Michal Ždanský Interactive games are a relatively old concept. Probably the most famous game of this genre is the Dragon's Lair series. It was a game with cartoon graphics where you as a knight had to avoid various traps in each room of the castle where the princess was imprisoned. Control was only with the directional buttons and one button for the sword. For each room there was a correct order of buttons that corresponded with the action. A bad choice inevitably ended with the death of the protagonist. Dragon's Lair is even downloadable in App Store.
The Act is based on the same principle, but instead of virtual buttons, you only control the game with gestures. The story of this animated sketch revolves around Edgar, a window washer who has a very sleepy brother and a rude boss. Brother Wally accidentally finds himself in the hospital as a candidate for a brain transplant, and Edgar has no choice but to save him from this mess. To get to him, he has to blend in with the hospital staff. However, a relentless hospital guard, suspicious doctors and patients keep getting in his way. Finally, there is a charming little sister, for whose heart Edgar will also wage an exhausting battle.
The game consists, as the principle of interactive movies dictates, of plot scenes and interactive passages, which, as I mentioned above, you control with touch gestures, namely finger strokes. Each scene requires a slightly different progression, but the bottom line is that swiping left and right affects Edgar's reaction to a given situation, and how much you swipe will determine the intensity of that reaction. Right in the opening scene, for example, you seduce the little sister in Edgar's fantasy. If you're too eager and swipe too far to the right, Edgar will literally pounce on the girl or start dancing inappropriately, which won't exactly endear him to the girls. On the contrary, slow strokes will result in fleeting glances, seductive gestures and economical dance movements that will interest the little sister and she will be happy to join you in the end.
At other times, you are standing between four doctors, when the primary doctor is telling various incidents and you have to either laugh, frown sullenly or pat him on the back depending on the reactions of the other doctors, so you will use movement left and right, each for a different type of reaction. It's similar to the old lady's medical examination, where by moving to the left, Edgar must first build up his courage and then carefully use the stethoscope. If you mess anything up, the plot rewinds like an old cassette player and you start the scene all over again.
You won't come across any spoken word in the game, the only sound is the swing music, which depends on the situation just like in the old black and white comedies with Laurel and Hardy. But that doesn't harm her in any way, on the contrary, the key event in the game is the action, not the dialogues, and you don't need to know English at all to fully understand it.
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Although this is a very fun game, after about ten minutes you will come across its biggest weakness, which is the length of the game. Yes, that's exactly how much time you'll need to complete it, which is damn short. There aren't many interactive scenes either, about eight, each of which you can complete in a few minutes. The only motivation to play The Act again is to improve your score, the game counts how many times you had to repeat a scene. It is a great pity that the creators did not manage to stretch the game time to at least double. The plot keeps a brisk pace, but after ten minutes of playing you will feel a bit "cheated". The Act is currently on sale for €0,79, which I think is the only adequate price considering the durability.
[app url=”http://itunes.apple.com/cz/app/the-act/id485689567″]
