This is a wonderful, interesting, short game. It has great artwork, great music, and some decent puzzles. The game also has the merit to present alternative solutions to puzzles as well! There are nitpicks to be had, for sure. The enemies can be a bit brutal and some traps are just a little -too- touchy. But this really doesn't detract from the experience. A+!
Recently, I found this game again in my GOG library and decided to give it a try. I had tried it originally a few years ago, and found that it locked up from time to time, and decided that I would let it gestate for a bit before trying again. When I tried it again, things were...uh....a tiny bit better, but that's being generous. I am running this game on a Linux box, with an RX 580, 8 core 4GHZ AMD CPU, and 16 GB of Ram, and this game has difficulty rendering from time to time. As in, if I am mining too much, moving too much, the entire game will lock up for 10+ seconds, before continuing again. After the second or third lock up, the game manages to cause my graphics driver to seize up, turn all of my screens into a picture of the Plaid dimension, and force me to hard reboot my computer. That really sucks, because I really dig the idea of this game. Resource collection is serviceable, and its nice to have a material processor doing things while I'm working on exploring, objectives, and not dying so that when I come back, I can work on my base. That is! Unless the graphics driver murder occurs before a save happens, and you lose all of your work. I really wanted to like this game a lot. But with bugs this bad and ultimately not revolutionary or fun game play, it just isn't up to par. Bummer.
This game is an overlooked masterpiece worthy of way more praise and popularity! Great controls, simple fighting mechanics, challenging platforming, wrapped up one of the best soundtracks, game art and animation, good voice acting, and a very well put together story with excellent humor and tragedy has safely placed this on my favorite games list forever. This game does more than most AAA games. While it may not be the longest game, it is most DEFINITELY deserving at least a look, and defintely requires a playthrough!
This is one of Sierra's under-rated, under deconstructed, under appreciated titles. This cult classic introduced the idea that roleplaying did not need to be segmented, that roleplaying was to be enjoyed, and ingenuity was a virtue. The brainchild of Lori and Corey Cole, this game combines what is perhaps the best of Dungeons and Dragons with Sierra. All that potential for actually identifying with the character, and totally live through the character in a different world, with all the color, charm, and wit of Sierra. How cool is that!? This game pushed the envelope game mechanics wise, and was very, very well done. I still fondly remember Tarna, Mordavia, Speilburg, Shapier, and Silmaria. There were indeed bugs with the games, but at no point did these bugs detract from the over all experience. They were just minor setbacks. I bet that GOG has patched these, and these games run better than I remember now. You need to have this game, if not to round out your RPG collection, but to deconstruct the game's methods itself. See HOW the game get's you to become your character, associate with the inhabitants, how the world changes and comes to know. I love this game deeply. It is an intrisic part of my childhood, and helped me get through some tough patches in my life. I hope whoever is reading this at least tries these games out, because you have no clue what this gem is. It might not be Sierra's most well know gem, but it is still a gem nonethe less. Save often, explore long, and play hard.
