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personality,
sex, war, love and religion, and these all have to be
built up to their maximum before you become a real person.
You also have to build up pleasure points -- these are
awarded for completing objectives. The ideal score is
one of more than 87,000: when you get this you usually
have a 99% personality and can enter the Pleasuredome.
Being
Mr Joe Public in the urban wasteland of washing machines
and videos is a boring one, inspired only by the fact
that if you can build up enough of a personality and
become a 'real' person then you can enter the Pleasuredome.
Playing
the game is quite odd -- you can walk round the streets
of suburbia and enter houses, sitting rooms and kitchens
at your will. In these rooms are the objects of boring,
everyday life, like comfy chairs, drawers, cupboards,
videos, fires, fridges, flying ducks etc. You can reel
and explore these and open them up. Sometimes 'feeling'
an object will give you an experience and add valuable
points to one of the four factors of your personality.
If
you explore a drawer or cupboard then a 'window' will
open up on screen. In this window will be a hand-like
icon. Move this over one of the objects in the window,
press the fire button and you can pick it up. It will
drop automatically into your inventory (which you can
access at any time). Depending on what the object is
that you pick up, you are sometimes awarded personality
points or a pleasure bonus. The objects that you collect
can be used to help perform a task or may be used to
lead you into the Pleasuredome maze.
Throughout
the game you are presented with objectives, these happen
quite strangely and unexpectedly. For example; pick
up a video-cassette, move to the TV/video, access the
inventory, move the icon over the video and press the
fire button -- this will insert the video into the cassette.
You gain points for this and a big window irises out
of the centre of the screen. You're behind this, so
run round and enter the window. You have to be quite
fast otherwise the window will close, leaving you in
front of the telly. If you do enter the window then
the window grows bigger, filling the whole screen. You
can then take part in whatever is happening on the screen,
usually a game of some sort.
If
you complete these games then you'll gain pleasure and
character points and another window will open allowing
you to get further into the game (and sometimes into
the Pleasuredome). If you don't complete the game then
you'll lose points all round and be put back into Mundanesville.
You
can get to two of the games by going into certain rooms
and touching the posters (mini representations of the
games) on the wall. Both these games are quite tricky
though, and unless you know what you re doing I wouldn't
advise trying them. . . .
THE
GAMES
Sea
of Holes
Move
your man into the holes to warp about the screen. Getting
to the bottom of this isn't as difficult as it seems.
The
Terminal Room
Plenty of things to see but what to do? This
time it's got to be floppy to stick it in. A pass to
pass and plenty of windows to enter, if you can get
there.
Cybernetic
Breakout
Just a good ol' fashion breakout, but a little
bit harder . . . there's only one 'brick'!
Cupid's
Arrows
Difficult one this . . . ride from hell to
heaven on a cloud to become a saint. If you complete
your task then you'll pick up something important.
Raid
Over Merseyside
Shoot planes and bombs before Liverpool and
Birkenhead get flattened.
Talking
Heads
Reagan and Gorbachev (Or should it be Gobachev)
spit it out. Go left or right to choose your politics.
Shooting
Gallery
Don't miss a thing, so take your time. Really
you should free the ducks before tackling this one.
War
Room
Shoot everything . . . you need to be a real
angel to complete this.
Flower
Power
Simply pick a bunch.
ZIT
Room
You can get out of this without completing the
puzzle. Solving the puzzle is very hard but you can
do it with a reasonable knowledge of the multiplication
of matrices.
If
you manage to enter the Pleasuredome, then try to map
it. It becomes quite important to do so -- the doors
which it contains lead to all the games AND back to
the outside world. You don't want to enter a game room
which you've completed, as this usually ends in the
loss of points. When you are exploring the Pleasuredome
then beware of the floating sparks, the ones which emerge
from the manhole covers become a pain, but are easier
dodged than the former. You can shoot the sparks, but
be careful -- if one touches you then you'll lose points
and end up back on the streets.
Within
the game there is a little sleuthing 'sub game'. This
comes in the form of a murder which happens sometime
during the game. When a murder happens, every new location
you visit thereafter will give you a clue. Using these
clues, through a process of elimination you can find
the murderer. Once you are confident that you have discovered
the killer's identity, you can return to the room. When
you re-enter the room you are given a list of the suspects
and choose which one you think committed the crime.
If you're right then you'll get a big bonus, guess wrong
and you'll lose rather a lot of points!
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