Review:

Imagine a world where everything is normal. TOO normal. In fact, being slightly off-kilter is not just frowned upon, but illegal. That is the world presented by Interplay in their graphic adventure Normality. Enter Kent, a generation X, obviously ABNORMAL kind of guy who likes to walk around whistling an annoying tune. You play Kent, who has just been released from the Blue Pens for just such a deed. As Kent, you uncover a plot to bring a little bit of abnormality to Neutropolis. You will uncover many strange and unusual characters in your quest, as well as quite a bit of humour. The game is portrayed from a first-person 3D perspective usually seen in action games like Doom and so many others. But this is no action game. It is a graphic adventure through and through. A more fair comparison would be to Access Software's Under a Killing Moon and Pandora Directive. The major difference being that this world is rendered in cartoon-style graphics. It really works in this game. The characters are 3D rendered cartoons that have fairly natural movements, especially during the cut scenes. The voice acting is very well done, maybe TOO well done, as Corey Feldman, who brings us the voice of Kent, is extremely annoying. And not the kind of annoying you get used to, either. This, on the other hand, is one of the things that does work in the game's favour, for reasons I still do not understand. All I know is that I liked it. The controls are easy to learn and understand, and if you've played any 3D action games, you are halfway there. The game is a little short, but not annoyingly so. The main complaint I have is the time spent in limbo while the game loads data when you travel between locations. Sometimes this feels like it takes forever, while you stare at Kent looking at his watch, or Kent running through a blue twisting tunnel. The game does have a fork in it, where you are able to travel one of two paths depending on actions you did or did not take earlier in the game. It doesn't exactly up the replay value, but it does give you some change of pace. The puzzles range from very simple to somewhat difficult. You cannot die in the game, and I have always liked that in an adventure. Overall, the game is a lot of fun, and if you don't mind the game being a little on the short side, I recommend this game highly.

Bottom Line: A lot of fun, a lot of very well-done humour, very good graphics, and well-done voice acting. A little short, but still worth the price of admission.