The transition from text-based to a more graphical experience is largely successful although it has aged in such a way that it all has this very camp feel to it - like classic UK TV series Knightmare, which also mixed CG with live action in this way - rather than the more cutting-edge feeling it would have had at the time. The interface is great - this is the games biggest success in many ways. It has the usability of later point-and-click games but with the versatility and openness of text-based controls. It was oddly dropped from consequent entries in the series, though that may be because they were made by a different team. The acting quality wildly varies from good to horrible, but to be fair, that's still the case in even the very most modern games. I think because of the camp feel that these FMV games now have, the bad acting can kind of become enjoyable in its own way, like a computer game version of The Room. Perhaps the worst thing about the game, as usual for this genre, is the ridiculousness of some of the puzzles. They can be good and enjoyably satisfying but maybe a little to often they're obscure and only make any sense to the deranged mind that conceived them. An early puzzle can actually be done incorrectly without the player realising until much later in the game. By this point it's too late to backtrack and you have no choice but to restart the game from scratch. These kind of facepalm inducing missteps are what drag this down from a 4/5 to a 3/5 for me. If you don't mind that sort of frustration or risk of entering a dead end, please regard this as a 4/5.
The setting is great, really convincing and easy to get immersed in. The storyline is interesting and seems to have the right balance of questions and answers so far. My biggest problem with the game is how the puzzles are as obscure and ridiculous as you may expect from this sort of game but what makes matters worse is you're usually not even sure what you're meant to be doing. Let's say in another P&C, you may be facing a difficult puzzle but you know it's something that will let you cross a gap or open a door. In BASS it's usually not clear what you're meant to be doing next, so you have absolutely no idea if you're even in the right area - are you stuck on a puzzle because you don't have all the items, or is it just that this area isn't actually a puzzle; you're just in the wrong place? And then *later*, it might just be a puzzle... This problem is compounded by the fact that there are 3 major levels to the city and each level is made up of many screens with many rooms going off each level. So say you're guessing that you're meant to be opening that door, getting into that room, fixing that robot, whatever... You have no idea where to look for that item or piece of information. You'll also often get items or info WAY before they're relevant and again, in another P&C this isn't such a problem because you know what your next objective is - in BASS you have an inventory of items that may be used on about 50 screens worth of objects, and you have no way of knowing which. It gets 4 stars for its great setting, sense of humour, characterisation of even the most incidental characters and the imagination and thought that's clearly gone into its creation. All those qualities redeem it almost back up to 5 stars in the face of incredibly vague objective and disappointing puzzles. Final thought: Normally when I check a FAQ when I'm stuck, I think "Of course!" but in this I was always thinking "... Right. How the hell was I supposed to know I was meant to go like 30 screens away to show that item to that guy at that particular moment?"
