Interface

"Flight Sim 1582AD - Garrett, the Thief"?

Flight simulator buffs will have a good laugh once they see the control scheme for Garrett. There is really a lot of work needed to get Garrett around in his mission areas. Of course there are the standard forward/back motions, left/right strafes and mouse controls.

Shh! Someone's coming

Phew, they left

Now in addition to those basic controls, come several more advanced forms of movement. First and most obvious will be the speed with which you move. While Garrett is jokingly referred to only having two speeds - slow and slower - in fact he has three regular speeds. His normal speed is a bit like the walking Quake II marine. He can run faster, or sneak by slower. The trade-off is that running is loud. Sneaking might be quiet, but it's incredibly slow and can get you in a lot of trouble if you try it in a brightly lit area. In addition to these primary speeds, Garrett can also "creep" ... it's sort of like a compound slowness. First start moving in any of the 3 regular speeds, then hit and hold your creep key to sneak by. It will slow you down significantly, but also make you very quiet.

Garrett - the luggage mule?

'Dark' is an understatement

Finally, you can also try crouching and moving. Crouching can be accomplished two ways. First you can either hit and hold a button for as long as you want to be crouched, or you can choose the toggle key so that you'll stay crouched until you tap the crouch key again.

Wow! All that and We Haven't Even Gotten to Weapons Yet! Yep, Garrett is a regular monster to control - just getting around can be difficult if you don't practice at first. Then you need to learn to shoot the bow properly, fight with the sword, use the blackjack, etc. Yet, while there are a lot of controls, none are difficult to learn. Some might be hard to master - such as archery - but overall the game is very well-designed with respect to the interface.

There's your friend, trying to rescue his girl

Clear the way for him

The in-game interaction sequences are exquisite. While some might question being only to pick a few very rare locks, the lockpicking is done in a simple, abstract manner. Insert a pick, turn as much as you can, then try another, and so on. Same thing goes for item use - choose the item, find a target, try the use key. Looking Glass has really done a good job of making a potentially mind-boggling game into one that you just need to practice at a bit before playing.