Poor review for Paradise

There's a review of Paradise over at Just Adventure + which gives the game only a D as the score, which is pretty poor for a game from which I've seen some excellent screen shots. When you read the review, though, you can see why the mark was so low.

Although it's a great shame that White Birds Productions created such a weak game, it's encouraging that a review on an adventure gaming site gave a low score for what was felt to be a weak game. If nothing else, it shows that the claim that such sites favour adventures unduly in reviews isn't always valid. For those of us with an interest in developing adventure games, reading this review will either be a lesson in what to avoid or, for me, enhance what I've siad many times already - interaction density needs to be high. However, there is an interesting additional point to the interaction, raised by the reviewer: mindless hunting for hidden or disguised hot spots is not true interaction and is certainly not fun.

At a time when I'm beginning to think that adventures could be the future of the true breadth of gaming (more on this another time) it's worrying that experienced developers are struggling to create games that offer a rewarding experience.