Hug and cry: why we didn't like the game "HIV and Petka save the Galaxy"

The game “Vasily Ivanovich and Petka save the Galaxy” was released today. We have already played it and are ready to share our disappointment with you.We think we will not be mistaken if we say: there are none of you who at one time did not save the galaxy together with the irrepressible Commander and his faithful squire.

Everyone remembers the first Russian quest “hidden object” of the late 90s. We spent hours trying to understand the tricky logic of the game, poking the cursor at almost every pixel of the screen, and all this to uncomplicated, but charming music. The main highlight of the game was the voice acting: Vasily Ivanovich and Petka exchanged salty jokes and cheerfully commented on everything that was happening in their own special style.The other day Buka announced that it was reviving its main project.

In our editorial office, the news caused a revival – it’s cool, finally, to play your favorite childhood game without digging into dusty stacks of useless CDs.So, we downloaded the game.

The screensaver has remained completely the same, the same simple animation. In 1998, she looked cute, now nostalgic and, yes, ridiculous.The first question to the developers immediately arises – what about the picture?

On the tablet screen with not the highest resolution (1280×800) HIV and Petka looked gray and frankly “blurred”.The official press release says that the game “has undergone minor changes.”

Let’s say right away: it’s true. The changes are so minor that they cannot be seen with the naked eye. Access to management has become easier, now instead of an impressive red star with options for actions, there is a modest panel on the left. Music has also been simplified. That’s all with the changes.Now to the gameplay.

What can I say here? It hasn’t changed (but at least now we know where to press). Find an object and poke it with the appropriate option from the arsenal (well, or in this case with an “eye”, “mouth”, “Vasil Ivanovich” or two options of “hands”).We did not like that the demo version of the game was cruelly cut down – neither to go to the map, nor to look into the “suitcase”.

When you try, a window pops up with a request to buy the full version.In fact, all the possibilities of the player in the free version of the game are to spend a few minutes in the initial location, fish out the key from the goldfish aquarium and make sure that “HIV and Petka save the Galaxy” are the same.

But there is no magic that made me spend hours in search of another ridiculous task in my childhood.We believe that old quests can and should be ported to mobile devices – but this is not done somehow.

Take the same Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, which will be released in October and, apparently, will be a worthy successor to the original 1993 release.There is a common statement that it is better not to visit the places where you were happy as a child – you risk disappointment.

In the case of the game “Vasily Ivanovich and Petka save the Galaxy”, this seems to be true.Buka is one of the main gaming players in the gaming retail market in Russia in the noughties.

It was founded in 1993. After the 1998 crisis, she was the first to offer to sell licensed games at the price of “pirated” ones. In 2008, 1C was acquired, according to Vedomosti, for $80-$90 million.