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Jack Keane
$19.99
This title is available for purchase in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
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IGN Review of Jack Keane
A traditional adventure game wouldn't be complete if it didn't have the brave hero, feisty love interest, wannabe pirates, sinister bad guy (complete with perfectly manicured moustache), and, of course, monkeys. Deck13, the developer of Ankh, return with an entertaining and charming adventure inspired by the classic Monkey Island from LucasArts. And while Jack Keane is no Guybrush Threepwood, he has his own endearing personality, a strong chin, and tousled hair.
Keane's adventure begins in 19th century London, strapped to a chair in the Big Ben clock tower to be exact. Two thugs have been sent as debt collectors and they are very insistent on getting the money back. Keane manages to escape from the thugs and immediately accepts an assignment to help the Queen (her tea is at stake) because of a favorable reward at the end. Since Keane's ship, the "Charming Princess," is the fastest ship on the London-India route, Keane is asked to pick up one of the Queen's secret agents in Cape Town and transport him safely to mysterious Tooth Island. At Cape Town, Keane comes across a lovely woman named Amanda, who happens to also be on her way to Tooth Island, so together they set off with secret agent Montgomery.
The shenanigans really begin once they've reached the island and the story delves deeper as we learn more about the evil Doctor T and Keane. The entire mood of the game remains light-hearted and fun, with humorous dialogue and wacky characters. It's not very original or exceedingly clever but just because it isn't genre changing doesn't mean it's not worth playing. The game also makes quite a bit of references to pop culture where you might see an Indiana Jones outfit or a side comment about those accursed numbers from the television show Lost. You can't help but chuckle at the absurdity of it all, especially when you come across a man who has lost everything to the Nigerian letter scam. There are some parts where the dialogue makes you go, "Huh?" Keep in mind that the game was originally in German, which might explain how some jokes were simply lost in translation. There are some genuinely funny moments in the game, but there were a lot of misses too.
Jack Keane's gameplay is very easy to pick up. There aren't any confusing menus to navigate through, a simple left click of the mouse will look at items and right click will allow you interact with objects and people. Double clicking will make Jack run and your inventory items are all stored at the top of your screen for easy use. Amanda is also playable later on in the game. Items are generally used once before they disappear, however Jack and Amanda carry a knife and rifle respectively which can be used multiple times.
The puzzles are really the meat of the adventure, and depending on the type of player you are, you may not find Jack Keane to be the most complicated or challenging of adventure games. It's not meant to be; it's supposed to be silly and fun, although there are some puzzles that will have you scratching your head and revisiting every area and talking to every person. Who knew that with an empty jam jar, a red sock, and a candle you would have a new taillight for an elephant? If the puzzles aren't painfully obvious, then randomly combining items in the inventory might do the trick until you create something that can be of use. Thorough scouring of the environments is crucial, as everything you pick up will be of use to you later. The mouse cursor will change to indicate when something can be taken but loose objects stand out enough to catch your eye. As hard as you may try, there is no way to get yourself killed as you navigate through the wild jungle even if things start to get a little hairy.
There are bonus puzzles to solve throughout the game to unlock additional content. They usually involve collecting items that aren't related to the storyline so if you happen to miss them the first time around, you can always go back and play again.
Visually the game is incredibly vibrant and colorful, to the point of looking slightly radioactive. It looks cartoonish and kid-friendly, minus the part where you'll have to see a certain someone in leopard underwear which is not suitable for children or anyone for that matter. Tooth Island is beautiful and luscious and there is a good amount of variety in the different locales to keep things fresh and interesting. The animation is decent; there are moments when movements are a bit clunky and stiff but the cut scenes are enjoyable to watch. There is a large cast of characters that inhabit Tooth Island, each with their own quirks and bug-eyed expressions.
The voice acting is hit or miss. The fake accents are funny at first, but some of the voices are a little more irritating than others, like Dr. T's high-pitched squeals. Keane didn't have a British accent, despite growing up in London, which was a bit odd since every other character had variations of British and Indian accents. In some instances the dialogue would cut off abruptly at the end of a sentence making the conversation between two characters awkward and choppy. It didn't help that often times the characters seemed to be reciting their lines to no one in particular, creating inflections that don't seem to fit in with the conversation--another reason why some of the jokes didn't quite work out. The music complemented the game very well, cuing in at the right moments to provide a bit of gusto to the action on screen. In general, the soundtrack remained subtle and unobtrusive keeping the mood and atmosphere of the game.
A few flaws to note include an error message that kept popping up in one area, but as long as I hit the Windows close button instead of clicking anything else the game would keep going without any issues, otherwise it would kick me out of the game. I also crashed once which could have been a fluke. The game does not support alt tab because that is guaranteed to crash your game. There were a few places where the controls were a little wonky and it was difficult to get Jack where I wanted him to go but it didn't come up often enough to hinder gameplay.
©2008-04-28, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Keane's adventure begins in 19th century London, strapped to a chair in the Big Ben clock tower to be exact. Two thugs have been sent as debt collectors and they are very insistent on getting the money back. Keane manages to escape from the thugs and immediately accepts an assignment to help the Queen (her tea is at stake) because of a favorable reward at the end. Since Keane's ship, the "Charming Princess," is the fastest ship on the London-India route, Keane is asked to pick up one of the Queen's secret agents in Cape Town and transport him safely to mysterious Tooth Island. At Cape Town, Keane comes across a lovely woman named Amanda, who happens to also be on her way to Tooth Island, so together they set off with secret agent Montgomery.
The shenanigans really begin once they've reached the island and the story delves deeper as we learn more about the evil Doctor T and Keane. The entire mood of the game remains light-hearted and fun, with humorous dialogue and wacky characters. It's not very original or exceedingly clever but just because it isn't genre changing doesn't mean it's not worth playing. The game also makes quite a bit of references to pop culture where you might see an Indiana Jones outfit or a side comment about those accursed numbers from the television show Lost. You can't help but chuckle at the absurdity of it all, especially when you come across a man who has lost everything to the Nigerian letter scam. There are some parts where the dialogue makes you go, "Huh?" Keep in mind that the game was originally in German, which might explain how some jokes were simply lost in translation. There are some genuinely funny moments in the game, but there were a lot of misses too.
Jack Keane's gameplay is very easy to pick up. There aren't any confusing menus to navigate through, a simple left click of the mouse will look at items and right click will allow you interact with objects and people. Double clicking will make Jack run and your inventory items are all stored at the top of your screen for easy use. Amanda is also playable later on in the game. Items are generally used once before they disappear, however Jack and Amanda carry a knife and rifle respectively which can be used multiple times.
The puzzles are really the meat of the adventure, and depending on the type of player you are, you may not find Jack Keane to be the most complicated or challenging of adventure games. It's not meant to be; it's supposed to be silly and fun, although there are some puzzles that will have you scratching your head and revisiting every area and talking to every person. Who knew that with an empty jam jar, a red sock, and a candle you would have a new taillight for an elephant? If the puzzles aren't painfully obvious, then randomly combining items in the inventory might do the trick until you create something that can be of use. Thorough scouring of the environments is crucial, as everything you pick up will be of use to you later. The mouse cursor will change to indicate when something can be taken but loose objects stand out enough to catch your eye. As hard as you may try, there is no way to get yourself killed as you navigate through the wild jungle even if things start to get a little hairy.
There are bonus puzzles to solve throughout the game to unlock additional content. They usually involve collecting items that aren't related to the storyline so if you happen to miss them the first time around, you can always go back and play again.
Visually the game is incredibly vibrant and colorful, to the point of looking slightly radioactive. It looks cartoonish and kid-friendly, minus the part where you'll have to see a certain someone in leopard underwear which is not suitable for children or anyone for that matter. Tooth Island is beautiful and luscious and there is a good amount of variety in the different locales to keep things fresh and interesting. The animation is decent; there are moments when movements are a bit clunky and stiff but the cut scenes are enjoyable to watch. There is a large cast of characters that inhabit Tooth Island, each with their own quirks and bug-eyed expressions.
The voice acting is hit or miss. The fake accents are funny at first, but some of the voices are a little more irritating than others, like Dr. T's high-pitched squeals. Keane didn't have a British accent, despite growing up in London, which was a bit odd since every other character had variations of British and Indian accents. In some instances the dialogue would cut off abruptly at the end of a sentence making the conversation between two characters awkward and choppy. It didn't help that often times the characters seemed to be reciting their lines to no one in particular, creating inflections that don't seem to fit in with the conversation--another reason why some of the jokes didn't quite work out. The music complemented the game very well, cuing in at the right moments to provide a bit of gusto to the action on screen. In general, the soundtrack remained subtle and unobtrusive keeping the mood and atmosphere of the game.
A few flaws to note include an error message that kept popping up in one area, but as long as I hit the Windows close button instead of clicking anything else the game would keep going without any issues, otherwise it would kick me out of the game. I also crashed once which could have been a fluke. The game does not support alt tab because that is guaranteed to crash your game. There were a few places where the controls were a little wonky and it was difficult to get Jack where I wanted him to go but it didn't come up often enough to hinder gameplay.
©2008-04-28, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved