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Hail
and well-met, fellow wizards. This month, we are gathered
together to discuss the latest and greatest, including
a new adventure from arcade house Taskset, a real humdinger
of a game from Activision, and something cute, comical,
and cheap from Mastertronic. Stand by your staffs, my
friends, and read on . . .
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As
the aforesaid Sam Harlow, you have to escape from the
clutches of the New City criminals who are after your
blood in a game that has so many excellent features
that the While Wizard was at a loss as to what to tell
you about first . . . Should it be the graphics? They're
quick on the draw, beautifully drawn, and finely detailed.
There are a number of objects in them not mentioned
in the text but which are nevertheless important in
the game, so the pictures aren't just there for decoration
-- you have to check each one out fairly carefully.
They also boast some very nice animated sequences as
well. Washing hung out to dry and blowing in the wind,
people drinking in bars, hoodlums letting fly at you
in a New City backstreet . . . There are many nice touches
like these that really make the display come alive and
help lay on the atmosphere as thick as wild honey. Yessir,
this is definitely a game to lick the lips over . .
. Not only are the graphics nicely drawn, but they're
also nicely scaled. This isn't just Ol' Whitey playing
at being a pretentious art critic -- it's just that
I'm really a bit tired of having huge pictures thrust
down my throat. Mindshadow was a good example
-- very pretty pics but they dominated the display and
left hardly any room for anything else. The White Wizard
likes to have some pictures with his adventuring, but
let's not have any arguments about what constitutes
the real bones of an adventure -- the location descriptions
and messages, not the graphics. Graphics are great,
but they shouldn't be allowed to take over, and in Borrowed
Time they work just the way they should.
However,
this program hasn't just got a pretty face, it's got
brains too! The parser is excellent -- not only does
it understand sentences like 'Give the check to Hawkeye
and then eat the hot dog', it also swallows 'it' when
used to refer to a previously mentioned noun, lets you
'TAKE and DROP ALL', and will even allow you to TALK
to other characters. And other characters there are
in abundance. When you're not sipping scotch in the
local bar and chatting to the barman, you're rescuing
Mavis from one of the local baddies, or swapping lead
visiting cards with the local heavies. Although none
of these characters are truly interactive, the TALK
to and SAY commands do at least give you the impression
of carrying on a conversation, even if nobody actually
says anything very much.
As
if all that wasn't enough, there's even a very useful
joystick option which allows you to enter a number of
useful commands by moving an arrow about the screen
and pointing at the relevant words, which are listed
in panels on the right of the display. Using the joystick
you can examine objects, move about, and even open windows
and doors. Us Wizards, of course, use our wands to control
the CPU directly, but for those of you with rather less
charisma (and, more to the point, slower typing) the
joystick option is a great boon. What I really liked
about the joystick option on Borrowed Time was
the way it supplemented, rather than limited, the game.
Some 'joystick adventures' use the joystick for everything,
with the result that 'everything' doesn't amount to
very much. But here you can always enter more complex
commands via the keyboard. And the responses are pretty
hot too -- trying to take an ashtray, for example, gets
you the line 'The room would lose its ambience without
the ashtray' and drinking Scotch in the bar elicits
the immortal response 'The cheap hooch is a flaming
river to your gut'!
There
are numerous other points about this game that I could
mention -- the striking animated opening sequence, the
very useful QUICKSAVE feature, the ingenious but totally
logical puzzles, the occasional sound effects, and so
on and so on. All I can say is that from the moment
you start the game, and are flung headlong into a gun-battle
with two of the local heavies, you're hooked. I remember
when Mindshadow first came out, looking forward
to further releases from Activision. This game fully
justifies my flag-waving on their behalf. It's humorous,
tricky, addictive and great fun. If you've got access
to a drive, then beg, borrow, or buy this game.
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