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Soap Opera Dash
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Graphics & Sound:
Soap Opera Dash is the latest time management offering in the long-running Dash series and, while I applaud the series for stretching its legs and trying something new and different, for me, it just didn't work out.
In Soap Opera Dash, you play as Rosie, who bands together with the usual suspects from the other Dash games (Quinn, Flo, Aunt Ethel, etc.) to start up their own soap opera starring Rosie's crush, Simon, who has recently been let go from his contract on another soap. You'll start off small time in a garage, but eventually move up the ranks to film at a big time studio.
The characters look and sound as they should for a Dash game and everything is bright and easy to recognize, which is critical in a game based on time management. You have to be able to see what you need to do and you can. Your characters' looks can vary wildly, depending on what outlandish makeup, hairstyle and clothing are required for their scene, so this can get difficult when you have to locate that person on set somewhere and you don't remember what their latest look is, but more on that later.
Background music is upbeat, as always, in Dash titles, and works for the game and the sound effects are very good, my favorite being the critic who appears at the bottom of the screen and announces himself by simply clearing his throat in an entitled fashion.
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Gameplay:
You'll be running the entire soap opera set, so your tasks will be varied and harried. Actors can be picky bunches and this really starts to come out in later levels of the game, when they will only sit in specific chairs for styling, but even in the early stages of fame, they expect things like hamburgers and glasses of tea to stay placated, and, eventually, onions to help them cry on set. You'll first have to select certain cast members from your group of actors, such as the pair of lovers, the best friend, the socialite, etc. Although I tried to mix things up by choosing edgier characters for the lovers, it didn't seem to make a difference one bit. Next, you'll start filming scenes. Aunt Ethel is the director and she'll be glaring at you and yelling into her megaphone if you don't make sure to move the correct props into position quickly. The actors will appear and sit in their chairs waiting for you to hand them the appropriately colored scripts, which you'll get points for matching correctly. Then they'll need to go to the hair styling chair and you'll have to do their hair, then on to the closet for clothes styling by you, then on to the makeup chair, you again. When it is time for them to shoot a scene, they'll automatically go on stage (finally, they do SOMETHING for themselves!), but if it isn't their turn yet, they'll just be filling your chairs and you may have to pull them to a different chair for waiting for keep them from losing their patience and to free up the chair for someone else. Once all of the actors for a scene are in place, you'll have to drag Hank to his spot and he will film. Once a scene has been finished, a cleanup guy comes out and cleans the set so it can start all over again. Once you get to the end of the season (which happens once per location for a total of 5), you get to pick the major players for the season finale and what the theme will be (kiss, fight, etc.). Again, nothing I did really seemed to have an affect on the scene. It was mostly just nonsense anyway.
In between levels, you can use the money you earn to purchase upgrades, such as more speed for Rosie, more comfy chairs to increase patience and faster equipment like the tea maker or the hamburger grill. You can even buy assistants to make burgers, or do hair and makeup, but they are costly and only good for one level, which stinks, in my opinion. To me, it seemed a bit ridiculous that Rosie would be tasked with doing every single thing. Ok, sure in the beginning, because you are just starting out, but if you hire someone to do makeup, then you've spent that money and they should stick around. And I'll be damned if I should have to drag the freaking camera man to his spot each time!
From time to time, things will break and here's another place Hank the camera guy comes in. He can fix the broken down chairs or closets, but you'll have to drag him there to do it and you had better make sure that he isn't needed for filming at that moment or you will feel the wrath of Aunt Ethel.
Mini-games occur throughout the game, things like selecting the correct outfit from a selection of potential wardrobe changes, to picking out the correct hairstyle and beard, to even selecting the correct hair color and makeup based on the picture that you are shown. Select the wrong one and your actor gets mad and you lose potential points. Plus, these will pop up while you might be in the middle of doing a bunch of things and you have to complete them to move on. I found it was a bit disconcerting and threw my rhythm off.
You also have a panel of judges for each level (which consists of a handful of scenes) and each one has a meta-task for you, like successfully completing 3 mini-games or pleasing 3 fans. Get them all accomplished and you get better ratings and a better score, but if you don't, your only penalty seemed to be a lowered score. What I found annoying here was that, sometimes, I'd get the task of completing 3 mini-games and I'd only get the opportunity for 1 of them, dooming me to failure. Why? I never figured out what the cause could be.
In addition to everything going on, you'll also have fans and critics that begin to show up. Critics expect to be seated immediately in a waiting chair and to be given a hamburger once they ask for it; otherwise, they'll slam your show. Now, don't try to pre-empt them by bringing the burger early or you'll have to throw it away (because I guess Rosie can't carry a burger and a script at the same time? Makes no sense to me...) to do other tasks or waste precious moments while the critic decides he wants a burger and eventually, he always does. Fans have a specific actor they want to visit and grab an autograph from and they don't have much patience, but the trouble is, once you've done a star's hair and makeup, you may not be able to tell who is who. The secret here is to drag the fan around to different people until one sticks. |
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Difficulty:
Soap Opera Dash definitely ramps up in difficulty as you progress and since you are moving locations every 10 levels (from a basic garage on up to bigger and better locations to film), you don't get to keep your upgrades once you've moved on. This was frustrating since I never felt like I was really getting anywhere. By the time I had things nicely upgraded, I was back at square one in a new locale.
Again, it seemed a bit unrealistic to expect Rosie to do every little thing. Sure, maybe in the very beginning, but not as you progress. Even Flo has Grandma to cook for her in Diner Dash and you didn't have to purchase her for that purpose. It just seemed a bit contrived and was fairly annoying.
I typically am not satisfied until I have beaten a Dash game all the way, but I had to stop on this one at the very end of the 4th location, purely out of frustration. There were simply too many tasks expected of Rosie and everything kept breaking, plus there was the issue of wonky, broken controls that made it impossible for me to progress and keep my sanity (see Game Mechanics).
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Game Mechanics:
In Soap Opera Dash, you'll use your mouse click for everything. You'll click to drop off items to someone, click and drag an actor, prop or other person to the specified location, and you'll click to upgrade items. It's pretty basic and should work just fine, as it has in all past Dash games. However, when I got to DBC Studios, the 4th area, 2nd level, I encountered a game-killing glitch. There is one prop, a mask, which cannot be placed until after Aunt Ethel has lost all of her patience and you've been docked 800+ points. I grabbed that mask every which way and it simply wouldn't stick to it's location. I was finally able to get the mask to stick into place, but then on the next level, the same thing happened and I couldn't, for the life of me, get the mask to stay in place. I finally turned the game off and decided to write my review. But then, as always, I was compelled to go back to the game. When I went back into that level, all of the props were different and I didn't have the same issue. But hey, it cost me a lot of points and the successful completion of those two previous levels. While I was finally able to work through this problem, the game just felt like more of a chore in the latter levels than something fun to play, simply because I couldn't even enjoy what I was doing because of all of the mounting tasks and the sometimes unpredictable controls. While the mask issue was the one I could specifically say when and where it happened, there were other times when an actor would request an onion and I'd try to give them the onion and they wouldn't take it and would eventually run out of patience and storm off the set. In fact, I am pretty sure this is what happened when I finally decided to turn the game off for good and gave up.
I'm a hardcore fan of the Dash series of games, but this one simply didn't cut the mustard in my opinion. Do yourself a favor and check out Cooking Dash 3: Spills and Thrills, instead, for an example of a simply excellent Dash game that does everything right. As for Soap Opera Dash, I just have to yell CUT! |
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-Psibabe, GameVortex Communications AKA Ashley Perkins |
Minimum System Requirements:
Windows XP/Vista, 1.2 GHz CPU, 256MB RAM, DirectX 8.0, 79MB Free Hard Drive Space |
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Test System:
Windows Vista, 2 GHz AMD Phenom 9500 Quad-Core Processor, 8GB RAM, Realtek High Definition Audio On-Board Sound, NVIDIA GeForce 8300 |
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