Ah, text based adventure gaming. No sprites, no polygons, no sound. Some may gasp and shudder that I’m describing a videogame at all. These games were rich in graphical detail, but only through the written word, in classics such as “Zork,” “Adventure” and “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” The player interacted with the game by reading descriptions of the environment and characters (like a book, imagine that) and typing in simple verb noun commands, like, “Go West” (some more advanced games understood simple sentences like, “Open the bag on the table.”)
Konami brings that old school concept into the 21st Century with Lifeline.
Possibly one of the most innovative games of this generation, Lifeline is taking a lot of flack, most of which is unnecessary because of its key feature, voice recognition (VR). You actually use your voice to play the game and a headset is mandatory. There are some controller functions, like accessing maps and key items, and pressing the square button to turn your mic on, but the vast majority of this game is played with your voice. So, who are you talking to and what do you say to play this game?
Lifeline is the story of a waitress named Rio who works aboard the world’s first hotel in space in 2029. Of course only people with Bill Gates’ money can afford it. Of course, you, being the poor soul you are, win a chance for two to attend the grand opening and you bring your girlfriend Naomi with you. During the inauguration, monsters attack the station. The lights go out and, in a mad scramble to escape the carnage, you’re knocked out. You awaken to find yourself injured and locked in a monitoring room and your girl mysteriously gone. Now that you’re conscious you hear Rio trying to contact you and thus your adventure begins.
When I think VR, I think of the voice recognition phone system we have at work. If you call my place of work a recorded voice will eventually say, “Say the name of the person you want to reach.”
“John Smith”
“Ok, transferring to you Bradley Winston.”
It’s terrible and rarely works. I had thoughts of that when I first read some pretty harsh reviews of Lifeline. But being the sci-fi, adventure-old-school-text game playing fan that I am, I knew I had to try Lifeline for myself, and I’m glad I did. I was very pleasantly surprised.
One thing Lifeline does really well and bungles at the same time is creating an emotional attachment to Rio. Similar to Ico, Lifeline really pulls you in and you’ll feel genuine concern for Rio and forget that she’s not real… when the VR works. The whole way you end up bonding with her is masterfully done. When it doesn’t work, sometimes it’s kind of cute the way Rio will comment, or cock her head to one side to show she doesn’t understand you. On the other hand, when it doesn’t work you may find yourself detached from the game, the interactive experience ruined. You will likely find yourself throwing your controller and headset and cursing Rio… with some words she even understands and responds to.
But overall, the VR is great and Sony and Konami deserve props for making the game, and bringing it over to the U.S., respectively.
Much of the problems with the VR originate with “The Operator.” That’s Rio’s name for you actually, kinda like in The Matrix. So some of what’s wrong with it is operator error. I’m inclined to think that many pro reviewers have very limited vocabularies and enunciate like they have a mouth full of mush. So I’ll say you should be able to pronounce your words and have a sizable lexicon… that means vocabulary. For instance, I noticed that I said “saf poind” instead of “save point.” Pronouncing the “V” and “T” make a difference. Rio can understand simple verb-noun commands, (“Go Table”) to full flown sentences (“Check the vending machine dispenser second from the right.”). Rio can even sense tonality in your voice.
The beginning of the game takes you through a mini walkthrough/training session and even scores you on the quality of your speaking voice, while giving you instructions on headset and mic placement and some basic commands. When the actual game starts, the VR is extremely tight. In fact, during combat with VR commands like “dodge left”, “dodge right”, “shoot (various targets)”, “reload”, etc., it was practically flawless, and the battle interface is functional and aesthetic. You can even buffer up to three commands. So if you are waiting for a monster to expose its vulnerable parts, you can enter (speak) your commands, “dodge left, shoot eye, reload” and hold the square button. Monsters have various target areas… mouth, stomach(s) tongue, eye(s) head etc. Combat is pretty fast paced, so you have to be on your toes when trying to find the enemies' weak spots. They may not be readily exposed and you'll find yourself having to time your attacks (buffering works great for this) to finish them off.
There are some cool VR mini games like Categories, featuring states, football teams, U.S. presidents, etc. There’s a tongue twister mini-game that’s almost impossible to win (at least for me). Rio’s A.I. isn’t perfect, thank goodness. If you’re playing Categories with U.S. states or football teams for instance, Rio will take you through about half of them before losing. There are also various VR puzzles you’ll have to solve that are very unique and creative. Health items are in very short supply throughout the game, but if you beat Rio at any of the mini-games, she gains some health back.
The legitimate complaints about Lifeline begin with the database. I’ve read that Rio can understand 5,000 words. That’s a huge database of interactive audio. I’m thinking that Rio’s database was made context sensitive, to make the response faster, which means that, if Rio is in a living area, she’ll only understand commands and respond to items in the living area. If she’s in combat she’ll only understand words related to fighting. At first this is really efficient, and Rio will execute battle commands as fast as you can rattle them off. However, as the game progresses, Rio’s database grows. In the beginning during combat you can tell Rio to “Move Back.” Later you can find a “Jump Back” command. Rio almost always gets them confused. So, as Rio’s list of commands grows, so does her chance of misunderstanding you. I would say at the beginning of the game Rio understands 90% of what you say. Toward the end of the game it seems to drop off to 65-70%.
The other issue is if you see a piece of paper on a table, for instance, you have to figure out exactly what kind of paper it is. It could be a document, invoice, fax, newspaper, notebook, note, page of a diary etc. Once Rio responds positively, “You mean this?” then you can use your controller to access it and read it or use it accordingly. This isn’t a flaw so much, but it can get really tedious since you’re not sure what items you need and what is just there for show or to give you some story. Giving up on guessing what something is could mean getting stuck.
Lifeline is an adventure game at heart with lots of exploration and puzzles, but combat is fast and intense with Rio fighting sometimes 3 monsters at once. It’s got a strong storyline so it’s also very linear. You won’t have any problems wondering where to go next, thanks to an overhead transparent map. Overall I found the game just a lot of fun, if frustrating at times. Rio responds to a ton of VR commands, including taking a shower, I love you, sexy pose, bark like a dog, pet names like “baby,” and a curse word I can’t print here.
Lifeline is an above average looking game with graphics that lend a lot of atmosphere to a sci-fi adventure. The hotel/space station is a nice level design and is generally fun to explore. The character models are beefy and nicely textured and animated. Rio reminds me of Aya Brea from Parasite Eve, if she was on a next generation console. Some graphics like the marble floor look amazingly real, with really nice reflections while other textures are blurry and bland.
Kristen Miller from She Spies voices Rio and she’s great. You never tire of hearing Rio, though you will tire of her missing your commands. There are times the interaction feels artificial and flat (when the VR lets you down), and other times, you’ll think she’s a real person in that TV set. The other voice actors are more than credible and the sound effects are what you’d expect in a sci-fi drama. I don’t think they will wow you, but they are all well done. The music score is at its best when it’s setting a mood, but the techno music during battles is rather plain and uninspiring.
I’m not sure replaying the game is worth it, since you start a new game with all the commands intact from your previous game. So you start with Rio misunderstanding about one third of what you say.
While Rio may frustrate you to the point of losing your religion, the character interaction can and does make you forget she’s fake. The times the VR reminds you you’re playing a flawed game, and you remember Rio isn’t real you’ll still wish she was, and the ending is definitely worth it.
