Archer MacLean's Mercury

Archer MacLean's Mercury Review

You could be forgiven for having thought Archer MacLean was a professional pool player. His classic 1992 smash-hit, Archer MacLean’s 3D Pool, gave some of us the wrong idea. MacLean is actually a programmer who has been making critically acclaimed games since the mid eighties, like Dropzone, International Karate and IK+. Those of you old enough to remember these games may also remember Marble Madness, a game from which MacLean has clearly taken inspiration for Mercury. The premise of Marble Madness was simple: roll your marble through a (pseudo) 3D maze to reach the goal, without falling off the edge of the stage, or falling victim to the various obstacles and enemies within it.

Mercury is based on much the same idea. The objective is to guide a blob of mercury through a 3D maze to reach the goal. Rather than directly controlling the blob, you use the analog control to tilt the maze instead. This is a very effective and intuitive control scheme that Sega have used to great success in their Super Monkey Ball games. The big difference with Mercury is that the blob itself, like real liquid mercury, can quite easily change shape and separate into two or more blobs if you’re not careful, and parts of it can spill off the edge of stages. The physics of the game are impeccable, taking into account momentum, inertia, surface tension and varying degrees of friction against the maze’s surfaces. The blob really looks and behaves like mercury.

Mercury challenges you to test your mettle (or is that metal?) through 72 levels, split over six worlds, each with its own boss stage. The requirement for passing levels involves getting a certain percentage of your mercury to the goal within a time limit. Mercury’s learning curve is just right, and it presents an interesting and varied set of obstacles, enemies, and stage designs. Aside from the physical hurdles each level presents, mixing and manipulating the colour of your mercury is one of the fundamental game mechanics that adds another dimension to the game. You’ll realize rather quickly that Mercury is a game of trial and error. On the first few worlds you may be able to fluke your way to clearing a stage on your first attempt, but as the stages get increasingly difficult and more complex (particularly in the second half of the game) there’s essentially no chance that you can beat a level on your first attempt. You’ll most likely need several attempts to even work out what you need to do to complete the level, and then several more attempts to achieve that within the time limit and percentage remaining restrictions.

This is where public opinion will be divided on Mercury. Some will find failing the same stage over and over frustrating, and will feel that Mercury’s gameplay is more of a repetitive chore than actual fun. Others will relish the challenge that Mercury presents, which demands both quick thinking and very sharp reflexes to achieve success. Whether Mercury’s brand of gameplay will appeal or not is really dependant upon your personal taste. While its core gameplay is solid, Mercury feels slightly rushed and is let down by a few niggling issues.

Each stage is introduced with a rotating fly-by before play begins. The introductory view of each stage looks nice, but is too short and too distant to be of much use in developing a strategy to tackle each stage. During play, the default camera control scheme is awkward, though camera rotation can optionally be set to the shoulder buttons instead. The rotation can (and must) be manually controlled, though the actual angle at which the camera looks down toward the maze is often less than ideal. Your view can sometimes be blocked by other parts of the stage as you rotate the camera, and holes in the floor that were obscured by low walls may only become apparent when part of your blob falls through them. Nearly completing a stage, but then failing by spilling part of your blob due to a dodgy camera angle is irritating to say the least.

The camera always tries to show all the remaining mercury still on the stage. This in itself can prove to be problematic, as the camera will zoom out in order to keep all the mercury on screen. If you happen to have left a tiny trapped blob behind, you’ll find it near impossible to complete the stage as the camera keeps zooming further and further out to keep it on screen as you move your main blob further away toward the goal. A more intelligent camera system would have been a great asset to the game. Controlling the blob and negotiating the obstacles is challenge enough – having to simultaneously battle the camera is an extra challenge this game doesn’t need.

Saving could also have been better implemented. The player is never prompted to save, and until you become accustomed to this, it’s easy to lose your progress. Auto-saving, or at least prompting the player to save upon completion of a stage would have helped. While the game itself looks very slick, the menus and fonts are ugly and give off a decidedly ‘shareware’ feel. The frequent load times are long, and while they don’t cripple the game, they do break the flow, particularly between the short levels early on in the game. The music is suitable ambient fare, but is ultimately forgettable and uninspiring. Mercury provides limited replay value in as much as there are tables to beat your best records on each stage, but most people won’t find the motivation to replay levels once all the worlds are fully unlocked.

People used to play with real mercury in their bare hands. It turns out that wasn’t such a good idea. Some people will end up reaching the same conclusion with Archer MacLean’s Mercury. They may find the repetitive trial-and-error gameplay frustrating, and the strict time limits overly restrictive. Those undaunted by its old school gameplay will find a solid action-puzzle game that ranks among the most refreshingly unique of recent times. Sadly, the game suffers from a few niggling issues and lack of polish which hold it back from becoming a classic. It seems even Archer MacLean’s alchemy couldn’t turn this Mercury into gold.

7/10

I have played this game for a few days,but I coundn't fine the final level

Good review man!

I'm not a fan of this game. I'm mostly a fan of the EA sports games (as you can all see in the review section!) and I also love Lumines!!! (which i did a review for too!) I support anyone that does a review its nice to hear positive comments and know your supported. . .

Good review, but isn't it a little late for this. I beat this game months ago.