ABOVE: Inside front cover of A Quiet
Adventure in Capri, showing samples of the 4,500 images in the game.
Sightseeing and cultural tour
If (like me) you haven't the patience or the intellectual
wherewithal to get far in the game, fear not: You can skip the mystery and
explore the island by clicking through the vast collection of photos, which are
organized in sequences to provide a virtual tour.
As you walk from view to view
by clicking your mouse, you'll experience exactly what you'd see (and, in some
cases, hear) if you were on the spot in Capri. It's almost like being there: As
you come to a corner, for example, you can choose whether to go uphill or down,
or to the left or right. You may even find yourself going around in circles,
just as you might do if you were climbing the island's streets, paths, and
stairs in your Birkenstocks.
There are no captions, so you might want to keep a guidebook and
map handy in case you get lost. (The tour does include brief narrations about
major sights, but for the most part, you'll be exploring Capri on your own.)
Is the game worth US $29.95?
Whether A Quiet Weekend in Capri is worth the price
depends on what you expect from it. It isn't a state-of-the-art action game for
the Doom and Half-Life crowd, and the sound effects include
barking dogs and the putt-putt-putt of Vespas instead of explosions or the whine
of warp drives. But if you're an armchair traveler who's always dreamed of a
visit to Capri, or if you've vacationed on the island and want to relive your
trip by immersing yourself in a virtual walkthrough of Capri's main village and
surroundings, A Quiet Weekend in Capri may be a better investment than a
comparably priced coffeetable book.
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