The Search for Bourne: Who’s having fun?
July 25th, 2007
This post contains no spoilers (unlike my other posts on the game). Instead, as in my first post about the advertising vehicle that is The Ultimate Search for Bourne, I thought I’d put the big question out there.
Is the game fun?
I have to answer, “Yes.” I enjoy solving the puzzles, poking around the web sites, and writing up quick blog posts about each challenge.
But it’s not huge fun. I don’t need this advertisement. I’m already a big-time fan of most Google products, and I’ll probably see The Bourne Ultimatum eventually.
And as a game, the Ultimate Search for Bourne has a few little problems:
- It’s too easy. Once you “get” how a day is likely to go, you can resolve the challenge in a minute or two.
- Camera placement may be random. This is an ongoing question, and today’s game may have the most obvious clues to camera placement so far . . . or it may prove that there’s nothing but luck behind it.
- The interface is buggy. On my Macintosh with Firefox at home, bits of the interface keep reloading. For the last two days, my wife has been unable to place cameras on her Mac or on my work PC laptop
- The game feels less and less like a spy drama every day. This is party because it’s basically the same game every day. The fact that, with almost no practice, it gets very easy also removes a lot of the cloak-and-dagger feel. And finally because the willing suspension of disbelief is harder to maintain the more I realize how the places and mysteries are calculated to create another day of play and advertise another tool or service, rather than to help a story unfold.
But I did say the game was fun, right? It is! I still believe, passionately, this could be the seed for a very exciting and innovative form of massively multiplayer roleplaying game. It has moments that do still feel delightfully cyber-spyish. And I still like solving puzzles that at least pretend to be tied into adventure and story, rather than just arbitrary rules resolutions.
And any chance at a free iPhone is hard to resist.
So what do you think? Are you having fun? What do you like, and what do you hate?
Entry Filed under: Search for Bourne, Advertising, Online, Roleplaying, Massively Multiplayer
5 Comments Add your own
1. Julio Cesar | July 25th, 2007 at 10:33 am
Well…It’s fun but as you say, too easy.
There was a planned game based on browser investigation that was cancelled a few years ago.
I don’t remember it’s name but you could get videos and weird messages on your e-mail to help the investigation and even receive real phone calls.
2. Alec Bings | July 25th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Yes, I remember that game! It seemed promising, but fizzled. If I could remember the name, I might be able to research it, but for the life of me, I just can’t remember.
It’s amazing to think of the way technology has changed in just the past few years. That game intended to make use of fax machines, of all things. And compared to what’s possible today, the few days of play I engaged in seem so rough.
3. PBR | July 26th, 2007 at 1:15 am
I REALLY liked it at first, because I started a few days behind, and got to do 4 missions in one night. Then I caught up, and the delay is kinda a drag, one mission a day.
Sticking to Daternotes.com has been kinda boring. I thought we’d be hopping from site to site.
Even with those comments, I really do like it. I like the possibilities, at least.
4. Catamount | July 29th, 2007 at 8:37 am
I like that each mission is quick, as I’m playing in airports between flights. I’d like to see a game like this hosted in SecondLife. That’d be a new twist for the UI of a role based game.
5. Alec Bings | July 30th, 2007 at 7:23 am
PBR–Yes, the possibilities are good. I do think other commercial games could use some elements from Search for Bourne in very exciting ways (cutting down on the advertising perhaps).
Catamount–I hadn’t thought of the airport connection. It must be nice not having to spend hours poring over a puzzle when you have limited time. They’ve clearly tried to make this accessible to a broad audience (unlike last years DaVinci Code promotion, which was at least time consuming and, for some, too difficult). I haven’t delved too deeply into SecondLife, but a tool like that combined with an Internet-based spyhunt could indeed be fun.
–Alec
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