I have to give kudos to "Dog's Life" developer Frontier Developments/SCEE for some imaginative game play based on the daily life of a dog. I definitely give them kudos for their donating proceeds from the sale to the SPCA. The ESRB has given this game a Teen rating due to crude humor, but that humor never goes beyond what you'd expect for a rear-end sniffing, leg-hiking, wind-breaking farm mutt. I think the Teen rating may, in fact, keep some parents from getting the game for those who'd most appreciate it. I'd say the game would be fine for pre-teens and anyone 8 or older if they have good problem solving skills. However, I think the story line and game play in "Dog's Life" are ill suited to the age group, making it difficult to determine who the game is ideally suited to.
This game is effective at conveying the world as experienced by Jake, the heroic farm dog that stars in this offering from publisher HIP Games. The game play focuses on learning different tricks, being top dog, and spending time figuring out how to amass the largest collection of bones. You can make Jake jump, bark, growl, sit, lie down, shake, and (the favorites of young boys everywhere) sniff other dogs and mark new territory by peeing or leaving poo around. As you get better at these tricks, you have competitions with other dogs, and if you win you get to play the other dog for a while in order to solve puzzles that Jake can't, with Jake getting the reward. Probably the most unique and innovative feature of "Dog's Life" is called Smellovision. Smellovision is a graphics mode in which you see different types of smells. Many puzzles involve finding clues or items after sniffing out and following a smell trail. Based on these elements, I'd tend to say that this game was ideal for boys ages 8 to 14, despite the Teen rating.
Unfortunately, the story seems to be geared toward an older age group; it's all about rescuing the cute female Daisy from next door who gets doggie-napped, while proving yourself top-dog. While this plot line may appeal to boys who've discovered that girls can be interesting and are vying for social position themselves, it totally bores those, like my son, who still think girls have cooties. Of course, the humor makes my son roll on the floor laughing (quite literally for the first dozen times he made Jake fart), but those who might appreciate the story line may think the humor is childish. Issue number one: humor and story don't seem to target the same age groups.
While I still think Smellovision is a very interesting feature, its use is harder than the target audience is likely to expect. Finding the beginnings of the smell trails isn't intuitive. For instance, one of the first puzzles is to find some hidden batteries for a guitarist's amp. However, those batteries are scattered all over in some very unlikely places; places where you don't even think to go because there doesn't appear to be any content in that direction. And you aren't even following smell trails of other types to lead you in the right directions. While older players know that exploration is necessary in order to progress in a game, younger kids expect to be lead through the story and only have to search and explore for bonus features. On the other hand, the puzzles aren't varied enough to hold the interest of those that can solve them. Issue number two: game play is harder than expected for younger players, and yet not varied enough to sustain the interest of those who can solve the puzzles.
The graphics in game are excellent as far as the animations of the dogs are concerned. Each dog's movements and mannerisms are appropriate for its breed which helped with the immersion in game and made me feel like I was experiencing the world the way that the dog would. However, the humans look like fleshed out stick-figures and the environment has a very cartoony feel. There were even some clipping issues that, while not bad enough to ruin the game, were certainly distracting. Issue number three: dogs are realistically portrayed but the rest of the visuals don't measure up.
The music and background sounds in the game are meant to help convey the tone of the area Jake is exploring. However, rather than fading from song to song, the music abruptly stops and starts when you cross a boundary. This really breaks any sense of immersion when it happens. Issue number four: abrupt changes in background music are distracting.
So what's the bottom line? In my son's words, "It's really fun but tricky, and sometimes frustrating for a nine year-old boy, but it's really cool to be a dog." If developer Frontier Developments/SCEE makes a sequel, and manages to convince the ESRB to rate the game as appropriate for the age group the humor is set for, and they make the puzzles a little less frustrating for youngsters to solve, then I'd buy the sequel for my 9-year-old son in a heartbeat. This game has some limitations, but if you're a parent looking for a game that your child will find engaging and funny, but will want your help with, then "Dog's Life" is worth it.
I first encountered a computer in high school, where we learned programming on workstations. Enjoying that, I became a computer lab assistnat which gave me the wonderful job of going to the computer room on my frees instead of sitting in the cafeteria or library. We later found out that the mainframe we first learned on was a bit older than we were... it had vacuum tubes in the back. Needless to say, no fun & games on that beast, so we brought in a Commodore 64 to play Ultima during our frees.
At home I had a Mac, and surprise... game options were slim there as well. So, while Dark Castle was good for a quick game here or there, and I ran through every Might & Magic game that came out for the Mac, I spent most of my gaming time playing AD&D with friends. I took my Mac to college with me, and started programming it to take care of most of the tedious dice rolls and book-keeping when I was the dungeonmaster for our regular group. Better games started coming out for the mac then as well: Tetris and Spectre were favorites.
After college, our AD&D group was scattered, so my wife and I started looking for computer games that would fill the gap. We also got our first Windows machines then, so there were many more options than in the mac arena at the time. We got each other EQ for Christmas, and have been playing MMOG's ever since. We left EQ to alpha and beta test DAoC (hey out there to all my scouts and the other archers from CritShot)and stayed there for several years, played around with AO in some spare time, tried SWG and Horizons, City of Heroes and EQ2 held our interest for a while, back to DAoC for Catacombs, and WoW. Although I've played some single player RPG games, and some cooperative RPG games, I definitely prefer MMOGs. FPSs tend to get me slightly motion sick.
We recently got a Mac Mini for the kids, and our oldest son has a PS2, so we're playing some games on those systems as well.
