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CNET editors' rating:
3.5 stars
Very good
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Product summary
Jack Keane is a colorful and cartoonish adventure through the 19th century British Empire.
Specifications: ESRB: Teen; Genre: Adventure; Number of players: 1 Player See full specs
Gamespot editors' review
- Reviewed on: 03/18/2008
- Released on: 04/15/2008
Deck 13 Interactive is proving that 2006's Ankh was no fluke. The German developer's follow-up, Jack Keane, is every bit as colorful and cheerful as that romp through a Disney-fied ancient Egypt. It was also one of those rare adventures that worked for kids and adults. The two games are actually very similar in just about every way, with the same cutesy humor and lighthearted derring-do shifted a few millennia forward in time. A reliance on obscure, overly traditional puzzles spoils the party somewhat, but these old-fashioned conundrums aren't going to trouble your noggin too much.
Eerie settings and abandoned treasure are just part of the scenery on the forbidding (yet still goofy) Tooth Island.
An out-there nautical adventure powers the plot. You play as Jack Keane, a Han Solo-like British rogue tasked with taking a secret agent for her majesty's secret service to a rather ominous-sounding destination in the Indian Ocean called Tooth Island. It seems that a madman named Doctor T is threatening to destroy tea plants in the region, which naturally drives the Brits to the point of madness wondering what they'll drink with their crumpets. The setting is the 19th century, when the sun never set on the British Empire, so get ready for lots of fops, pith helmets, and outrageous moustaches. Resemblances to LucasArts' classic Monkey Island games are entirely intentional, with Jack taking part in a screwball escapade that gets progressively zanier as you unravel the mystery of Doctor T's fiendish plot. If you've played any of those great old Lucas point-and-clickers, you'll feel right at home by the time you encounter the crazed scientist's superapes and cannibal plants.
At times, the storyline may be a little too broad and a touch too childish. It certainly lacks the adult edge of those old LucasArts games. Humor is kind of hit and miss, which probably won't come as much of a surprise given how hard it is to make people laugh while playing games. There are some nice touches here, however, including a funny Victorian variation on the distinctly modern Nigerian banking scam, a great Star Wars joke or two, a Clouseau-like British secret agent, and Flintstones-styled technology, such as monkey-powered electricity.
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