Jack Keane2
Posted: 6/30/2013 12:00:00 AM
By: analogfight

               Jack is at it again and this time he is even more sarcastic…if that is possible. It took me a little bit to like this game at first it felt like a Monkey Island clone or made by people that really loved Monkey Island, after I got over that little rant is right about when I started running into weird technical glitches.

                I had problems from the start with Jack Keane, I mean the very start… I couldn’t even get it to install. After some Google-Fu and a few shady download sites later I had the correctly patched driver. For the record I reverted the driver and the steam version of the game did not send me into a BSOD. After I got it installed it got into a fight with my MERC Stealth. A reboot fixed that one. So here we are after a few restarts, ready to click on things and make smarmy remarks.

                Humor saves this game for me and this might be the only part of this review that is positive, and it may even seem like I don’t like the game…I do! The game does a good job at knowing it’s campy and it pokes fun at itself every chance it gets. It also gives great nods to other games, there is a pretty good Donkey Kong reference for example. It is a fun game that will put you in a better mood. As long as it works. Again, the steam copy I have of the game works with no issues at all so do not let that detour you.

                Even though I was having so many problems with the game I decided to move forward. I also liked the environments, the game has great visuals and is nice to look at. I looked at a ton of it when I was learning how to navigate jack. Moving around the strange 3D environment is not only difficult do to the controls. Jacks camera seems to have a mind of its own and I got the camera stuck a few times. Controlling jack can be done by keyboard or the ol’ trusty mouse. I tried the keyboard after I got it work and I was not having a good time, so I only used the mouse. Well I had to use the keyboard in a puzzle or two. Interacting with the environment is also effected by the less than stellar camera, and that can get a bit old after a while since there are situational puzzles and things you need to spot in the environments.

                So what we have so far is a few bad things, mostly technical glitches with the camera and possibly a few system related issues that are my fault for not updating my drivers like a good PC user should. We also have a few good things. The game is pretty to look at and, it will make you laugh with its funny dialogue and self-deprecating humor.

                I have one final thing to talk about, and that is the fighting system… if you want to call it that. When you “fight” with someone you are supposed to select a counter attack, so you never throw the first blow you just choose between options. I never really saw any hints and most of the attacks looked the same. In the end it just felt like a guessing game until I got it right. You spend a lot more time doing this than you want to.

               

 Over all I like this game. If you like point and click puzzle games than you are going to enjoy Jack Keane 2: the fire within.  If you are between games, or you want a game that is easy to put down and pick back up this is probably a pretty good choice. I have fun with it and the more I play it the more I get used to its quirks. You can get it now on Steam.