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Memento Mori Review for PC

Memento Mori Review for PC

It’s Naptime

“Memento Mori” is a Latin phrase that reminds us we are indeed mortal, and the icy tendrils of death will inevitably come seeking us at some point in time to wring out the last drops of life remaining in our dried out meat husks. Playing Centauri Production’s Memento Mori on PC has a similar effect as the phrase it’s named after; it reminds you there are far more enjoyable and important things to be doing with your limited freetime among the living.

Memento Mori screenshot

There’s more to the doom and gloom here. For every good point-and-click exploration title they’ve encountered, many a seasoned adventure gamer has undoubtedly struggled their way through countless poorly made games. Memento Mori isn’t a total failure so much as it simply goes through lengthy, tedious patches where it’s just not remotely exciting. Persevere through these moments and you’ll ultimately be rewarded with a moderately unusual plot and a handful of decent puzzles, but it can be a challenge to even muster the drive to push that far inland.

The story revolves around an investigation into the art-world theft of several invaluable paintings from The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Seeking to keep things under wraps from the media while exploring suspicions of a secret society’s involvement in the crime, the man in charge of the museum, a grumbling Russian fellow by the name of Col. Ostankovic, muscles the game’s dual protagonists into helping uncover the conspiracy and keep it low-profile. He taps former colleague Lara Svetlova, an Interpol agent in the art crimes division, and Max Durand, a felon with vast knowledge of art, to head up the investigations. At different times, you’ll explore various angles of the case as each character, and the choices you make along the way affect their unique fates at the end of the adventure.

Memento Mori screenshot

Memento Mori’s moody settings are easily among its few high points. Whether it’s the darkened corridors of the subterranean chambers beneath The Hermitage or the knickknack-laden mess of “Auntie’s” Tarot card-strewn living room and beyond, the environments throughout the game are packed with detail. Not only that, but frequently shifting camera angles offer a fully 3D perspective on most scenes, and they lend a cinematic and suspenseful flair to the adventure. Beyond the slick locations, characters animate extensively for every action they take – from pulling a rope out of their coat pocket and tying it onto a ladder to grabbing an electronic device and plugging it gingerly into a wall socket. While it doesn’t sound like it should be a major deal, you’d be surprised how many adventure titles forego such details.

One the other hand, the characters themselves don’t quite measure up on closer inspection. An impressive level of realistic visual sheen applied to each character’s appearance makes them look good in most areas. However, peoples’ eyes tend to look a little bugged-out at times, and Lara’s hair occasionally does a weird, freaky snake-dance that makes her ponytail seem possessed. The models also appear stunted when it comes to mouth movements during dialogue, and facial expressions come off as a little strange the rest of the time. They’d have benefited from a little more time in the virtual oven.

Memento Mori screenshot

If hunting down a new cell phone battery from the tech department, poring over a fake painting with a magnifying glass to spot the teensiest inconsistencies, deciphering some numerical code culled from the way books are arranged on a shelf, and calibrating what looks like a glorified photocopying machine all sounds like a good time, then you’ll feel right at home amongst the many mundane puzzles worked into the game. On an interesting note, a handful of puzzles require you rotate the view around the object to find switches, access hidden panels, and uncover other twists that you can’t reach when looking at it head-on.

Memento Mori screenshot

Overall, the game lacks some of the challenge of its adventuring brethren, which tend to err on the outrageous side of things. There are a few difficult tasks to be sure, especially those that involve piecing together numbers from a variety of sources, yet many of the obstacles you encounter can be solved by lobbing the right object at it. And there’s usually not much guessing to be done, since you’ll only be carrying a few items at any given time. This may be good news for folks seeking to get their feet wet in the genre for the first time. Stalwart enthusiasts will find the meager difficulty off-putting.

A maddening slow pace wouldn’t be so bad if the lurching plot developments packed more punch and arrived at steadier intervals. Much of the adventure is mired in tedium. The aforementioned character movement that looks nice visually actually compounds the pacing problems substantially. Characters move slowly to begin with and frequently wind up engaging in repetitive tasks that are dragged out by sluggish animations. What initially looks like a good idea to start with quickly begins to go south. The lag while waiting for your character to finish whatever it is they’re doing gets to the point where it grinds your patience to nothingness. I can appreciate the added detail visually, though it’s implemented in a counterproductive way. Perhaps this would be less noticeable if other areas of the adventure didn’t feel like trying to wade through a waist-deep bog.

Adventure games are rarely known for being action-packed or full of heart-pounding intensity. Developers instead rely on slow-cooked plot developments, clever story twists, brainy challenges, intriguing characters, and immersive settings to suck players in. Memento Mori has some of these key elements but not all are as strong as they could be. If anything, the dullness that sets in early on clings to the adventure like a wet blanket, dampening what little impact it manages to deliver. It’s a shame, since there are some strong moments buried in the muck. It’s just not enough. Simply put, there are far more interesting tales to explore and more entertaining quests to tackle elsewhere.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.8 Graphics
Impressive, moody settings and mostly-solid character design step things up a notch from other adventure games. 3.6 Control
Point. Click. Repeat. 3.7 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
There’s a lot of good voice work integrated into the so-so background score. 2.0 Play Value
It’s lengthy while not particularly exciting or fun. 2.9 Overall Rating – Average
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • Investigate the theft of missing art as two very different protagonists.
  • Use your noggin to uncover clues and solve puzzles.
  • Your decisions along the way affect which of the game’s many endings you’ll encounter.

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