Planetfall

The Good
Steve Meretzky's first game is still one of the my favourite Infocom games ever.

First of all, it's because of Floyd -- of course! Meretzky had the marvelous idea to give the player a sidekick, in form of this little robot, giving him a childish personality that you simply cannot dislike. He doesn't really become part of the plot until far into the game, but he makes you emotionally attached to the game, and he makes the exploration of the planet very enjoyable. (Besides giving some valuable hints.)

However, later in the game, he BECOMES an integral part of the plot. I don't want to disclose too much, but if you get far enough, I can assure there will one of those rare moments in computer gaming where you (if you have a heart or two) will feel truly sad and moved by the game. For this alone, this game deserves its place in the pantheon of great computer games.

But it's not just Floyd who is responsible for the great atmosphere of this game. The building complex that you'll explore is wide and realistic. First, you need to eat and sleep from time to time. (Some people hat that; I don't. I would have loved it if you had to go to the toilets too!) Then, there are lots of useless rooms -- dormitories, toilets etc. -- but they add to the feeling that you're exploring a large building that has been struck by disaster. I especially liked the native language that is used on the whole station -- a distorted kind of English, which is understandable, but only with some effort. A genial way of conveying a feeling of strangeness.

And of course, there's this great humor of Meretzky -- one of the wittiest writers and game designers in gaming history, IMO. Not that there's one gag after the other -- the whole game is actually serious and dramatic; as you get further, you'll discover that you have caught a deadly disease, and your condition will get worse and worse, unless you can solve the game. There are even some horror elements at the end of the game, when you are chased by mutants through the empty station. But still, every few minutes, you'll find some little hidden joke that'll make you chuckle.

The Bad
The only thing that I really, really didn't like is the very last puzzle -- how to escape from the mutants. Normally, Infocom gives you at least a minor hint somewhere, but here, it's all luck to find the way. Well, maybe I missed something... (EDIT: I did... still, the hint is very subtle.)

Another thing I'm not too fond of is that massive use of red herrings. I haven't got anything against a few red herrings, but here it's gotten too much. Like the helicopter -- you'll even find a manual how to operate it, but you'll never be able to.

The Bottom Line
This is a really great introductory IF adventure, especially for fans of humorous science fiction. It has everything -- a dramatic plot, a big, logical, realistic world to explore, and, best of all -- the loveable NPC robot Floyd. The game has one of the most memorable and emotional scenes in computing history. The game is very funny, dramatic, and horrible, and the difficulty level is OK (with a few exceptions). Together with Infocom's unique parser, this is definitely recommended -- nay, a must -- for each retrogamer.

And I'm sure that the Space Quest writers were heavily inspired by Planetfall...

The Good
As usual in Infocom adventures, the game has great prose, good parser, interface, & in most part atmosphere. It also starts of well, with the futuristic Captain Bligh making your life hell.

The Bad
Unusually in an Infocom adventure there are more comments about what is wrong than good. A few months back I played Starcross, which was described as one of the harder adventures, but which I mostly completed on my own, whilst Planetfall is described as one of the easiest, Upon playing this I found the reverse true.

After reaching the alien buildings you are able to move around a lot, but most of the rooms are very similar, full of corridors, elevators, dorms that it soon becomes pretty boring wandering around. There are many objects around but I have found it difficult matching them up to the puzzles, which seem to be full of locked doors/elevators with slots needing cards.

The parser on Infocom games is usually great, but to do things here is quite pedantic at times. For instance the game is full of slots needing cards, but getting the wording right to do this is ridiculous. Swipe, put, move etc, in are out, & you have to specifically 'slide object through slot', Any deviation leads to error. This the same for other actions. I also have a problem with the ridiculous childish prose around the premises, presumably representing alien language, but more like a pre version of text speech. At first I though it was something to decode like the great hieroglyphics in Infidel, but soon realised it was poor English prose like you found in Allo Allo.

Except for the beginning when you have dealings with Ensign Blather, there is little life once you get into the main game until you awaken the robot called Floyd. I had heard a lot about him, & how great & funny he was. So it is a bit hard to say I found him extremely irritating & useless, & acted like a frantic small child. Obviously the game was made for a different time, but I doubt I would have liked him much then.

The game also surprisingly suffers from death through not having enough sleep or eating, which was something early adventures had in abundance, but not something expected in an Infocom adventure. How someone dies without eating for a day I have no idea, particularly when they have had nothing to drink, which surely is more serious. Also dying because you haven't slept in a bed in dorm is hilarious.

Everything also take so long in this game., Waiting for an elevator to move to it destination takes a lifetime, Floyd keeps dozing off, reminders to stuff your face & go to sleep. This all wouldn't be so bad if you were not timed all the time.

The Bottom Line
I have heard very good things about this game, with its robot companion Floyd, that I was looking forward to really playing this, & it pains me to make such negative comments, as I know the game is well loved.

I really wanted to play & complete this adventure as a fan of the makers & lover of text games, but found it quite painful to play. Perhaps it is the setting or getting old, & think next time I will pick a more Earthbound setting when I play my next game.

I know this is isn't popular but cannot really recommend this adventure, but I expect others will really enjoy it.

The Good
Floyd seemed like an interesting character; he was very lively and interacted with the world around him.

The Bad
The game's geography is sprawling. I play through my text adventure games by first exploring all the rooms I have access to and getting a "lay of the land", and then I start thinking about solving puzzles. Most Infocom games I've played separate the geography into nicely manageable "chunks" of 5-10 rooms that are separated by puzzles, so you can't explore further than your current "chunk" unless you solve a puzzle. As such, there's a constant stream of exploration intermingled with puzzle-solving, which is fun. Even the games which defy this and place you in large environments, such as Trinity, are still fun because the geography is interesting and unusual.

Planetfall's rooms, however, feel utterly uninspired. It feels like generic science fiction, and many rooms are replicas of other ones; there's tons of restrooms, for instance, and they all have the exact same descriptions. On the one hand, this adds a sense of space to the facility you're exploring, but on the other hand it makes it feel a lot more monotonous, overwhelming, and boring. So I found myself essentially making a map for way too long and wandering through rooms that all seemed the same (for the most part).

Not only were the rooms boring, however, but the objects and puzzles were too: doors were locked by means of padlocks, number dials, and keycard slots; the facility was littered with elevators and vending machines and other generic, uninteresting interactive objects.

You need to eat and drink in this game to stay alive. In The Lurking Horror you have to drink caffeine to stay awake, but this adds to the tension of the atmosphere; here it serves no purpose that I can see. They might as well have modeled biological functions as well, at least that way the bathrooms would be useful for something.

This game is a parody, and one of my problems with this style of story is that it essentially beats you over the head with comedy. It's very similar to the way some ultraviolent movies can get tiresome; Planetfall just threw so many jokes at me so frequently that I quickly got desensitized to it. Even Douglas Adams' humor has this effect on me to some extent, but what makes his jokes more interesting is that they often double as social commentary or are interesting in some other dimension, whereas much of Meretsky's humor is just general silliness. It often feels like he's trying a little too hard to be funny, and many of the jokes fall a little flat or are too similar to each other, as opposed to, say, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in which there's a much better diversity of humor and most jokes are laugh-out-loud funny.

This isn't to say, though, that there aren't any utterly hilarious jokes in Planetfall; it's more that it just gets tiresome pretty quickly.

Being one of Infocom's earliest titles, the parser isn't as good as the one in later games like Wishbringer or Trinity. Most annoyingly, it won't disambiguate between nouns (it just picks the first one it finds if there's any ambiguity).

The Bottom Line
Please take all of what I say with a massive grain of salt, as I haven't actually finished this game; in fact, I didn't get very far at all, not because I got stuck, but because the game just got very boring and playing it felt more like a chore than a game, even with Floyd by my side.

If you're looking for a funny, unique sci-fi adventure, I would recommend The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy instead; although I did find that game to be a little on the frustrating side at times, it was consistently funny, interesting, and challenging.

The Good
The game is flawless in drawing you into the action as you crash land on the planet. Floyd the Robot is a great companion and does double-duty as comic relief. Great writing and great story makes this one of my favorite Infocom titles. I also really liked this game because it was one of the few Infocom titles I could actually finish!

The Bad
Not much. But I didn't care for the sequel, Stationfall, too much.

The Bottom Line
A great way to kill a few hours. Fun, lively and humorous writing keeps you involved and motivated.

The Good
This was Steve M's first game, and Infocom's first game with a solid humorous narrative (as you can see by the package cover). More importantly, this game introduced Floyd, the sidekick you REALLY get to care about. The emotions I (and others) felt with this supporting character is legendary. This has to be experienced to be believed. I don't think anyone has come as close in any other game today.

The Bad
Outside of it being a bit easy, nothing.

The Bottom Line
See my one-line summary.

The Good
Floyd the child like Robot! The science: magnetic cards (that can get wiped!), circuit boards, flashing lights.... The Story: You start as a lowly Ensign 7th Class scrubbing spaceship decks for your evil overseer Blather. An alien Ambassador makes you life more difficult by leaving slime all over the desk. There is an accident and you have to scramble to the escape pod before the ship explodes. The pod takes you (hopefully in one piece) to a strange deserted alien planet. You get to wonder through dorms, canteens, rec rooms, admin corridors and the engineering unit where you find Floyd your robot Pal. Find magnetic swipe cards to operate lifts and a tram that takes you to Lawanda complex were you must battle disease, radiation and mutants. Fix all the systems and save the 'inhabitants' from hibernation earning you a big fat promotion. The Goodies: All Infocom games came with a manual, transcript of sample game (see my site for a working version of this and 3D Maps) and various objects. You get a Stellar Patrol ID Card, Postcards of an alien world and a diary.

The Bad
Parser problems. Extending the ladder across the rift and killing the bacteria with the laser were real problems to phrase.

The Bottom Line
Great game. Spent hours playing it.

The Good
There is some good drama in this relatively short game, especially the friendship with Floyd the Robot. There's some good problem solving, the difficulty level I'd say is just about right, it's certainly easier than some of the Zork games. I particularly liked the laser battle with the microbe inside the computer and discovering the way to beat it. It's interesting piecing together the fate of the people of the planet you crash land on at the start, how you and your crewmates on the space patrol ship got caught up in it and that you, a low ranking crew member, play a big part in saving the planet.

The Bad
Well being short isn't necessarily bad, but it seems unfinished i.e there are rooms you can't access and important looking items that you don't need. There is also a trap that I found particularly cruel, you need many magnetic access cards to get to new areas in the game, but you may find, when you come to use them, they've been ruined somehow, making it impossible to progress and win the game. Of course you could easily have saved your game since unknowingly ruining your cards and have no prior saved games to fall back on, finding that you have to restart.

The Bottom Line
I think it's one of the best adventure games, including graphical text adventures and point & click adventures. The problem solving isn't as demanding as some of the Zork problem solving and when you've completed it, it's still something you can have a fairly quick, satisfying game of.