Soul Trapper Episode 1 - Ollie Ollie Oxen Free!

iTunes Link

Soul Trapper Ep. 01 is an interactive audio adventure by Realtime Associates. $7.99

Soul Trapper was a very unexpected thrill ride. When I first heard about this game I thought some audio clips stuck together with a go left or go right option every now and then. While this is put into the game there is ALOT more fun to be had. This game is more of an Audio Puzzle, forcing you to solve different obstacles that come your way by listening very closely to the game. One example is on chapter 9 where you must copy a pattern on an organ trying to figure out the right way to play it. There is a heap to do in this game with 23 chapters taking over 3 hours to listen to. It is a good attempt to spook people, mainly 10 year old children, and it best listened to at night to get the full effect of the game. The storyline follows itself very well and isn't just some unrelated material put together and sold. The only games I can think of that are near the category of this game are Alternate Endings and The Hysteria Project, both which involve film clips instead of audio.

The graphics in this game obviously aren't much, as this is an audio game. There is a nice hand-drawn image that shows for each individual chapter and has something to do with the current chapter. The option buttons that pop up are easy to use and mostly require audio instructions. I thought that there was going to be some animation with the pictures on the screen but I was mistaken. This isn't a bad thing, if there was animation it means I couldn't close my eyes and just listen to the game. I still would like to see some more pictures to immerse yourself in though. Even changes of picture when the scene of a chapter changes??

This game obviously has the best sound that I have heard to date. The voice acting by all the various actors is to the highest quality and really feels like it was done in a professional studio with no expenses spared for their buyers. Alot of work has obviously been put into the sound with over 3 hours of recordings for us to listen to. Apart from the voice acting there is also some very good sound effects added in to give that extra spook or to go the extra distance. Sounds like alot of the soul trap is an example of these effects. Sound has also been played around with in certain places such as voices of ghosts or other humans while Kane is in the Soul Trap. If an audio adventure didn't do enough to earn a 10/10 for sound then it would be a total failure. Gladly Soul Trapper isn't one of these failures and easily earns top marks.

The game follows the life of Kane Pryce, a drifter who possesses a Soul Trap that was built by his father. The Soul Trap allows Kane and his associate Ned to catch ghosts and send them into the afterlife. The game lets you follow the adventure of these two mysterious humans as they find a young boy, by the name of Ollie who is waiting at a church for his Mommy. This game is seriously alot of fun and really makes you feel in the action with the great audio and how it is passed onto you through the headphones. You can hear whether people are talking to Kane on the left or right of you and is used quite alot in some of the required interactive parts of the game. It is basically a self-explanatory game that is all in the sound, not much else can be said about the actual gameplay.

This game is great value. Over 3 hours to listen to the whole thing, but there is not really any replay factor in the game as it is just repeating itself. People may be turned off by the large size of the game, 264mb but then again Alternate Endings is over 450mb. The save feature in this can get a bit frustrating as I can exit straight out of the app and it won't save and it won't save your progress in a chapter. I would like to see automatic save whenever you quit the game right where you were up to in it... saving repeating stuff you have already heard. An intense game, brilliantly done, I would recommend this to people who like choose your own adventure books or similar games like 1112, Alternate Endings or The Hysteria Project.

Gameplay- 8/10
Graphics- 6/10
Sound- 10/10
Overall- 8/10

I would recommend this game if you enjoyed- Alternate Endings

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