Ben Jordan Case 4

[Ubel]

Just finished it! It was AWESOME!
But I didn't get all the points.

*Pablo goes to replay the game*

[Joyce]

Progzmax

[/spoiler]Thank you so much, I was able to finish the game with 107 points. I kept ringing that darn bell and kept hitting her but of course not quickly enough. Thanks again[/spoiler] great game

[MoodyBlues]

Finished it last night!Ã,  Very, very good.Ã, 

Stuff I liked/loved:

Spoiler

1.Ã,  Your characters just kept getting more and more developed, especially Ben.Ã,  I actually felt kind of sorry for him when his friends disappeared.
2.Ã,  Percival came back!Ã,  ;DÃ,  I'm beginning to really like him; he certainly surprises me!
3.Ã,  Cute boys that look like Shaggy + British accents = curling of the toes and squeaking with joy.
4.Ã,  The young woman's talking portrait was very well done.
5.Ã,  The introduction was probably the best cutscene I'd seen in a while - the first background just blew me away.
6.Ã,  The puzzles weren't too difficult, probably because they were pretty logical.Ã,  This might be the first adventure game I've ever played where I didn't have to use a walkthrough!
7.Ã,  You teased us with hints of what the next game will be like (Ben working with the others, going to Japan, etc.).Ã,  This makes the series seem more like a coherent whole.
8.Ã,  The cell phone was well utilized.
9.Ã,  Nobody died!Ã,  Yay!
10.Ã,  The German's gagging animation creeped me out, as it should have.

[close]

Stuff I didn't care for:

Spoiler

1.Ã,  The Horror himself isn't particularily interesting, and thus not terribly scary.Ã,  He could have used a background, some motivation... well, as much as a malignant spirit would need, anyway.
2.Ã,  The backgrounds, by and large, are lovely.Ã,  However, they sometimes suffer from skewed perspectives, particularily the travel room.
3.Ã,  The cell phone is pretty unforgiving; it processes the numbers too quickly.
4.Ã,  Whacking somebody in the stomach is an exorcism?Ã,  Meh.Ã,  I would have preferred a more complex solution.Ã,  It would be more realistic and just a more climactic ending.

[close]

Can't wait for the next one, for sure!Ã,  Ã, 

[aussie]

I agree with MoodyBlues in regard to the Horror

Spoiler

I would have avoided showing the Horror itself until the very end. It's scarier when you don't know what you're up against.

[close]

[Snarky]

Have to say I thought this was a little bit of a let-down from Ben Jordan 3 (which was one of the best games I played in 2004, mind). I felt like I was walking around looking for triggers to advance the plot in unrelated ways most of the time. I didn't care for the maze, and the concept is kind of hackneyed. The cell phone annoyed me partly because the interactions were quite challenging (having to write the phone numbers out on paper?), and partly because you wouldn't actually need to do all that on a real cell phone. Why couldn't BJ just add Miggs and Percy to his phone book?

There was much that was good, too. The graphics continue to improve in quality. The English characters were only slightly over-the-top, and it's funny how satisfying it is as a player when the main character gets to have a good time.

One of the things I've always found odd about the Ben Jordan games is the complete acceptance of supernatural phenomena. From Scooby-Doo to The X-Files, most series about the occult try to keep you guessing about the true explanation. Here you're never in doubt that it's a real ghost at work. It does give the games a certain naive charm, I have to say.

I was hoping this game would be a breakthrough in quality for Ben Jordan, and it wasn't. It is, however, a solid addition to the series. Thanks Grundislav!

[adam100]

Tremendous , wonderful game! The graphics are just stunning for an amateur game , the music great as always and the plot- well masterpiece. The atmosphere of the game is also very involving , it's almost like Five and Seven days a stranger. There were moments where I was really on the edge. For example:

Spoiler

In the end scene when 'something' was coming up the stairs I almost pissed my pants with that long wait and that costant 'splash' sort of sound driving me crazy. And when I saw that it was just Madam Rosenberg(or what was her name) I was like-"Phew" , and then again I jumped on my chair.

[close]

I hope to see more of Ben Jordan!!


Adam

[littleone]

Finished it last night!Ã,  Very, very good.Ã, 

Stuff I liked/loved:

Spoiler

1.Ã,  Your characters just kept getting more and more developed, especially Ben.Ã,  I actually felt kind of sorry for him when his friends disappeared.
2.Ã,  Percival came back!Ã,  ;DÃ,  I'm beginning to really like him; he certainly surprises me!
3.Ã,  Cute boys that look like Shaggy + British accents = curling of the toes and squeaking with joy.
4.Ã,  The young woman's talking portrait was very well done.
5.Ã,  The introduction was probably the best cutscene I'd seen in a while - the first background just blew me away.
6.Ã,  The puzzles weren't too difficult, probably because they were pretty logical.Ã,  This might be the first adventure game I've ever played where I didn't have to use a walkthrough!
7.Ã,  You teased us with hints of what the next game will be like (Ben working with the others, going to Japan, etc.).Ã,  This makes the series seem more like a coherent whole.
8.Ã,  The cell phone was well utilized.
9.Ã,  Nobody died!Ã,  Yay!
10.Ã,  The German's gagging animation creeped me out, as it should have.

[close]

Stuff I didn't care for:

Spoiler

1.Ã,  The Horror himself isn't particularily interesting, and thus not terribly scary.Ã,  He could have used a background, some motivation... well, as much as a malignant spirit would need, anyway.
2.Ã,  The backgrounds, by and large, are lovely.Ã,  However, they sometimes suffer from skewed perspectives, particularily the travel room.
3.Ã,  The cell phone is pretty unforgiving; it processes the numbers too quickly.
4.Ã,  Whacking somebody in the stomach is an exorcism?Ã,  Meh.Ã,  I would have preferred a more complex solution.Ã,  It would be more realistic and just a more climactic ending.

[close]

Can't wait for the next one, for sure!Ã,  Ã, 

Talking painting? Ã, Where does this happen? Ã, That explains why I only got 106/107 points!

A marvelous game. Ã, Please sir, I want some more!! 8)

[Vizzerdrix]

Awesome game, my bedsheet shell of protection against spooky atmospheres failed several time to protect me from this freaky ghost sound you get everytime you get a point. Too bad, the ghost sound was so loud that I had to lower the volume and I missed most of the musics, sounds and these awesome ambient musics similar to those in Thief 1.

I also found a little graphical glitch,

Spoiler

In the lobby, it's possible to walk above the trap, and if you walk behind the trap, there's a walk behind glitch.

[close]

Other than that, everything was fine. Keep up the good work.

PS.

Spoiler

Nice 5days reference at the end of the game, I had to pause the game to remove the laugh tears out of my eyes before continuing.

[close]

[flocking]

Just finished and thought this was a brilliant game, im my opinion the best Ben Jordon yet by far !
I got really engrossed in the game, and unlike most other games kept on playing untill id finished rather than getting bored part way through.
I did find one 'small' bug though;

Spoiler

After i got into the basement, i called the house owner, but the conversation was me telling him id found a basement and didn't know how to get into it.

[close]

Other than that my crusor got stuck a few times, buts thats it. Well done! Can't wait for the next.

[MoodyBlues]

Talking painting? Ã, Where does this happen? Ã, That explains why I only got 106/107 points!

A marvelous game. Ã, Please sir, I want some more!! 8)

No, no, no!     I'm talking about the dialogue portrait!  There are no talking paintings in the game.  Hmm... though that's not a bad idea...

[InCreator]

Whoee! This part of BJ series finally "pressed ALL of my buttons"...

* aaaaaanimations! Excellent. There was about enough of them. Despite some unpolished walking here and there, you really risked and made many very difficult animations.
* No! to boring, long dialogues! The thing i didn't like so much about previous BJ games were long and uninteresting dialogues, but this time, all the essential information is talked and handful of offtopic text too, without too much babbling. I love this!
* Music! Best I have heard for a long time, in an AGS game.
* Puzzles... I just finished it without any need of walkthrough, though it wasn't too easy after all. Well, some things were expectable, every time I ran out of ideas what to do next, I just somehow *knew* that walking out a door will make someone standing in a hallway, which - triggers a cutscene with new leads. This kept game progress so fluid and non-frustrating.

Overall, superb job. 

To give a suggestion too... as always, try to keep an eye on bad antialiasing cases in BG graphics and pay a little more attention to perspective, for example, the painting in "travel room" was waaay off...

[EKM]

Nice...I just finished it. I think this game is the best one out of the series so far. I did like the combining of items in the previous games though.

I guess the ending was cool...but it happened so fast and it wasn't as good as Ben Jordan case 3.

One thing I liked about this game though...was that there were other characters solving the case with you. That was an added bonus.

As I was playing, this game started to remind me of all the old Sierra adventure games haha...

[Haddas]

Is percival going to appear in the next one too? I'm getting quite fond of the character... In a non-erotic manner I might point out.

[Pelican]

Great stuff! The pacing of the game was good. I never found myself getting stuck long enough to get bored, and ended up finishing it in one sitting. It was interesting to have other people to work with, and making the most of their skillls. I do hope to see more of them!I also would have liked to have found out more about the horror itself, it lost a bit of scariness from not having much of a background.
I agree about the last scene:

Spoiler

I was scared witless hearing those footsteps coming up the stairs, even though I had a fair idea of what was going to happen

[close]

Oh, and I finished with 107points. 

[splat44]

I just completed the game, although I got 103 of 107 point, I though to give my comments.

That part I like was the sound effects within the seance.

Will other characters appear in further other ben's games? That will be great.

I do find funny that I haven't owner of house quite often!

The cell phone was ignoring since it didn't operate as a regular one.
All Cell phones usually has at least two buttons, which one of them is On/off and last
one is sent.

Therefore, I recommend you take above implementation in other versions of Ben game.

By the way Pelican how were you able to get all point? Perhaps, you write what you done in the hint section.

[Vizzerdrix]

About all these score question, IIRC, there wasn't any optionnal puzzle to solve for the last points. Just make sure you talk and phone to everyone on every occasion and after every important action. And stay late with the guy and the girl (forgot their name) you should have all the points after that.

[MillsJROSS]

I enjoyed the game, thoroughly. As always, the games keep improving in my eye. There were less odd moments in the game where I was wondering what I was doing. The dialog is becoming more fleshed out and realistic, within the context of the game. A few ackward moments here and there, but overall very well put together.

The music fit the game perfectly, as it usually does. And ambient sounds were perfect. I enjoyed the little tidbits of animation you put here and there.

The plot was cohesive. Any complaint I have is minute. But here they are anyway.

Spoiler

As mentioned before the cell is unforgiving. It also doesn't make sense to be on a timer. My call phone doesn't start calling until I press the call button. However, that said, I enjoyed the extra bit of effort in allowing us to type in the number. Even, though, yes, realistically we might have programmed it into our cells.

The only other complaint I have, is the very corny ending. With the guy catching the girl. It was just too convenient for me.

[close]

Other than that, though. It was a great game, and I'm looking forward to the next few.

-MillsJROSS

[Vel]

Wow, yet another great Ben Jordan game... maybe not as good as the third one game-play wise (since it was bilinear), but there are definitely some improvements in other areas, like character development and storytelling. Can't wait for the next one!

[viktor]

man this is sweet. The game looks great as farr as I hawe played it. But I can't get the sound to work  :'(. WHY ME!!! I'we been looking forward to another BJ game and the sound dosn't work. Shit.

[AGA]

Um. Go into options and turn it on. I messed up, and shall rectify.