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The Feeble FilesReviewed By: Erica Marceau Review Date: August 19, 2002
The Feeble Files has all the components of a great adventure game: colorful graphics, dozens of people to talk to, interesting places to visit, a somewhat useful inventory and encyclopedia system, funny cut scenes, and a story that is both humorous and dark, but the game is marred by dozens of mostly illogical and out-of-place puzzles that you have to solve.
There are a few problems I experienced. You have access to an encyclopedia but it's simply not usable since you have to wait for every entry title to load before being able to select one to listen to. After listening to one, you need to load every entry title again before being able to select another one. Since it takes about 30 seconds to a minute for the entry titles to load, it would take about 30 minutes to listen to every entry. I simply didn't have the patience, even though reading every encyclopedia entry in games is usually one of the things I enjoy doing. It adds color to the game and often provides clues to puzzles. Furthermore, I experienced frequent slowdowns until I moved the mouse or pushed a key on the keyboard. I don't know what the cause of the problem is but it was rather irritating. I also didn't like not being able to skip the Eidos Interactive movie when you start up The Feeble Files.
Overall, I say that The Feeble Files could have been a great game, but the puzzles make it much too difficult and could have been better integrated into the story. The story and characters are well-written and are almost good enough to recommend purchase. However, unless you're very patient or don't feel bad by looking at hints or walkthroughs to solve the hard puzzles, I suggest looking elsewhere.  [an error occurred while processing this directive]
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You start out when Feeble makes a crop circle on Earth and flies back home through an asteroid field. Once you have control of Feeble, you find yourself at the Office of Galactic Uncertainty - Crop Circle Division. At this point, I suggest going to the inventory system (called Oracle) and turning on the Hot Spot option which puts a label on everything you can interact with. This will save you countless hours of frustration. I have no idea why it's turned off by default, and it's not even talked about in the manual. So, you look around the office and pick up a few items and find that a space bike has been delivered which will enable you to go to Metro Prime, except you need a new set of clothes. This first puzzle is indicative of how you solve most of the puzzles that are in The Feeble Files; there's no indicator of what you have to do. Trying to put on the helmet you took from the office, for example, only leads to Feeble saying there's no use for it. So, you use everything you have with everything that's in the office and you'll eventually use your favorite doll on the broken teleporter to make the doll bigger. You then take the now enlarged jacket, put it on, and are able to get on the bike and travel to one of up to six locations. I hope you don't mind me telling you the solution to this first puzzle, but I want you to know what you'd be getting yourself into if you buy this game. I often shook my head in utter confusion after reading a solution to a problem I was having, and wondered how the heck I was supposed to figure that out. There are a few puzzles that are well-integrated and make perfect sense, but most of them are just illogical, with the only way to solve them being to use every item in your inventory until Feeble does something.
If you look past the puzzles, you'll find an interesting story where The Company and the Omnibrain rule over everyone and everything, rather like the book 1984 and Big Brother. Happy Bots delete you if you're feeling unhappy with your surroundings, because that means that you're unhappy with the Omnibrain because the Omnibrain controls your surroundings and that's a violation of several directives. Citizen Enforcers watch your every move, and even if you accidentally break a directive they will gladly delete you because "ignorance is no excuse for treachery." Feeble is a nobody--whose only claim to fame is inventing crop circles--until he agrees to deliver a package for a cute woman and finds himself involved in a rebellion to overthrow the Omnibrain. Along the way, you'll have to break out of prison, rescue your comrades, dress as a girl, play arcade games, and visit your deceased grandfather's tomb. Those who might think that cute graphics = cute story will be surprised to find out that people die and that Feeble is at least partially responsible for three of them. It fits in with the story, but if this sort-of thing shocks you, I suggest you play something less realistic such as Solitaire or Go Fish.
What I liked greatly are the dozens of people you talk to who actually talk. The game manual says there's six thousand voice lines, and I believe it. I've played many games where the actors say every line the same way with no inflection or emotion, and that isn't the case here. From Feeble's growing sarcasm to Delores' gung-ho attitude to Sam's gruff way of showing his weapons and his willingness to use them, every character speaks in a unique way. The only problem I had was with Sam's voice; it was a bit soft at times and it was only possible to hear what he said by turning up the volume. It didn't happen every time Sam spoke, but it was annoying when it did. Being able to skip conversations you've heard before is a nice touch. Another great feature of The Feeble Files are the colorful and detailed graphics and movies. They fit nicely with the story, and basically look great. You can also skip movies that are repeated, such as when you enter Metro Prime, which saves time and irritation.
Even with the very difficult puzzles, I was going to give The Feeble Files a score of 3 because of the story, graphics, and voice lines. However, the utter lack of an ending almost completely ruined the game's experience. There was no attempt to tie up any of the loose ends or inform you of what happened to your comrades, Delores, Sam, The Company, or anything else. I do not consider credits to be a suitable ending to a game that takes several hours to complete.