This game is called Heart of China, Dynamix's second adventure game, with Shanghai Surprise as the working title, not to be confused with the 1986 movie starring Sean Penn and Madonna. When you have a chance to play it, you might be surprised to find out that Dynamix had incorporated live actors all throughout the game.

The game is set in 1920's China, where a young nurse, Kate Lomax (played by Kimberly Greenwood) is abducted from the Chengdu village clinic after healing a small boy's wound, and taken to the Chengdu Fortress. Kate is the daughter of a multi E.A. Lomax (Arnie Laferty), a grumpy multi-millionaire, who calls upon WWI flying ace Lucky "Jake" Masters (Andrew DeRyche) to rescue Kate from the Fortress. Lomax decides to pay $200,000 if he gets Kate back unharmed, but he willl deduct $20,000 after every day that he waits for him to get back from the rescue operation, and that includes the first day as well. Lomax suggestsd that he may convince someone named Zhao Chi (David Leung) to join him, as the opertion may be difficult.

One of Lucky's first obstacles in the game is to convince Chi that it is safe to fly in an "arrow-plane", and this is done by manipulating an object that he finds right at the very start of the game, and he cannot fly to Chengdu on his own. When Chi and Lucky are together, they must also figure out a way to get inside the fortress undetected through one of two entrances. This is where you see "Plot Branch" on the screen the first time. A "Plot Branch" is the way the game tells you that you could have taken a different approach to a problem, and there are many mores like this to come. It is also the first time where you can control one of the two characters (Chi or Lucky), and they must work together to solve a problem. After rescuing Kate, you can play her as well.

But rescuing Kate and returning her to Hong Kong isn't the only thing they have to do. After she is bitten by one of the snakes in the fortress, Kate needs to be taken to Kathmandu, Nepal to receive an antidote for the bite. Lucky and Chi find out they they are stuck in Kathmandu, unless they can get fuel for the Yankee Eagle (the plane that they use) by, and getting a sacred scroll off Kathmandu's ruthless political leader, Han Bojon (Demetri Liontos) in exchange for the fuel. After the locals help them fly the plane, they cannot return to Hong Kong for a reason, so the three of them decide to stop in Istanbul, Turkey.

There, Lucky gets arrested for flirting with the nabob's daughter the last time he was here. From there on out, this is the only time where you get to play Kate, where she has her own set of objectives, such as getting Lucky out of his prison cell, and booking a ticket to two to Paris by going on the Orient Express.

After Lucky and Chi do rescue Kate, a "romance meter", a heart, will appear on the screen when traveling between locations. Clicking on it will tell you how the relationship is going when both Lucky and Kate express their thoughts to one another. If Lucky and Kate have an excellent relationship, the heart will stay red. If the relationship turns soar, the heart will be frozen. If you want the heart to stay red, you have to impress Kate and not make any selfish choices.

If you already have a sour relationship, and you want to raise it, your time will come when you two travel on the Orient Express. You also have the option at this point to play Lucky or Kate. There are multiple endings to this game, but what ending you will view will depend on what you did throughout the game, and how your relationship turned out. For instance, if Lucky forgets to contact Lomax in Istanbul, or didn't send a telegram in Kathmandu, then Lucky will go bankrupt and end up as a bum on the street. The main point of the game is to finish with the best ending.

The different background graphics Dynamix had used for different locations are very good. It is what you'd expect from a VGA game. The sound effect are good, but can be improved.

The Bad

For a floppy-only version that features over 100 live actors in the game, it's a shame that Heart of China wasn't released on CD-ROM. If it was, then we would hear their voices, even the narrator. When I completed the game, I actually narrated the main text, and not the different voices, as this would be done by the people who got inside the game. Here are some other suggestions on what I would have expected if Dynamix actually released the CD-ROM version:

1. Ambient sound effects could be added in some parts instead of fake ones. For example, the opening and closing of the huge door that leads inside the fortress, the dog drinking from its bowl in the kitchen, and the oranges tipping over in Istanbul.

2. At the start of the game, some characters like Chi, Madame Wu (Kazuko Renes), and Li Deng (Fred Ikeda) speak Mandarin. It wouldn't hurt if there were subtitles at the bottom of the screen. In addition, in the options menu of the VCR, we would be allowed to turn them on or off.

3. Speaking of the VCR, there would be an huge improvement to its design so it will look the same as the one in The Adventures of Willy Beamish, only a lot less cartoonish. Maybe brown symbols on a yellow background should do the trick. The current VCR looks similar to the one they used in Rise of the Dragon.

4. There would be an option in the VCR menu that would turn either the text or voices on, or on at the same time. And yes, this includes the narrator.

5. Like Sierra games that were made in the early 90s, it would run from Windows that have either Base MIDI or Extended MIDI for sound.

6. When you reach the end of the game, a list of credits scroll up, telling you who played who, and the people making the game. In the floppy version, you don't know who plays who.

7. When the hint book is brought, one of the sections you see is "The Making of Heart of China". Interesting information there, but more interesting if you can view the making of the game in a AVI file.

I would like to see a CD-ROM version of Heart of China someday, but gamers know that that will never happen since Dynamix was shut down by Vivendi late last year, and adventure games got killed off ages ago. Besides, if this didn't happen and Dynamix suddenly had the urge to produce a CD-ROM version, it will be cost much more to make now, and will probably be much worse than it is now. For example, in the remake, you could view the scene at different camera angles and will have hefty system requirements, taking up more than 100MB.

The Bottom Line

Play this game if you enjoy romantic adventures, or just enjoy the multiple paths and endings some games as to offer. This game is not supported anymore, but word has it that it can be brought from eBay. ****½