Released in 1994, BASS marked the birth of Revolutions two-function interface and the maturity of their Virtual Theatre system. The game was very well recieved, and the Amiga-community (to which i belonged at the time) could finally un-tense it's shoulders after the news of Lucasarts leaving the platform the year before.
For me, though, the game was much more then just a fantastic, futeristic adventure. And to this day this game gives me a very particular feeling. Apart from being very well made, with great dialouge and voice-acting, a marvelous score, an imaginative setting and a brilliant storyline, the game lingers on some fascinating questions. To me, all TRULY great works of Science fiction is about something other that what is initially aparent. And, to me, what BASS is about can be defined in a small number of questions; what defines ut as humans? What is life and what is death? What dictates how we percieve ourselves and the world arround us? How can we know if our perception of the physical world is "correct". What is the value of life or who is fit to value it? How can we live our life to the collective common good, and would this be the morally and ethically "correct" way to live?
When playing BASS I always sense that that the city is alive, and a much larger then what I'm currently able to explore. That while I'm playing, someone, somewhere else is initiating a completely different series of events. Something that may or may not interfer with my plans. I'm not refering to the events that take place in the main storyline, but something that excists in the logs, news-articles and game-manual. Something, i guess, that I've created partially in my mind as a result of having been completely drawn into the gameworld and 100% invested in the characters on the screen.
Robert Foster, the protagonst, is likable and rescourceful. At the beginning of the game he is torn from safety of the life he knows and thrown into a dangerous, nightmarish situation which time and again leads him to question who he is and who he can trust. The only link to his past now is his trusted robot "joey". Though Foster we experience a world unlike anything we've seen before. And what makes the world so original and brilliantly realized isn't fantastical creatures and situations, crazy, off-the-walls characters or unimaginable occurances, but rather that the world is so wierdly realistic. That the characters, although many are parodical (if that's even a word), seem so "human", and that the writing is so grounded and tight.
BASS is a mixture of humor, paranoia, intrigue and truly brilliant storytelling. Make no mistake; BASS is not "great for a free game", it's an adventure game CLASSIC and a landmark title in the genre.
I find it to be among the three greatest adventure games of all time (and thats not restricted to point and click-games.) But you don't have to take my word for it.
Take it from Tony Dillan at CU Amiga (jan '94):
".. A lot of fun, to be honest." - 95%
If that's not high prise, then i don't know what is!
