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From
its description, this one seems not only quite original,
but also rather topical as far as computer games go,
since it puts you in the shows of a journalist in search
of 'exclusive' stories -- haven't we heard a lot about
that word recently!
You
start the day, as most days, in a comfy double bed,
with the place next to you still warm (some people have
all the luck -- my fern mattress isn't all a bed of
roses). What next? I tried 'getting up' which I couldn't
do. I tried then to move in all four directions of the
compass, UP and, in desperation, DOWN. I was told each
time that I couldn't. Ho hum, it was going to be that
sort of games. By this time the location description
had scrolled off screen so I typed LOOK to see
if I had missed anything. I was then told . . . wait
for it . . . that I couldn't. I was flabbergasted. That
simple, most basic command in the history of adventuring
and I couldn't do it! And don't forget, this adventure
has been quilled too! Bah!
I
decided to quit and start again. After being asked whether
I was going down the pub or whether I wanted another
game I restarted. The location description was read
thoroughly several times over to see whether I might
be missing something important. The only thing I could
really see of interest was the alarm clock, so I EXAMined
it and was told that it was 7:45 am and that I'd
broken it when I'd been aroused. I wasn't surprised
either! When I went to TAKE it the prompt reply
was 'you can't'. Oh well, this is to be expected I suppose.
I
decided to EXAMine the furniture to see whether
I could glean any clues on how to get up from the bed
and leave the room. Honestly, if a day in the life of
an average journalist started like this then no periodicals
would ever be published, and the word 'exclusive' could
well have been lost to humanity. Anyway, I commenced
with the wardrobe and was informed that it had two doors
and a drawer underneath. I tried to OPEN them
all, but I was told I couldn't. So I tried to BREAK
them . . . I can't. Right, I thought EXAMine
them . . . can't.
I'd
started getting pretty desperate by now so I though
I'd try the bedside cupboard and the chest of drawers.
Guess what? You can't do anything to those either --
you can't examine them, break them or open them or anything
else I could possibly think of. Now what was I, White
Wizard adventurer par excellence, supposed to do? In
desperation I decided to contact Sentient themselves
. . .
'It's
all quite simple,' they said, 'just leave the room'.
They also gave me a few more clues to allow me to get
into the game. Thank goodness for that, I thought I'd
go mad! A puzzle like that can be quite amusing once
you have discovered the solution, but also extremely
frustrating. If a situation begins with you stretched
out in bed, surely it would have been more usual to
have left the room by first getting up off the bed?
But
having done so, I found myself on the landing. Three
rooms were in front of me and there were some stairs.
I now knew that I'd have to complete all the tasks upstairs
before going downstairs, so I typed ENTER BATHROOM.
The effect of this command was to lead me straight there.
I pondered over this for a moment. There had been no
mention of a bathroom in the previous location's description!
Does this mean the programmer expects the hapless adventurer
to guess his way into the next location?
Once
in the bathroom I cleaned my teeth, had a shave and
a wash (plenty of 'guess which words allow you to do
the action' fun and games here I can say). After that
it was back to the bedroom where I could now open the
wardrobe and get some clothes. This seems faintly ridiculous,
why couldn't I get them in the first place? Or is it
that Sentient are trying to ensure their adventurers
are always suitably clean before donning their apparel?
Once I've done this I started to delve deeper into the
game, but that only because I had been told just about
everything. For an innocent adventurer it's just too
much, you never stand a chance of getting anywhere.
There
are no real problems so to speak, and the game is made
difficult because the vocabulary is limited to only
a tiny amount of words. If it had a bigger vocabulary
then even the most stupid Orc could finish it in only
one or two goes. I can't really recommend Scoop!
to anyone apart from those who like playing 'guess
the word', and even with its cheap price tag it's just
not worth the money.
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