REVIEWED – Afrika

Title:  Afrika
Platform:  PlayStation 3
Developer:  Rhino Studios
Publisher:  Natsume
Reviewed By:  Kyler Ipman
SCORE:  B+

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Afrika was revealed at E3 in 2006, and it sure was a looker, even if gameplay details were conspicuously absent. Fast-forward two years and the game has been out for a few months in Japan. The game that has been released is sometimes surprising, sometimes conventional, but always unique and engaging.

Gameplay
The meat of the game has you receiving missions via e-mail on an in-game laptop computer. The missions contain text instructing you what to take pictures of, and a small video clip that demonstrates roughly what you should be trying to capture. This is where the language barrier surfaces for those of use who do not speak Japanese – while the first few missions are obvious, later missions can have tricky subtleties to them. For example, you might have to take a picture in portrait mode, use a remote camera, or capture specific behaviors of animals. If you know Japanese or can get past this with the use of online guides and forums, though, you’ll find that everything else is pretty intuitive.

The game follows a fairly conventional videogame pattern of unlockables. When you start out, you are driven around one map by a guide. About an hour into the game, you take control of the vehicle and can explore the map at your leisure. As you complete more missions and identify more animals, you unlock additional maps. Eventually you will find yourself roaming freely between five distinct areas at day or night as you please. This is a fairly standard progression – what stands out is the actual gameplay mechanic.

Afrika is a photography game through-and-through. You will control the aperture, shutter speed, color settings, zoom, etc. on various Sony DSLR cameras and lenses. I’m no expert, but I’ve dabbled in photography classes in college and I found this part of the game to be responsive and realistic. If tinkering with these features doesn’t suit you, though, it’s just as easy and often just as effective to leave the camera on Automatic and just shoot.

Since Afrika is arguably the second fully-fledged photography game to receive public attention (the first being Pokemon Snap), it’s really remarkable how far this developing genre has evolved already. It would almost be like if the original Doom, following Wolfenstein 3D, had introduced customizable weapons with secondary features and realistic aiming a la the modern Call of Duty series – in 1993. In that respect, Afrika could really be a genre-defining game.

As a wildlife enthusiast, I would also like to note the staggering variety of animals included within the game. Everything from the expected lion, elephant, buffalo, zebra, and the giraffe to the comparatively obscure hyrax, okapi, bongo, and king cheetah is represented. It’s a surprisingly complete catalogue, and collection-enthusiasts will enjoy finding all of them.

Graphics
The graphics aren’t everything that they could be. Ground textures are flat and sometimes grainy, there are some embarrassing moments of awkward collision detection between animals, the animation of animals is reduced to a low frame rate when they are far away, and the overall frame rate struggles to keep up with everything the game is rendering.

But the animals themselves are fantastic. They animate fluidly (when you’re within a reasonable distance), are textured beautifully, and are generally completely convincing. You could almost mistake some animals, like the rhinoceros, for their real-life counterparts.

Another graphical area that impresses me is the game’s draw distance. Open vistas and broad savannas are the order of the day, and the game renders these environments effectively. The plains stretch into the distance, shimmering in the African heat and surrounded by a bowl of beautifully textured cliffs and mountains. It might not be quite as pretty as you’d hope for in a photography game, but it’s still very immersive.

Sound
Immersion also requires a great deal of sound quality, and I’m happy to report that Afrika delivers on this front, too. Every animal roar, call, growl, hoot, and holler is accurately reproduced. The sounds of birds chirping and streams gurgling only add to the illusion that you are really on a safari.

But the soundtrack, orchestrated by Wataru Hokoyama, is in another league entirely. I have heard some criticism that a game called Afrika should feature African music and not Hollywood-style symphonic music, but I’m happy to report that Afrika has plenty of both. The bulk of it is orchestral, to be sure, and it’s not hard to see why it has been compared to the rousing and adventurous music of John Williams. But Hokoyama has also introduced some percussion-heavy pieces (listen for them at Base Camp and at the Masai Tree) that inject more than a bit of African flavor into the soundtrack. All-in-all it’s a fantastic score.

Replay Value
This isn’t a game where you’re likely to feel the urge to play through it all again, at least not anytime soon. But that’s partially because it’s enormous. The game took 38 hours for me to complete, and even if you subtract a few hours for confusion resulting from the language barrier, it’s still an enormous game. You can also jump back into the environment even after you’ve completed the game and just explore the savanna and continue taking pictures.

Bottom Line
This is basically the kind of game where you know whether or not you’ll like it. If you enjoy watching National Geographic or Animal Planet, then it’s a no-brainer: it’s essentially an interactive wildlife documentary. If you enjoy photography, then you’ll be pleased with the amount of freedom you are given to manipulate the game’s virtual cameras. The game isn’t without its flaws, but if you think you’re in the target audience then give it a go – it’s worth importing. If you’re the type that would rather shoot the lions than photograph them, then give this one a pass – it was never intended for you anyway.