Pros: Creative, innovative and engaging experience
Cons: Not your typical "fun" game
The Bottom Line: I am recommending this game only as a short-term, enjoyable, but not re-playable experience. After one month, it won't see the inside of your system again.
Seaman is not your average game. I don't even know if I should call it a game. It's more like an electronic aquarium/terrarium. Let me explain...
It all starts out with little eggs and mushroomers (things that suck up and then gestate the eggs.) Either they suck up the egg, or they get the tadpoles, it's difficult to remember and not important. You really have no impact on the game at this point anyway. Regardless, after gestation you will have many little tadpoles swimming around. Your job is to keep the water warm, the air bubbles flowing and feed them pellets when needed. You can also talk to them, but we'll get to that later.
As they develope, you'll notice that they speak quite well for babies. Their speech and attitude is encouraged by you speaking to them. A bit of advice - speak slowly and don't yell. The voice recognition is a great new technology, but not flawless. Often, he seems to be answering a question no one asked.
Certain seamen will die as an apparent sacrifice to the living. They'll connect their antennae and suck the remaining goodness out of them. Eventually, you'll be left with two fish/frog men in your tank. Through trial and error, you'll learn that they will want to leave this environment. More on that soon.
The seamen will want to eat, and for this purpose you will be growing caterpillers and moths in another terrarium. They tire of food pellets after they sprout legs, and will share a caterpiller when hungry. Don't overfeed them, as they will not eat it and food replenishes slowly. Certain caterpillers will coccoon themselves and become moths, for the sole purpose of laying eggs and growing more caterpillers. Don't feed the seamen moths. They won't eat it, and you will be removing your source for food. There might also be a spider in your terrarium. He's there to trap and kills moths to prevent overpopulation. You don't have to do anything for him. All you do to maintain the terrarium is keep it watered. It's easy to care for.
When the time comes, you will be asked to assist the seamen in moving a large rock to expose the drain. This will empty the aquarium to aide in their development. After wards, there's a series of actions to take to release them into the wild.
Seaman will talk, at length, about many different topics. You should always talk to him simply and nicely. He will become offended if you ignore or speak impolitely to him. He will go off on endless diatribes about American society, world cultures and trends in politics. He will ask you personal questions ("When is your birthday?" "Do you like yourself?" "Is your mother living?"...) and remember the answers. He knows when it's a holiday, and will wish you a happy birthday. And if you say the word sh_t to him, he will fling a ball of feces at the glass wall. Lovely.
It takes about a month to go through the stages of development and go off into the wild. Afterwards, you can visit him and get his attention to talk for awhile, but he doesn't need you anymore and there's not much to do.
If you and or child would like a pet, maybe this would entertain. It's not a game for repeat play (you can start over by erasing the file, but it's still the same game,) action or adventure. It is very interesting and engaging at first, but loses it's appeal due to the nature of the game. You can't even rent it because it takes a month to complete. You can trick the system by advancing the internal clock, but what fun is that?
I enjoyed playing this game, the technology is advanced, the concept is high, but the replay is non-existent. I still check in on them once in a while, but it's always a very short conversation before I'm bored. It's not really worth the $50 for this reason, but if you find it used, give it a shot. It's a unique and intriguing game for a patient child or adult.
What do you get if you cross a fish and a man You get Seaman a salty wise-guy with an ocean-full of attitude. As you raise him from an egg to adulthoo...More at eBay
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2010 Shopping.com, Inc.