An underlying promise of video games is
the opportunity to give a player an experience that would be impossible in reality. While
its debatable as to the degree in which games have succeeded at this, Dogs Life does an
admirable job of getting you into the head of a dog named Jake. You may start to understand
what would compel an animal, running at full speed, to suddenly stop just to take in a
horrific odor.
As in many action-adventure games, youve got puzzles to solve, people
to talk to, levels to complete and a fine bitch to rescue. Sniffing, peeing, begging,
farting, eating from the garbage and taking dumps at will, however, make this particular
adventure game quite a unique experience. In each level you must solve puzzles, complete
missions and mini-games and generally scour the landscape for stench in order to collect
bones. The more bones you have, the higher your rank. This rank gives Jake a boost in
mini-games versus other dogs, and determines if youre fast or strong enough to
win.
These mini-games are comprised of racing other dogs, tugs-of-war, peeing
contests, and seeing who can dig faster. Sometimes you are rewarded a bone for your efforts
but sometimes you gain the control over another dog for a short time, which usually grants
you an added ability to get somewhere that Jake cant reach.
The visuals in Dogs
Life are generally colorful and pleasing, while arent a technological marvel by any means.
Jake is animated very convincingly in the way he walks, runs, stops, turns and so on. He
really does move like a dog. This care in animation, however, does not seem as prevalent on
the humans in the game as everyone seems very stiff and emotionless. Speaking of
emotionless, the voiceover in this game belongs alongside some of the most classic cheese in
the business (youve played the original Resident Evil, right?) While every now and then
youll get a small chuckle from something Jake says, youll mostly feel your cheese alarm go
off when you hear the dialogue.
See the world as a dog when you switch on Jakes
Smellovision. The view shifts to a first-person (first-dog, really) perspective, and
youll be to see the world in smells. Each level has a set number of smells for you to find
that are categorized by color. If you collect all of a certain color, youll either be
rewarded with a bone or begin a mini-game to win a bone. If someone has a bone, they glow
bright orange. Its in this mode you find yourself saying things that sound like they might
only run through a dogs head. Whoa! That guy has a bone! RUN!
While I didnt catch
how old Jake is supposed to be, he can learn new tricks! (*dodges flying tomatoes*) Using
the D-pad, you can key in combinations to make Jake do tricks. Youll unlock more tricks as
the game progresses, but if you remember your button combinations you can sit, lay, beg, pee
to the right, pee to the left, and poop anytime you want. GTA may let you go anywhere, but
in Dogs Life you can GO anywhere.
The thing that makes Dogs Life feel different
than most adventure games is that at times you really do feel like youre thinking and
acting like a dog. When you switch on the Smellovision and run around town looking for
scents and bones, it feels rather doglike. How many games do you think, That guy was a
jerk! Im going to go pee on his car. Also, the addition of a bark button enables you to
run around like a nut and bark at everything. Does this get you anywhere? Nope, but it can
be entertaining if youre in a simple kind of mood. Many of the characters will respond to a
noisy dog, so you might as well see what they have to say!
Eventually, though, once I
figured out the pattern of solving a few levels, the rest of them seemed pretty similar.
Since most of the mini-games dont change much between levels, each new area feels like
youre doing the same things over and over. You do run into new people that give you
different missions, but the digging races and peeing games feel very similar each
time.
Dogs Life is a unique and enjoyable adventure game that should at least be
given a try because it does something a bit different than the pack. You may find that the
game starts to wear thin in the later levels as you complete similar tasks over and over,
but taken in small doses, this game can be quite a bit of fun.
Graphics
:7.3
Sound :6.5
Gameplay :8.5
Multiplayer :N/A
Overall : 7.8
