Majestic Nights

Majestic Nights tries so hard but stumbles at nearly every turn, due mainly to poor presentation. The conversation about conspiracy is frequently confusing, and since you can barely tell who's talking during dialogue sequences, it's harder to understand what's going on. Even worse, the story itself is a bit of a muddle. The umpteen soldiers and guys running around in black suits make clear there's something afoot with various shady groups, but it's tough to discern their motivations. Plus, the prologue and Chapter 1 seem unrelated. Perhaps this would be less of a problem if the full game was available, but, as further chapters are still in development, it's impossible to know.

This would be acceptable if the gameplay was great, but Majestic Nights fails there as well. The game wants you to use stealth, but clunky controls quickly put an end to that strategy; It's hard to move quickly and silently, meaning you're easily seen. But it's not hard to outrun your pursuers or eliminate them since they tend to line up nicely in doorways, enabling you to pick them off one by one. It's a shame that the story and gameplay don't support the game's graphics, because the visuals are very nice. Everything is rendered in bright colors totally appropriate to the neon-hued '80s, and the character portraits are done quite well. And, although the music doesn't often sound all that '80s, it is consistently atmospheric. Overall, Majestic Nights is a good concept with nice graphics that's undermined by poor execution that's probably not enough to justify buying further chapters when they become available.