Decay - Part 3 Hot

Reviewing the third game in an ongoing episodic series is kind of like reviewing a Pizza Hut or Wendy's you stop at during a 14 hour road trip. If you're this far along and want more, odds are you don't care if it's a step up or down from what you're used to. That's kind of what things felt like while playing Decay Pt.3. It's what you'd expect from something this well-established, and though there's nothing bad about it you see it as almost necessary.

Decay Pt.3 from Shining Gate Software puts you back in the shoes of Martin Wallace, a man who doesn't remember anything and woke up one day hanging from a noose in an unfamiliar bathroom. Part 1 and 2 gave you a few answers and left you with even more questions, and many of those questions are answered in this installment of the point-and-click adventure/horror game. (If you're reading this and haven't played Part 1, go download it. It's short but sweet, and recently dropped to 80 MSP.) If you're a fan of suspense and playing your games while peeking over the top of your controller, this is your kind of game.

Much like the first two Decay games, this one has the look and sound that matches any professionally made and distributed game on the market. Not surprising, considering Shining Gate was part of the development team for Battlefield Heroes. The game is filled with great looking CG and a soundtrack that matches the dark and suspenseful mood of the game. The music actually had me just as on edge as the visuals, as with every build up of the soundtrack I expected something to jump out and guarantee a long sleepless night. One thing that surprised me was the addition of a pretty disturbing image in motion. I won't spoil anything, but let's just say I wasn't expecting much movement in my point and click adventure, and this one stuck with me for the rest of the night. All in all, on par with what you'd expect from the series and in some ways a hair above it.

One of two gripes I had was with the controls. That seems odd for a Myst-style game, but one of the puzzles was a labyrinth-style marble maze game where you tilted the board to move a marble through a path without it falling into any of many holes. I'm not sure if it was my controller or if it was intentional, but the analog sticks seemed to have varying degrees of how effective they'd be. By the end of the maze, holding the right stick completely down barely moved the marble down at all, and holding it just above that extreme actually caused the marble to fly up. Other than this (it's a short and relatively easy puzzle), the game controls exactly how a point and click adventure should.

Like I said at the beginning of the review, if you've played the first two you're probably chomping at the bit to find out more about the world of Decay. Who are you? What's going on with the murderer, Oswald White? What's with the creepy doll following you around? Many of those things are answered in this, but that leads me to my one other gripe with the game: Part 3 felt like a necessary stop on a journey rather than an adventure in itself. The puzzles (with the exception of one somewhat chilling password puzzle) were familiar to the point of feeling like road blocks on your quest for plot devices. This could be an unfair assessment, as I REALLY want to know more about this twisted world and the fate of your character and I may just be a little impatient.

All in all, the game is slightly shorter than the second one but a little longer than the first. Those wanting to continue on with this dark thriller, like I said above, don't even need this review. It's more of what you've come to expect from the first two, and it's done well. Those who haven't played any of the Decay series, if you like your games heavy on story and suspense then you should give the series a try. It's still going strong and, thus far, is worth the admission price. If you're waiting to see how many episodes there are before the series is complete, well...you'll just have to keep waiting. In the mean time, stock up on extra pairs of pants.

You'll need them.