible film, but it is not very memorable either. Unlike the two films before it, Robert Langdon is handcuffed by an injury that doesn’t allow him to use his intellect that made him compelling before Couple that with what seems like an inspector gadget plot, where the bad guy leave a series of clues to foil his own master plan, and you end up with a “Meh” film.
Night Reader Reviews (683 KP) rated The Sparrows of Unity in Books
Jan 9, 2020
Honest Review for Free Copy of Book
The Sparrows of Unity by Sen Jayaprakasam was an interesting book to say the least. The first chapter was very interesting and grabbed my attention right away. I wanted to keep reading it, and was instantly hooked. Each chapter was titled with the character's name who was going to be telling that section of the story. I understand the need to change the point of view in a story like this but it is still a little jarring, so the titles helped a lot amd was considerate of the author. It says that this is only the first in the series and I hope the following books offer more explanation and detals.
The book opers with Lacy meeting her father who is Current in jail. She has believed her father to be a murderer her whole life and that her and her mother have been running from what he did. Now she is visiting him because of a message she found in her mother's journal that she read after her mother died in a car crash. Before he mysteriously disappears her father tells Lucy the truth about him and her mother.
Lucy ends up warking with Rit, Si, and Anna after they all see one of their teachers attacked and killed. The four teens all follow clues to race acros Britain while trying to stay one step ahead of the attackers, who are now trying to kidnap them. Along the journey they discover it is the Unity who are follawing them and trying to prevent them from reaching the other Sparrows. The four teens believe that once they get to the end of the Sparow's Path they will be safe from the Unity. Once they reach the end they can't help but to wonder if they just accidentally lead the Unity to the Sparrow's safe-house?
What I liked best was the basic idea of two groups who wanted to better the world. The idea that they were going to make the world better by eliminating racism, homophobia, and other foms of prejudice was interesting because this is not usually the goal of such groups in books. I liked that people were indirectly trying to make things better for everyone. It also helps that the puzzles where interesting and well thought out. What I didn't like was the fact that I kept questioning exactly how the Unity was planning on achieving their goal (at least I think it was the Unity). It talked about using fear and scare tactics but other than that it wasn't well explained. The ending was also very confusing with so many people either pretending or thinking that they were something they actually were not.
The target readers for this book would be teens and young adults. Anyone older may still enjoy this book for a quick read but it lacks the depth that I believe many adults would probably enjoy in a book. However, the following books in the series may make up for that and as a whole hold the attention of adults as well. I rate this book 2 out of 4. I found it to be a little dull frequently, with the teens just avoiding capture. Also it got very confusing towards the end and started to lose me. While the first chapter did get me hooked it did not last. After finishing the book I am still unsure as to the belonged to which group.
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The book opers with Lacy meeting her father who is Current in jail. She has believed her father to be a murderer her whole life and that her and her mother have been running from what he did. Now she is visiting him because of a message she found in her mother's journal that she read after her mother died in a car crash. Before he mysteriously disappears her father tells Lucy the truth about him and her mother.
Lucy ends up warking with Rit, Si, and Anna after they all see one of their teachers attacked and killed. The four teens all follow clues to race acros Britain while trying to stay one step ahead of the attackers, who are now trying to kidnap them. Along the journey they discover it is the Unity who are follawing them and trying to prevent them from reaching the other Sparrows. The four teens believe that once they get to the end of the Sparow's Path they will be safe from the Unity. Once they reach the end they can't help but to wonder if they just accidentally lead the Unity to the Sparrow's safe-house?
What I liked best was the basic idea of two groups who wanted to better the world. The idea that they were going to make the world better by eliminating racism, homophobia, and other foms of prejudice was interesting because this is not usually the goal of such groups in books. I liked that people were indirectly trying to make things better for everyone. It also helps that the puzzles where interesting and well thought out. What I didn't like was the fact that I kept questioning exactly how the Unity was planning on achieving their goal (at least I think it was the Unity). It talked about using fear and scare tactics but other than that it wasn't well explained. The ending was also very confusing with so many people either pretending or thinking that they were something they actually were not.
The target readers for this book would be teens and young adults. Anyone older may still enjoy this book for a quick read but it lacks the depth that I believe many adults would probably enjoy in a book. However, the following books in the series may make up for that and as a whole hold the attention of adults as well. I rate this book 2 out of 4. I found it to be a little dull frequently, with the teens just avoiding capture. Also it got very confusing towards the end and started to lose me. While the first chapter did get me hooked it did not last. After finishing the book I am still unsure as to the belonged to which group.
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