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Culpa Innata

EMAIL PRINT pc

8.3 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 13 critic reviews
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Based on 20 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Strategy First Inc.

Developer: Momentum AS

Genre(s): Third-Person Adventure

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: M (Mature)

Release Date: November 2, 2007

Summary

A World Union citizen is murdered in Russia, one of the few remaining Rogue States. This murder oddly coincides with the accidental death of a prominent professor in Adrianopolis, an important border town between the World Union and Russia. Peace Officer Phoenix Wallis is assigned to lead the investigation of the murder. Still young and inexperienced, she will soon make discoveries beyond her wildest imagination, as skilled hackers and subversive characters begin taking an inexplicable interest in Phoenix. Her investigation reveals enigmatic clues that lead her deeper and deeper into a mystery that challenges not only her case, but her very beliefs in the worldview she has sworn to protect. This story-driven, third person game uses a 3D engine with dynamic cameras and other technologies developed by Momentum AS. The game features a wide variety of organic obstacles ranging from logic puzzles to hi-tech gadget manipulation to dialogue and inventory challenges. [Strategy First]

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Just Adventure

This is the saga we’ve been waiting for. Thank you Momentum.

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Four Fat Chicks

Culpa Innata is one of the finest adventure games of 2007. Although not without flaws (graphics, pathfinding, wordiness), it offers a solid police procedural within an engrossing futuristic setting.

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GameZone

What Culpa Innata lacks in terms of innovative gameplay, it makes up for in depth – that is the key to this game.

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GameSpot

A memorable setting and engaging characters make Culpa Innata a strikingly unusual adventure game.

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GamingExcellence

While Culpa Innata may not be the tiptop of its generation, it is a solid adventure title that promises to engage and entertain the player.

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PC Zone UK

Culpa Innata will surprise you with its non-linearity. [Feb 2008, p.81]

PC Gamer

If you can look past its graphic belmishes and gratuitously protracted conversation pieces, however, Culpa Innanta is a solid point-and-click adventure game with significant depth and replay value. [Feb 2008, p.85]

Adventure Gamers

There are plenty of rough edges, but those who have the patience for the mountains of dialogue and can see past the ropey visuals and gut-wrenching voice acting will find a reasonably engrossing world to explore.

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Game Chronicles

Culpa Innata is certainly a playable title, and given the state of adventure gaming, gamers who generally like games of the mystery/adventure variety may find Culpa Innata to be at least on par with other games of its ilk and find it an enjoyable experience.

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Game Over Online

No part of it worked for me -- the graphics, sound, puzzles and story were all sub-par -- and it actually manages to go to the bottom of the heap of the mystery adventures that I’ve played this year, which is difficult to do given that mystery adventures by and large haven’t been all that good. So avoid this one unless you’re truly desperate.

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PC Format

It's only long-term adventurers who are likely to get much out of it, not least because of the hideous controls, irritating voices and glacially slow pace, but there's more under the surface than first appears. [Apr 2008, p.115]

Gamers' Temple

Culpa Innata is best left to the most masochistic of adventure game fans.

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IGN

There are some strong elements to Culpa Innata, but overall, the excessive amounts of bad dialogue drowns out nearly all of the stronger puzzles clamoring for attention.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 20 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Mustafa K gave it an8:
Great adventure game. Nice storyline and characters. Graphics are a bit outdated but if you're really an adventure game player, you probably would not care for that.

Ray D. gave it a10:
I am hard pressed to find anything lousy about this game. The puzzles are terrific, ranging from simple to one of the most difficult I have encountered! The music is great; the graphics are superb, and the story has all the makings of an x-files type of classic thriller. Well done!

Joseph K gave it an8:
This is probably the hardest puzzle game i ever played. It is very complex and if you do not pay attention, you can go totally off track. People who like to glorify the hell of war for some sick reason will not like this but war is not for me so to each his own. They did need less dialogue because the game itself without that is really excellent- very hard however.

Jason L gave it a5:
A pretty average game, definitely not for everyone. The dialogue and voice acting are monotonous and easily the weakest part of the game, which is disappointing if you're accustomed to the wry and witty dialogue of adventures like The Longest Journey or games by LucasArts and Sierra. There's also a fair number of puzzles involving locks or rearranging levers, if that's your thing. While it does break the mold in some ways, it still feels more like a mid-90's style adventure that takes itself a little too seriously.

ThunderClaw gave it a2:
Culpa Innata is the first game that has actually managed to offend me while playing it. I have been playing for almost 20 years, and I greatly enjoy everything from Doom to Mortal Kombat to Grand Theft Auto, but Culpa Innata manages to combine a condescending and broken story world that is almost painfully ripped off Aldous Huxley's Brave New World with pathetically weak and one-dimensional characters. Then it throws on a happy topping of misandry as a bonus! Anyone who has played games for more than a couple years will recognize the calls of misogyny from many, many games that touch on sex in any form. In some games, like The Witcher, these complaints are very valid. However, all games I have seen thus far leave their overt woman-hating safely on the sidelines for the player to seek out or avoid at their leisure. Culpa Innata, by contrast, seems to enjoy throwing around man-hating as a matter of course. Misandry pours off this game almost from the get-go, as the first 3 male characters you are introduced to (in roughly the same time period you are introduced to 5 female characters) are, respectively, a sexually philandering murder victim (the main character seems more interested in his faults than figuring out who killed him, even though it's her job to solve the murder), a junior investigator who is a malicious guttersnipe and swears to the main character in the opening scene that he will 'ruin her' for no discernable reason, and an old janitor who is totally senile; his uselessness is the source of the first 'puzzle' in the game. The female characters really aren't any stronger, story-wise. They're just unrealistic, one-dimensional idiots that run the story around in circles for so long you'll feel your eyes rolling into the back of your head. The only good thing about Culpa Innata, and the only reason the rating is greater than 0, is that when the puzzles do come around, they're genuinely interesting and legitimately difficult, unlike the some other games where it is practically impossible to figure things out without a guide, like Myst. But, in the end, the crimes pile up: Terrible story world, awful characters, idiotic preachiness, and dripping misandry. Why on earth would you play a game like this?

Mithras gave it a4:
It pains me to give this game as low of a score as I am giving it, as I looked forward to this game immensely, and frankly, did enjoy it a bit. The thing is, this is not a game; it is half a game. Maybe even a third or a quarter of a game. -Defcon 4 -Many Habeebs -Growing unrest with the society -Illegal VR device -Land of the renovators -Phoenix being important to the renovators -Random appearance in Russia -falling in elevator shaft -"incomprehensibly inhumane acts" -many Habeebs -MATA HARI The list goes on. If you haven't figured out what the list is, it is a list of most of the issues, big and small, that were expanded upon, focused on, or at least alluded to in the game, which were never explained or developed. This game was all exposition. The only reason I kept playing is because it always felt like it was going to go somewhere, like something was going to happen, like there was some underground society to uncover! And you know what? Something did happen! There was a secret underground society, and it was discovered! Thing was, this was RIGHT at the end. The very end! "Look! A plot! Something interesting is happ- CREDITS" I enjoyed the game, but only because of the feeling that something would happen, and the game totally ruined it. I suppose it did pretty much state "there is going to be a sequel", but that is not enough to make the game good. For example, take a look at "Dreamfall: The Longest Journey". I love that game, it was fun; but this game did not conclude either! The ending was a cliffhanger, and the story is "to be continued". this game differs from Culpa Innata though, because when I finished it, I felt satisfied and happy, as well as eager for the next game; I did not feel ripped off and cheated out of my time. The reason is this: whilst Dreamfall had many points of action, rises and falls in drama, and large plot events throughout the story, Culpa Innata seemed to be just getting to its first rise in action when the game ended. This only left me frustrated and with a feeling like I had wasted fifteen-or-so hours of my life, as the thing that would have made the game feel like it was worth playing seems as though it will come in the sequel! All the events that I was cheated out of are those that would have made the game feel justified; now it just feels like it was wasted time wandering around doing nothing. Even the one thing that the game did give closure on, the murder case, didn't REALLY have closure given the fact that the whole explanation for the whole thing introduced new plot arcs and never-before-mentioned plot devices, so that it feels like the issue really isn't over. If a sequel comes out, I suggest you get the first game and play it then. Until then, this game is unfinished, and really quite disappointing. Yeah, good voice acting, great world, nice characters; but none of it amounted to anything; it's an adventure game, it relies on plot. Plus, the writing was often the worst I've ever read (Though most often it was fine).

Jason B. gave it a10:
This is a terrific adventure game with a deep and absorbing storyline, strong characters and enjoyable gameplay. Highly recommended to fans of the genre.

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