''Temüjin'' (also known as ''Temüjin: A Supernatural Adventure'' and ''Temüjin: The Capricorn Collection'') is a 1997
computer game developed and published by
SouthPeak Interactive.
Plot
Based partially on the life of
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, was the founder and first khan (title), khan of the Mongol Empire. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongols, Mongol tribes, he launched Mongol invasions and ...
, the plot involves an unidentified character (controlled by the player) who has appeared in the Stevenson Museum where ancient
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...
n artifacts are being displayed. The protagonist must find out who they and the other people in the museum are and solve the mysteries of unusual events occurring at the museum. Along the way, the player is aided by a ghost girl, Mei, who is freed after the first mission.
Gameplay
The game is a
first-person adventure
An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...
with 360 degree movement and
live action
Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games o ...
graphics. It is a point-and-click adventure (occasionally pixel-hunting). The game consists of seven chapters, spread out over six disks, in each of which the player must fulfill a specific goal in order to clear the act. Most puzzles are solved by examining items and combining them.
Development
The game was the first to use SouthPeak Games's "
Video Reality" engine
and was also the first game to be made entirely on
35 mm film.
Lee Sheldon, best known for the critically acclaimed ''
Ripley's Believe It or Not!: The Riddle of Master Lu'', served as the game's writer and designer.
[ During the development stage, the game was advertised heavily in gaming magazines as being a ]full motion video
Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than Sprite (computer graphics), sprites, vector graphics, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games featur ...
game with the interactivity that was missing in previous first person adventures.
Development took 18 months.[ The video sequences were filmed with a production crew of over 180 people using special four-walled sets, which were a challenge for the cameramen.][
]
Reception
'' Next Generation'' reviewed the PC version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "''Temujin'' is a fairly solid first step towards the next generation of point-and-click adventure games, and SouthPeak's Video Reality technology allows developers to bring actual locations to games with ease. However, the games themselves still need a good plot and solid interface, and here's where ''Temujin'' lacks something."
At the time, the popularity of adventure and full motion video games had all but vanished and the game was a commercial failure. Critics mostly gave the game less than favorable reviews as the boasted interactivity and realistic graphics were non-existent. The video screen was much smaller than the screen size and contained blurry visuals, and the fact that the main character was both mute and suffering from amnesia
Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or brain diseases,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be temporarily caused by t ...
severely limited interaction with gameplay characters.
Despite the poor reception, the game was still named a finalist by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences for " Outstanding Achievement in Software Engineering" at the 1st Annual Interactive Achievement Awards.
Reviews
*''Electric Games'' (1997)
*''Quandary'' (Nov, 1997)
*''GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
'' (Nov 17, 1997)
*''Just Adventure'' (1997)
*''Just Adventure'' (1997)
References
External links
Temüjin: A Supernatural Adventure
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Temujin (Video Game)
1997 video games
Adventure games
Genghis Khan video games
First-person adventure games
Full motion video based games
Video games developed in the United States
Windows games
Windows-only games
Single-player video games
SouthPeak Games