Ben Jordan Case 7

[Nlogax]

A neat little game, although I have to say that it felt more like a bridge between what has gone before and what will come in the final episode, than an episode in its own right.

Also, sorry to be in the minority and without meaning to offend, but I had to turn off the voice acting as it was pretty hammy  .

Good job though.

[Chrille]

I love the game, Fransisco. It's my favourite of the series. It's well worth replaying too because of the audio commentary.

[veryweirdguy]

Also, sorry to be in the minority and without meaning to offend, but I had to turn off the voice acting as it was pretty hammy  .

DISAGREED.

I think the voice acting is doubleplusgood. It's professionally amateur, as opposed to just amateur. Everyone involved has done a fantastic job!

[CosmoQueen]

Great game as usual!! It did break my heart though *sniffle*

[Stupot]

Also, sorry to be in the minority and without meaning to offend, but I had to turn off the voice acting as it was pretty hammy  .

DISAGREED.

I think the voice acting is doubleplusgood. It's professionally amateur, as opposed to just amateur. Everyone involved has done a fantastic job!

AGREED.

I thought the voice acting was better than in a lot of commercial games...  although Simon's voice did remind me a little too much of Charlie from Lost.

[Frodo]

A wonderful game Grundy  .  I really enjoyed playing it, although the box puzzle had me stumped.   


I am so glad that...

Spoiler

Ben & Alice finally got together, officially.  They make such a sweet couple.  And she was so understanding about Ben & Mary from Smailhom.   

[close]

My theory about the ending:

Spoiler

I don't believe Simon is really dead.  Ben was shot with something in his flat.  I think it was some kind of hallucinagenic drug, to make Ben imagine things - possibly to find out what he knows about the Knights of St Anthony, and to stop him learning any more. 

Ben and Simon were very close friends - almost like brothers.  I think Ben's worst fear is losing Simon.  So when he was shot with this drug, it seems that his worst fear is realised.  But it is not real - just imagined.  :o

[close]

I also think, as has been said before, that:

Spoiler

Percy Quentin Jones infultrated Knights of St Anthony, in order to stop them.  I don't believe he is evil at all.   

[close]

Really looking forward to the next part, to find out how it all ends.   

[mkennedy]

Could you put out a light version without the voice acting for people with slow connections?
76 megabytes is rather large.

[DutchMarco]

So I haven't played all games in the series yet, but I've done my best to catch up a bit after acting in the BJ-movie, and I must say that I liked this one most so far. Good job!

I'm glad we can have written text as well as spoken. I do like how you've (that's plural form) done the voice acting. And as always the story is nice, What I like most about this one is that (no insult intended) it finally feels like an adventure game, instead of a film which plays and where you'll only have to ask all the questions to an NPC and then go to the next NPC and exhaust all dialog again.  I did feel like that with most of the other games I've played so far (not all of them, but the first few in the series), even though I know it's not entirely true it still is true for the biggest part of the games

[voh]

The game itself is definitely up to par with 4, 5 and 6. Concerning the voice acting - it wasn't the acting itself which bothered me but the difference in volume between actors, as well as the difference in quality. Some sounded as if they were recorded over the phone while, for example, Cardinal Genovese's voice was obviously recorded with a higher quality microphone. But, hell, very good acting given that it's not a professional deal

Now, of course, I must demand that 8 will come soon, because i'm dying to see what the outcome of this story is

[InCreator]

Just finished!
Really good game. Over a loong time.

I'd say - in terms of gameplay - it's weaker than Japan or Greece episode, but ending makes it all up. Maybe a bit too straightforward and linear: there was only two places I got stuck at,

Spoiler

going back for plumber's costume, getting glove from costume

[close]

"Use inventory on inventory screen" kind of puzzles always kick in at most inappropriate moment of game pace.
You never guess them, especially if game is rather easy and you don't have to do old-school try-everything-on-everything-with-everything. And then, bam!

All previous problems are now handled aswell.

Some pointers:

* Voice acting is really good! First time in AGS game where it really feels right for me... ATOTK was fine too, but not so good. You've broken a record! If I'd bitch about something... Voice is too often read in very quickly. I know it's probably to limit game size, but still, quick reading makes acting a bit... unrealistic. Plus, makes lipsync a bit weird also.

Seriously, it's 2008. 100MB here or there is NOT that big deal. And for a Ben Jordan game, to have perfect speech, I don't think any fans would mind. We're way past 700MB CD-s era, and BJ game doesn't take even half of it.

For those unfortunate slow downloaders still existing for some strange reason, simply add speech pack as an option.

Also, speech was kind of muffled. A bit digital tuning, normalizing or tiny equalizing around 1KHz maybe? ...could fix the thing quite easily.

* It's impressive how you can set the scale to your games. Make enough for game to work and get released, and yet no so much that game gets too out of hand. Something I'll never learn. This time, room graphics balance was a bit too off, some rooms were basically walls, and others superfine in terms of detail. I kind of regret this.

* I totally loved the music in intro sequence, in Ben's room. The genre or style or whatever. Pity there wasn't any more of it, later in the game. Organ sounds get depressing over time...

* Do you possibly understand how cruel was to end game at point like this? How can I - and other fans - wait all those months for next episode?

Awesome. totally. Make more!

[23-down]

I played it through... Once again the game was awesome like all your previous games.

I'm how ever unhappy that the story isn't over yet. I hate cliffhangers.. 

Well that doesn't matter. The Story is excellent. I think the game was right balanced. Wasn't to hard and most of the riddles were logicial. The music & graphics were outstanding good.

I really hope Ben Jordan 8 wont be the last game. The end was a bit sad. Lets hope the best for the next chapter.

And that we'll see and get a lot more Ben Jordan games in the future. That's your brand name.

I liked the plot in reference to the previous BJ games.

Fantastic job don't let us wait to long till chapter 8.

[paolo]

Whew, just finished. I found the game plodded along a bit unexcitingly in the middle but that soon changed towards the end.

Bugs and odd things I found that I don't think have been mentioned yet:

Spoiler

* After you have taken Bianchi's keys, if you return to the hotel and ask Alice's advise, she said that you should go to Bianchi's apartment but not alone; however, you can no longer invite her. Perhaps this is not really a bug, because of course Ben does not have to take Alice's advice.
* It should be "Chi-Rho", not "Chi-Ro".
* When you leave the confessional and go back to the previous screen, the cardinal walks up to you and starts looking at the statue again. He doesn't seem to think it odd that you are already there. Again, maybe there is nothing wrong with this, as maybe the confessor leaves the confessional before the priest - I am not Catholic so I have no idea how this works.
* The guy smoking outside Bianchi's house says "au revoir", which is French. Is he supposed to be Italian? Does he think that Ben is French? An Italian would have said "ciao", "arriverderci" or "buongiorno".

[close]

An observation (slight spoiler):

Spoiler

Anyone else think that the cardinal looks like George W Bush? Was that deliberate? (Is Grundislav a Democrat? )

[close]

A (joky) theory about the ending (spoiler)...

Spoiler

Alice is gone, and Percival shows up... isn't it obvious what is going on here? Alice and Percival are the same person! Have we ever seen them in the same room together? Not in this game, at least. After all, Percival is an anagram of "Alice PRV" (no idea what PRV might stand for).

[close]

[Anteater]

An interesting theory, paolo. Although you are missing something obvious:

Spoiler

PVR stands for Power Rangers' Vengeance, duh! 

[close]

[InCreator]

Spoiler

Alice PRV - PeRVerted Alice

[close]

[olafmoriarty]

Spoiler

* The guy smoking outside Bianchi's house says "au revoir", which is French. Is he supposed to be Italian? Does he think that Ben is French? An Italian would have said "ciao", "arriverderci" or "buongiorno".

[close]

Based on the commentary track, I would say it seems as if

Spoiler

this guy is French. Grundislav mentions that he's French, I think his accent is supposed to be French (but I wouldn't know, I can't tell the difference between a Texan accent and a Czech), and the guy even talks about how he moved to Rome for love. I thought he was Italian too until I heard the commentary track, but it seems pretty obvious that he's supposed to be French.

[close]

[paolo]

Spoiler

* The guy smoking outside Bianchi's house says "au revoir", which is French. Is he supposed to be Italian? Does he think that Ben is French? An Italian would have said "ciao", "arriverderci" or "buongiorno".

[close]

Based on the commentary track, I would say it seems as if

Spoiler

this guy is French.

[close]

Ah, that all makes sense then. I must have overlooked that. Thanks.

I'm playing again with the talking and music on. It's really cool!

Another typo:

Spoiler

"hotel arrangments" (Simon says this on the phone)

[close]

Would Simon say "haven't gotten around to it", I wonder, as he is English? We say "haven't got round to it" in the UK. Then again, maybe he is just using American English for Ben's benefit - I know I do this sometimes to American friends (eg, saying "vacation" for "holiday") so they understand what I am saying. Or maybe he has just spent so much time with Ben that he has got(ten) into the habit of using American English.

[Mr. Mozzarella]

Spoiler

Anyone else think that the cardinal looks like George W Bush? Was that deliberate? (Is Grundislav a Democrat? )

[close]

Spoiler

Yeah, I knew there was something familiar about him ... but the voices are quite different

[close]

Also I am surprised no hardcore catholic has complained or threatened Grundislav, yet ... but I assume that the BJ cases are on the vatican's list of forbidden games now  (if such a list exists ...)

[guest]

i found a bug!

\hide when you talk to simon and alice about breaking into the priests apartment after stealing the keys i cliked on, he eats babies! lol funny btw however after you click on the murdered answer the game crashes \hide

[Layabout]

Spoiler

* The guy smoking outside Bianchi's house says "au revoir", which is French. Is he supposed to be Italian? Does he think that Ben is French? An Italian would have said "ciao", "arriverderci" or "buongiorno".

[close]

Based on the commentary track, I would say it seems as if

Spoiler

this guy is French. Grundislav mentions that he's French, I think his accent is supposed to be French (but I wouldn't know, I can't tell the difference between a Texan accent and a Czech), and the guy even talks about how he moved to Rome for love. I thought he was Italian too until I heard the commentary track, but it seems pretty obvious that he's supposed to be French.

[close]

I did the voice. He was a Frenchman who moved to Italy for love. Sorry if the accent wasn't ridiculously over the top, but I kept it quite modest.

[ciborium]

Could you put out a light version without the voice acting for people with slow connections?
76 megabytes is rather large.

Please let me know if you want me to take this down, Francisco.

Ben Jordan 7 MUTE version - 5.07MB
BJ7 music.vox - 15.9MB