Since its announcement at the end of 2019, I Am Jesus Christ has been regularly buzzing about its audacious concept: embodying Jesus Christ in a first-person adventure. You had to think about it! Polish studio SimulaM did it, and publisher PlayWay joined the dance. Knowing that the latter specializes in various and varied “simulators” (Thief Simulator, Car Mechanic Simulator, Cooking Simulator, Prison Simulator, and even Priest Simulator), I Am Jesus Christ felt the second degree full nose. After playing the Prologue version, we are tempted to say: yes, but not only.
From the launch, the title indeed reveals a certain educational dimension since it seems to scrupulously follow the official life of Jesus Christ, and very regularly displays quotes from the Bible. It is therefore accompanied by cards stamped Luke 11:9 and other Mark 1:4 that we take our first steps in the skin of the son of God. The various chapters currently accessible ask us, among other things, to find the prophet John the Baptist in the city of Nazareth, to be baptized by him, to survive temptation in the desert, to guide fish to fishermen, to change the water into wine at a wedding or to cure the son of a Roman soldier. Oddly, the game seems able to manage large open spaces (at the cost of graphics from another age, we will come back to this) but nevertheless strives to zap from one small scene to another. We rarely play for more than five minutes in a row and most of this time is often occupied by simple walks. A wheel of powers (healing, interaction, etc.) is accessible, but most of the icons are still empty. This seems to indicate that eventually we will have nine different skills. Alas, the first examples proposed do not encourage confidence.
The general maneuverability is quite catastrophic, and the lack of precision is such that it is sometimes necessary to repeat several times to carry out actions with the mouse, however elementary. The passage in the desert, which is perhaps the one with the most “rich” gameplay, offers us, for example, to repel Satan’s attacks, while attracting him to us and regularly recharging our sacred spiritual energy. A priori, nothing insurmountable for a gamer accustomed to the combos of action games. However, the lack of clarity of the indications and the feedback means that the first tests turn out to be very messy. We’re curious to see how the game fare with the more complex actions, as this prologue hints that some item manipulation will sometimes be required to progress.
OH MY GOD !
One thing is certain: I Am Jesus Christ does not hesitate to “gamify” sacred writings, even if it means flirting with caricature. For example, the healing sequence mentioned above takes place squarely inside the blood vessels of the child! The miniaturized spirit of Jesus must then eliminate four viruses by a simple laying on of hands. As for Satan, he speaks with an exaggeratedly cavernous voice and punctuates his dialogues with a thunderous laugh, like Diablo or a superhero movie villain. The general atmosphere therefore constantly oscillates between the serious and the wacky, and we are still today quite unable to say whether the developers are rather sincere or mocking. Maybe a little two. In any case, they are obviously not touched by the grace for all that concerns the technical aspect. Models, textures and lighting take us back too many years, and would almost make Pokémon Scarlet and Purple look like paragons of beauty and modernity.
Models, textures and lighting take us back too many years, and would almost make Pokémon Scarlet and Purple look like paragons of beauty and modernity.
Characters are maddeningly stiff, fades to black regularly mask the absence of animations, lip movements prove rudimentary (if not outright absent), and voices alternate between different recording qualities and acting games. Some crashes are also present, just to complete the picture. Only certain panoramas featuring water or clouds come out nearly with honors. Very strangely, the game also goes to great lengths to place duplicate cutscenes before each chapter. In other words, these pre-calculated scenes display their version of the sequence to come, before we are asked to play the scene itself (in significantly different settings, just to add a little more confusion). In short, there is apparently not much to save in this I am Jesus Christ which, however, will certainly meet with some success. Between the general public attracted by the religious theme and those who want to have a good laugh as one can do in front of a Z movie, the sales figures will certainly not be ridiculous.
