Future Wars: Adventures in Time

The Good
Future Wars is definitely a fine game. The story is gripping, the visuals are impressive. Jean Baudlot really outdid himself with his atmospheric background tracks, his music for the following Operation Stealth were no match to this.

It's just fun to play - the story slowly unfolds itself, and although it is not considerably sophisticated, it's still interesting enough to keep you going. And the ending sequence is just brilliant.

The Bad
Being the first generation of the Cinematique engine, the GUI was somewhat awkward at some points. The worst thing about the game however are certainly the two big no-no's of adventure games that have been generously planted all over the game:

For one thing, there are several locations that require pixel-hunting, i.e. you have to find objects on the screen which have a hotspot that is only 2 by 2 pixels large. What's even worse is the fact that there are many dead-end traps in the game: So if you fail to find one of those tiny objects (of which you don't even know that you'll need to find them), you'll be stuck much, much later in the game and have to go back.

The Bottom Line
Back in that time, Sierra and LucasArts dominated the adventure scene. The French Delphine Software team successfully got their foot in the door with this game, then followed up with equally wonderful games (Operation Stealth, Cruise for a corpse).

It's a refreshing mix between Sierra and LucasArts - it has an easy-to-use, mouse-driven interface, even less complicated than LucasArts at that time (but still not as simplified as today's adventure games); it however had the openness of the Sierra games - there was no overprotective Mommy that prevented you from dying when you did something wrong.

Plus, technically it excelled both Sierra and LucasArts at that time - sound and graphics were excellent, and the programming was very good - the Cinematique engine allowed for much better special effects.

So - get it and play it. If possible, take a walk-through and verify your position once in a while to see if you've forgot to pack an important item. And - as with most of the games in that time - I recommend going for the Amiga version.

The Good
This is a classic. It is the first of its kind. It has a point and click interface and an exciting plot about time travel, and evil aliens. Before this game, most adventure games attracted a very narrow audience. They where extremely difficult to even understand how to operate. This game is simple to operate(however, whith some flaws and bugs) and it has nice graphics. The game is still difficult, though, as most adventure games. That might be one of the reasons for the lack of commercial success most adventure games suffer from. I love adventure games, but I have to admit that there are very few good ones. This is a pioneering game, and therefore it is very interesting. That the plot is okay and the graphics are nice just makes it an even greater game. This game could have been a mediocre failure, but it would still have received status as a groundbreaking game. This game is far from mediocre, however. It is not as good as some of the later masterpieces from Delphine, Lucasarts and Revolution (and to some extent Sierra, but their games are generally extremely overrated), but it is a good, stable adventure game.

The Bad
The point and click interface does not work as it should at all times. The character has a bad habit of refusing to do what you tell him to do, even when you know you are doing it the right way. The most common, and most annoying, fault is that the character constantly complains that he is too far away to pick up objects, push buttons and so on. This is annoying as hell. In more modern adventure games, the characters simply walks over to the item and picks it up, but not this guy, no you have to guide him all over to exactly the right spot and then tell him to pick the banana(or whatever) up. Also, the annoying action sequences that plagued many of the old adventure games, are a problem here too. It is just frustrating to have to shoot aliens with stupid controls. These sequences demands more luck than skill. Just close your eyes and click your brains out and hope to survive. Not very much fun at all.

The Bottom Line
As one of the first of its kind, this game made way for a lot of excellent Delphine adventures, such as "Operation Stealth" and "Cruise for a Corpse". This is a fine sci-fi adventure, with excellent graphics for its time, and a good plot. It has some obvious and annoying flaws, but despite this it is a good adventure and a must for everyone who loves a good adventure game.