D Excels at Design--but Is Still Disappointing

Potential, sometimes, can be D-sastrous.

Few games hit the shelves with as much potential or promise as Acclaim’s mystery-thriller D--an adventure that boasts of a novel story line, beautifully rendered graphics and a heavy-duty marketing blitz. Imagine a cross between the eerie grace of the smash-hit Myst and the lightning mobility of Doom and you get a pretty good idea of the potential for D.

But with all that, D ends up so focused on breaking new ground that it buries itself in the effort. D--with versions for Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn and PC CD-ROM--is a classic case of a game that places technical glitz over substantive storytelling and solid game play.

While the game is a good showcase for the jaw-dropping design elements possible in electronic gaming these days, its legacy will probably be as a parts package from which other designers borrow or steal elements.

Few, though, are likely to pick up on its other innovation--a two-hour time limit that ends up dragging the whole game down. Those who don’t find the end in two hours--no break allowed--get kicked all the way back to the beginning. It’s like being forced to reread everything in a novel before the bookmark.

Who over the age of 12 has the kind of time D demands?

D, set in a creepy hospital on the outskirts of Los Angeles, asks players to solve a mass murder. The most likely suspect is the wacky doctor who has strangely disappeared.

Players assume the role of the doctor’s daughter, Laura, a blond, sports car-driving college student who gasps a lot and spends most of her screen time looking puzzled. She wants to figure out what happened and, of course, just wanders past police lines into a hospital full of rotting corpses.

Most of the game employs a first-person perspective, but occasionally it shifts to a disconcerting third-person view that wrecks the mood and wastes considerable time with some pretty hokey cinematics.

The environments, though, are absolutely beautiful, the finest elements of the game. Details like reflections in mirrors, shimmering water and richly textured surfaces are the sort of elements other designers are likely to rip off in the future.

Unlike Myst, D purportedly allows full mobility within the environments. But creating the kind of mobility players have in games like Doom and Dark Forces would have required degrading the visual quality and detail. So designers settled on a not-so-happy medium in which players must follow set courses through rooms.

Imagine a triangle with points A, B and C. Most of time, getting from A to B requires a stop at C first. After a few efforts, this glitch--er, feature--might force less patient players to toss the whole thing.

And maybe that’s not a bad idea. The box promises that “solving the mystery means visiting the dark pit of your soul.” Funny, but I always thought the dark pit of my soul would be a more interesting place.

* Staff writer Aaron Curtiss reviews video games. His e-mail address is Aaron.Curtiss@latimes.com

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