Reviews

The Prophecy is more of a violent grim comedy than a horror story, but it carries off its bizarre sense of humor very well. Walken himself was an excellent choice as the agitated, driven, and thoroughly insane angel Gabriel. His character was very obviously mentally disturbed, a real sociopath with no understanding of what is "right" or "wrong," or the possible consequences of his actions. Viggo Mortensen's Lucifer is an excellent counterpoint: smooth, slick, and plotting evil, compared to Gabriel's more chaotic, spastic, and uncaring vileness. The heroes' roles are almost nothing in comparison. Koteas's Thomas Daggett seems to almost too-easily accept the nature of the situation he's found himself caught in, though his background in the seminary and the visions that drove him from the priesthood make his acceptance of it much more believable.

Walken's delivery of the character of Gabriel really dominates the movie, for the most part. He's energetic, and both hilarious and disturbing. His approach to acquiring and retaining his human aid can produce the most nervous of laughter, as he is personally very amusing, but he causes extreme suffering.

Then Lucifer comes along, and really does steal the show. Mortensen sets the tone perfectly for the ending, because once all the laughter is over, there still is the matter of the homicidal Gabriel who refuses to stop chasing Daggett and his companions. Mortensen is oily and slick, a subtle Devil who breaks out foul threats and vile comments only when his composure is broken. He is a true anti-hero, providing the means to defeat Gabriel but only for his own reasons, and always ready to cause trouble himself once any alliance is no longer needed.

Oh, wow, I can't believe how long ago it was that I watched this. I think I caught the series in bits and pieces during several repetitions on a Canadian station we got from over the border on an antenna. I barely remember the show, except for the name of the protagonist and the way the other semi-heros of the show looked, but I miss it so much now. I don't think I ever appreciated it enough when I was younger. Teddy Ruxpin was one of perhaps two cartoons I watched that had a coherent storyline -- something I'm constantly searching for in comics and TV shows now. The other one was the excellent but ill-marketed cartoon Droids, which was written for a Star Wars audience of perhaps 10 or 11, but shown along with an unfocused Ewoks cartoon best for 5 or 6 year olds.

Teddy Ruxpin was, essentially, a good show, perfectly suitable for very young kids early on and then better for somewhat older kids as the solid storyline emerged. It was rather well-drawn, neither as stiff and careful as the old Transformers cartoon or as "loose" with form as current cartoons tend to be. I don't remember it being especially "funny," like Inspector Gadget, but it wasn't as preachy about things as Captain Planet or Care Bears could be. What it was, was an engaging, well-written cartoon that could hold interest without touching the throw-away or beat-until-dead jokes of most cartoons.

I find myself wishing this cartoon had continued for several more years, as I look back and see the kind of influence this - one of my best-remembered and most-favored cartoons of my young childhood - had on my interests and hobbies up to this day.

This game is nothing short of a work of art, plane and Sigil.

Torment is set within the wonderfully unique Planescape setting for (A)D&D, one of the most original roleplaying settings to ever be created. Put simply, the "normal" world, real and standard D&D, is called the Prime Material Plane... And Planescape is a long walk away from the nearest Tolkien-ish elf or dwarf. The Inner Planes are infinities of pure elemental power, of the four basic elements of alchemy, along with life and death energy, and how these all mix. The Outer Planes are the infinities created and shaped by belief -- heavens and hells of all kinds, related to the various "alignments" of good, evil, law, and chaos; and all home to the gods of any pantheon you could name, as well.

This is quite a backdrop to place the events surrounding a single human, but the game does it excellently. Torment is mostly (mainly because this is where you'll be building up a lot of early levels and getting used to the game and quests) set in Sigil, a curious city built in the center of a ring, floating above an infinitely tall Spire at the center of all the multiverse (maybe). Sigil can only be reached through magic portals, and these portals can be found in almost any bound space (like a doorway), and can be used as long as someone has the proper key (an item, a thought, a song they're singing at the time, a gesture, etc). These portals go *every*where.

Now, the actual story... Waking up, with no memory of who he is, the Nameless One finds himself in the Mortuary of Sigil, surrounded by zombies and a very strange skull -- which flies around about 5 and a half feet up, has eyes, and a wit sharper than a magic sword. The game just flows from there, into a tale of self-discovery and the most compelling objective I've seen in an RPG, so counter to what one does in most: the Nameless One wants to find a way to die. His mortality has been taken away, and while this gives him a phenomenal healing rate and some strange powers -- as well as great potential for incredible power in more "traditional" areas such as warcraft, thievery, or wizardry -- it is a curse in disguise as he loses his memories and will eventually lose his mind totally every time he takes wounds enough to kill anyone else of similar skill (read: level and hit points).

The best part of the story is learning it for yourself, but it's not spoiling anything to relate the matter of the Nameless One's immortality and healing speed, or similar. The writing itself is some of the best I have seen, and make it an extremely compelling story unfolded through all the dialog and related writing. Unique items and spells are full of history in their descriptions, and just getting some of these unique spells provides an opportunity to experience the skilled writing, and helps so much to make one of the characters a very real figure.

Ah, yes, the characters. There are a number of companions you may eventually gain, though you are limited to a total of six members in your party. Morte is the skull already mentioned, and he is perhaps the most interesting character (after the Nameless One, of course). Talk long with him every time something related to him happens in the game, and you will learn of the depth of the character. Dak'kon is a githzerai, a member of a race once descended from humans but now much different. His story is very nearly as deep as Morte's, and has direct consequences on his strength in combat, through his blade. Annah is a young tiefling woman, strong-willed and valuable, related somewhere in her family history to the tanar'ri -- demons. While her story is not as important, it provides some very human depth to the Nameless One and the overall tale. Ignus is a mad mage who wields fire like anyone else might use a dagger. His story is far from essential, but it is another interesting facet of the Nameless One's history (it seems everything in this game ties into the Nameless One's history, somehow). Fall-From-Grace is a succubus, a demonic temptress who has turned away from evil and chaos. Instead, she wields the healing magics of the priests. For the story, she is not as important as others, though just the quirk of her nature is interesting. Nordom has to be the most unique character of all. "Backwards modron > Nordom" he states as soon as Morte makes a sarcastic observation. Some explanation is in order: a modron is a semi-robotic creature of pure law from the regulated clockwork plane of Mechanus. Nordom, being a backwards modron, is a rogue, a modron who has been infected by chaos and made into an individual. He and Grace are perhaps the only ones not already tied up in the Nameless One's past. Finally, the last character you may add is Vhailor. Strange, to say the least, Vhailor is a suit of armor inhabited by an undead spirit devoted to Law and Justice. His story is important almost solely for the ending -- but that's all I'll say.

The final act to Torment is excellent. The story is revealed finally, but not too much -- the authors knew where to stop before ruining it. There are a number of different ways to end the game, with some varying amounts of satisfaction depending on how much you liked the other characters.

A beautiful game. I'm on my third or fourth time through it, and I still love it and am still finding new things.

I am well and truly amazed at this game, still. It's been twelve years almost, and I've played this game from time to time since before adolescence. Most other games I used to play then seem weak and childish (well, duh) when looked at now. I can only enjoy this game more as I come to fully understand the regular jokes and learn the in-jokes. This was the beginning of Monkey Island. The beginning of insult swordfighting, of Guybrush and LeChuck. And while it wouldn't be fair to say they've gone downhill since (I love CMI, especially), this has to be the best of the Monkey Island games.

This was my second experience of the Monkey Island series, the full seven years after I had been shown the first game. What was my response? "Oh, great, we're playing a cartoon." I'm glad my brother shut me up then and played on, because the jokes caught my attention once again, as well as Armato's wonderful voice-acting of Guybrush - not to mention everyone else done well (I still think CMI's Elaine sounds better than EMI's). The cutscenes do well to illustrate something happening, and the art of both the game and cutscenes are excellent. When we found the CD with the originals, Secret and LeChuck's Revenge, we were both ecstatic and spent hours working through Revenge - one such moment was where we just sat down and blew half a day on it. However, CMI has to be the Monkey Island game I've played the most, especially for the return of swordfighting and combat on the high seas. That moment when you encounter Kenny and he tells you he's gone straight and then, "I'm running guns!" had both my brother and I in tears from laughter. And that's not the best part of the game, not by far.