I've finished this game after playing The Journeyman Project Turbo!, 2 and 3 first. I had never played them before but knew of them when they were originally released. I was pleasantly surprised by Turbo! It's a bit of a historical curio, but a fun, quirky relic that's a large part multimedia PC showcase. The game itself is a little thin on the ground, but short and sweet. It's a little rough around the edges, but still holds together well. This remake was an attempt to make a more accomplished version of the original, but it doesn't succeed in doing this. There's more animation, some more puzzles and extra sections. None of these add anything to the experience, however. The movement is very slow, the extra puzzles don't add much depth and the game was better without the extra sections. Of particular annoyance are the "action" bits, where you occasionally steer left or right, sometimes with little information on where you should go. They're not particularly hard, but they don't work and detract from the experience. "Action" sections that are in both versions are superior in the older one (the Mars ship fight and the nuclear silo section). That's saying something since they're rudimentary enough in the original! The new interface is somehow worse than the original. In that, you could use the mouse, with keyboard controls for some functions. In Pegasus Prime, you must use the keyboard for some things, with odd keys to bring up things like the inventory and biochip screen. The inventory is limited and the game will remove items you may want once you run out of space. This new version is missing several great tunes from the original, like the time travel and Mars ship launch ones. There's more of a blandness to this make-over and it has lost some of the personality and quirkiness that made the original so endearing. Not that it was a masterpiece, it's just better, faster and with better gameplay. Why take out what worked and replace it with more of what doesn't?
Bioforge is frustrating. I've owned it since it came out on budget but I gave up on it a long time ago. This was partly because I insisted on going for hard combat, which makes fights last a bit too long. I gave it another go and have just finished it in a handful of sittings. You die a lot and there are dead ends but the game is short and dying is part of the puzzle-solving process. Usually death is telegraphed in some way, but you can often die just because you walk into the wrong room. It's a bit like an old text adventure - you wander around, die a lot, but eventually put everything together, making it all worthwhile. The combat certainly isn't that hard once you get used to it. Like Alone in the Dark, camera angles can be an issue, but unlike that game, you "lock-on" to your opponent in combat mode. Once you get used to it, even hard mode is handy enough. I would still recommend medium as I sometimes (incorrectly) thought that certain enemies were invincible because they took so long to kill. This is because some are invincible and you've got to solve a puzzle to beat them! Combat isn't a big part of Bioforge anyway and an easier difficulty level should result in less confusion. The auto-targeting is useful when firing weapons as well. It seems the folks at Origin were aware of the main issues with AitD's combat. So what's so great about Bioforge? The best things about it are what makes it a relic - there's no way a game like this would be released now as very few people would come close to completing it. Death is everywhere and there are dead ends, so injudicious saving may mean you need to restart. Thing is you won't be able to tell the difference between merely being stuck and being in an unwinnable situation. Since it's so short, looking up a guide would ruin the game... so eat, drink , dream Bioforge until you finish it. You'll find that ideas come to you when you're out and about and you'll want to go home and try them ASAP... just one more go!
Quite enjoyed this and the other Microprose adventure I played way back when (Return of the Phantom). It's a fun, solid adventure with occasional overly-frustrating bits... but it really only depends on whether you get stuck or not! Certainly don't want to criticise a game for difficulty in this day and age where they take about as long to complete as a Christopher Nolan film! I think on balance this is quite a short and easy adventure, just like its stablemate. The third Microprose adventure, Dragonsphere is free on gog. Haven't played that yet, but it might be worth taking that for a spin first. If you want more when you're done with those two, take a look at Return of the Phantom. Might be difficult to track down but I really enjoyed it apart from a most objectionable maze section.
