NiBiRu (Age of Secrets) is a point-and-click adventure game with an interesting story. The Nazi’s were researching an enormous weapon. Their findings involved the tenth planet (nibiru) and ancient South-American cultural artifacts.
Martin Holan is an archeology student. He receives a phone call from his somewhat eccentric uncle, who upon arrival tells him he has to go to Prague immediately. He is to meet a certain Barbora, who will tell him more. There is no time to explain more, Martin has to leave right away. However, when Martin arrives in Prague Barbora is not at the designated meeting point. This is where the game starts, and after a bit of sleuthing we find a trail.
The gameplay is point-and-click – Left Click to get a description, Right Click to interact. This takes a bit of getting used to but works fine. The graphics are impressive for its time. The environment is quite lively environment – cars driving, trams, people walking – you cannot interact with any of them but it gives you the impression the world is alive. Most games are only populated by the people that you can talk with.
There is one very big problem with this game: the Infamous Coloured Ball puzzle. It is a puzzle you need to solve to open a door, but it is very hard and can’t be reset. Once you’ve started, you can’t get it back to its original state, which means you can’t use a hint to help you solve it either. The other puzzles are a nice mix of difficulty and type of puzzle.
One last remark about the voice-acting: it is a pity the actors all sound bored and uninterested. To convince and immerse, a game needs to be able to make you believe you are part of its world. If something exciting happens, the characters should sound excited. These voice actors just couldn’t care less and that distracts from the experience on screen.
Not a bad game, but it could have been a lot better with a bit more effort.