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I've been on one hell of a lucky streak regarding the games I've been playing lately. Maybe I've been more selective, done better research or something similar; but all that ended when I put Next Life in the CD drive. I've always had the mind-set that even if an adventure game is uninspired, it can't really be bad — maybe just average at the worst ...

Next Life basically has no story, and that is a massive problem for any adventure game, as the story is what defines the adventure. Sure, a game can develop a story, but Next Life seems to forget to do that. Your main character is driving one night and gets into an accident, and that is how things start. He awakens in a hut on an island with strangers, and over the next few hours, you really discover absolutely nothing about anything. I get that we are supposed to think he's dead ... but they want to stretch this out for hour upon hour. It really doesn't work for me.

You can meet other people around the island. There are a total of 10 huts. You will find that every evening you all fall asleep, and sometimes people just disappear and are replaced with new people. The characters are, for the most part, very uninteresting and stereotypical; and many of them are just plain asses that I'd never even talk to in real life. Talking to people involves approaching them and picking out one of the abbreviated topics in very broken English; often they do not make sense. There are no wrong choices — unless wasting your time is a wrong choice — as many options do nothing toward the objectives and story you don't really have but still kinda wade through anyway, because ... why not?

The gameplay and puzzles are very basic. On the island, you are able to gather sticks, stones grass, and sometimes others will give you items. All the puzzles and tricks are accomplished with these . The puzzles and tricks are not difficult, generally speaking. You will spend most of the time tracking down the other characters on the island, as they move around after you accomplish a task. Finding items to pick up or interact with is done via pixel-hunting. There is no way to pop up where items are. (Sticks and stones are almost never where they are drawn to be.) The developers added the feature — which I'm convinced they do this just to annoy the hell out of you — of your character having a stamina bar. Running to items, or attempting to exert yourself in any way, starts to deplete it. To refill it, you need to eat or drink food. I'm all for creativity, but what purpos does this serve in the game? The gameplay is very slow and very dull, and the animations are painful, so all this did was add further to your frustration.

Many nights you will enter a dream sequence, which gives you opportunities to get off the island and perform the same type of actions, with no story or reason behind them. In both environments, I was completely confused as to whether I should right- or left-click to perform actions; they are rarely consistent. Sometimes a left-click will enable an action on an area; sometimes a right. Far too often you find yourself left-clicking to examine something and finding you can't do anything — then you backtrack and waste a lot of time, only to later find you need to right-click ... why? I have no clue. Your dreams also host the most annoying part of the game, which are real-time action puzzles — something you don't see often in adventure games.

I'm not sure the majority of adventure game players will appreciate them, but considering how insanely difficult a couple of the puzzles are, they don't really have a place in the game. Since I haven't reached the old-and-slow phase yet, my reflexes are pretty strong; but combining the sheer speed of the puzzles, the complete lack of instructions and any clue as to what you're supposed to be achieving, it makes things simply not fun.

Next Life's graphics are actually pretty good. The video quality is excellent, and the scenes are quite realistic, though the main island constantly gets its camera angles swapped around to mix things up. Personally, I'd prefer a more detailed and interesting main island with a static camera and scenes. Animation, however, is slow, clunky and, overall, poorly accomplished. The sound effects are very basic, and the voice acting is extraordinarily bad — as if the lack of story and bad character development wasn't enough. Technically, I had no problems running the game.

For an adventure game to not develop characters, a story or any type of goal is inexcusable. Add to the mixture a host of very incomplete features that try to make the game unique but end up throwing it further off track, the result is a very boring game. Even attempting to leave the game for a few days and reapproach it failed to change my opinion. This is the first game in a long time I did not complete. I simply do not care to complete it, despite my normal compulsiveness, and I really have to recommend that others do not either. While the developers tried to mix up the typical adventure genre, I simply failed to find any moments enjoyable during Next Life, and I can't pinpoint any redeeming qualities it may have.