Notable, pioneering, but largely ignored point-and-click adventure from developers
Revolution, before they hit the big time with the
Broken Sword titles.
The first notable thing about the game was the design. Set in
Australia in a
dystopic post-war future, characters and backgrounds were all created and drawn by
Dave Gibbons, the illustrator of
Watchmen, who also created a short graphic novel bundled with the game that acted as an intro sequence. This artwork was backed up by a solid sci-fi plot (which owes a lot to
Bladerunner), and a well realised game universe, with plenty of background detail.
The interface was a masterwork, a highly revised version of the
Virtual Theatre engine first used in
Lure of the Temptress. Left click to look at something, right click to interact with it. If you moved to the top of the screen, a
drop-down inventory appeared containing your items. This meant that during normal play, the screen was totally uncluttered, displaying Gibbons' excellent
artwork. Dialogue is conducted with the usual
SCUMM style options list, and notably uses
COMIC style
EMPHASIS to stress certain words, which somehow doesn't get annoying.
You control Robert Foster, an orphan from the city raised by an
Aboriginal tribe in the bush, attempting to escape the city after your abduction by
government agents. Accompanying you on your journey is your (rather sarcastic) robot, Joey, who can take commands from you and carry out actions
autonomously. Rather neatly, Joey's personality is stored on a
circuit-board which can be plugged into a variety of different robot shells for different functions. The plot involves Robert's forgotten past,
AI systems, the superiority of machines over man, and the class structure of the city, where the poor live in the highest buildings and the rich live at ground level.
While there is a
humourous element to the game, most of it is very dark, and the overall plot is very serious. It's not a
Lucasarts style can't-go-wrong game, as there are various deadly hazards, but it's not stupidly easy to die as in most Sierra titles. The game was released in floppy and CD
talkie versions for
MS-DOS, and is certainly worth a look if you ever find it on an
Abandonware site.
break reminds me that it was also released for the
Amiga 1200 (in tasty
AGA-o-vision) and the short lived
cd32.
And remember...
BE VIGILANT!