Ring: The Legend of Nibelungen
Published By: Red Orb

Reviewed by Circe
7/5/99

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First Impressions:

The box looked awesome when I first saw it in my local Electronics Boutique. The back of the box spoke to me of a storyline that was to span many ages-based off of a Wagner epic opera, where you play up to 4 different characters in a 3D immersive 360 degree environment. And the graphics were hypnotic. "Wow!", I thought. I snatched it up and went to the checkout line. For some odd reason right before I handed the cashier my credit card, a premonition came over me.... "Have you gotten any feedback about this game?", I asked. The cashier shrugged his shoulders and said, "You know it is weird... It is a brand new game from Red Orb. No feedback as yet- but the weird thing is that Red Orb has not even advertised it..."

I should have guessed then what awaited me.

Leaping onto my computer chair, I fed the computer Disk 1 of 4. Watching the intro I thought to myself that this wasn't quite what I expected. As the first hour crawled by I remember wishing that I had listened more carefully to the cashier and to that little place in the pit of my stomach.

Graphics:

The graphics were bizarre, like the game. they looked like they came out of some weird German comic book. As a matter of fact, the whole game felt so alien to me. The graphics were crisp, but annoying somehow. The faces of the characters tended to melt into different expressions.

Sound:

The game box proudly boasts that the game features excerpts from the performance of Wagner's Ring of the Niebelungen Cycle played by the Vienna orchestra. The music was IRRITATING and it was louder than the character scripts. To hear what the characters were saying I had to try and tune out the music which was close to impossible. Not that you wanted to hear the characters that much anyway- The voice actors themselves were terrible. The game forces the player to listen to long solos of various characters that bores you to tears. The script sounds like it too is straight out of the opera and simply has no place in a high-tech computer game.

Gameplay:

At least I could move around fairly easily. The 3D engine was nice- of the Zork Nemesis genre.

The gameplay itself was weird. Bad weird, not good weird. The interaction between objects and characters in the puzzles was illogical.

The idea to base a game off of a fairytale that spans the ages is an interesting idea, but it got lost somehow in the translation.

Enjoyment:

I was miserable. The graphics were interesting but were drowned out by the annoying solos of the characters.

Multiplayer:

N/A

Overall Impression:

Yuck. I should have listened closer to the cashier.

Marketing Efforts Towards Women:

Early on in the game, the character you are playing has to get through some rather seducing mermaids. These nude mermaids were so intent on seducing the character that they were busy fondling their breasts, swaying their hips around like hula dancers and touching their genetalia. I remember thinking, "Did I actually BUY this game?". So much for german folklore.