This game had a lot of reasons why I would have never played it-- Never heard of it. Not in anyone's top 10. Not a product of the big names Sierra, Lucas Arts, or even Revolution. And yet there I was, in the mood for another old-school point and click that I didn't have to pay for. So I downloaded the game... and I'm very glad I did. This game was just simply fun. It doesn't do anything *great*, but I was impressed with how much this game dots its i's and crossed its t's to make sure every aspect of a good adventure game was addressed: puzzles, story, character development, UI controls, audio. It just came together very well and was entertaining to play. In Depth: -Graphics. This is the biggest weakness of this game. Its a 1995 game with 1992 graphics. Compare it to screen shots from any other '95 adventure game, and you'll see a big drop in quality. -Characters. My west-coast bias makes me dislike a lot of the characters because they they all have this brash Bronxiness about them. That having been said-- there was enough character development for me to have that opinion in the first place. I got to know people in this game. It was nice. Some of the female characters are a bit... weak... but otherwise, you can tell there was effort here. -Story. This game has story from the get go. No complaints here. I particularly like how it had multiple parts. There were a couple times I thought I was almost at the end of the game, to find, no, there's a whole lot more to go. I liked that for a game so relatively large, it was broken down into manageable chunks. -Puzzles. Very well done. Nothing terribly illogical that stands out in my mind, but a few that really made me sit and think for a bit. In summary-- nothing in this game is really done perfectly. But everything is given some care and development. Makes for a game I was surprised to enjoy as much as I did.
Tough pick between 3 and 4 stars. I chose 3 because the GOG mandate is to "review the game on its own merits." If you factor in the price of "free", it gets bumped up to 4. In words, I'd describe at "fun enough, but not memorable." I really don't understand why this game comes so highly reviewed. Reasons: -Graphics. The graphics (and sound quality) in this game are pretty bad. "But you're playing a 90's adventure game! They're supposed to be bad!" This game was released in 1994, and has the graphics and sound quality of 1990/1991. There was a lot of progress made in those years, and this game didn't even try to keep up. -Story. The glory of the adventure genre is that it immerses you into a story. This game requires you to get 2/3rds of the way through it for a story to emerge beyond "I want to go down the elevators." Once the story does start, its really predictable and all the "plot twists" are "yeah... that was obvious 4 hours ago..." -Characters. Adventure games shine when you love the characters. In an effort to preserve the mystery of "who is this? Why does he matter?" The game really doesn't give you any information about the main character. The result is he comes across as flat and uninteresting. No one else in the game really gets enough screen time for you to invest in either. Sadly, the most developed personality in this game is the robot. Things I DID like about the game: -Price. Can't beat free. And I *did* enjoy myself while playing it. It's not a bad game, it's just not a very good game. -Puzzles. The strength of this game is its puzzles. I enjoyed solving them, and none of them were outlandishly illogical, nor did it feel *too* easy. I enjoyed solving my way through the game.
