Summary
The end has come... and now Furries rule the earth!
The Good
The only adventure game ever released by New World Computing (of Might & Magic fame), Inherit the earth was a stylishly yet doomed effort from the get go. As time has proven, few people ever heard of it, and fewer still got their hands on it. A shame really since there are some really good elements to the game. The best one among these being the premise behind the gameworld.
From what one can piece together, in a far future the humans managed to genetically create sentient humanoid versions of every animal species out there, but then after some catastrophic event, vanished from the face of the earth leaving it for their mutant offspring. These mutants (the "morph" as they call themselves) evolved on their own without human intervention, and the game presents them to us in what could be their medieval period, complete with a feudal society with kings, princes, etc. all arranged around different "tribes" representing each animal species.
Their memory of the humans has faded, and only exists as some sort of mythological ancient race along with the leftover ruins of their cities. What's even better is that all this information is presented to you as legends, myths and supported by the eventual discovery of human technology, uncovering little by little the truth behind the world and it's origins to the player. There's no denying then that the game's main appeal lies thus in exploring the gameworld, watching as the characters try to make sense of completely alien technology like telescopes and batteries, all within a "ye olde" medieval-themed landscape. I know that looking at the box cover gives no indication of it being a post-apocalyptic sci-fi story, but that's really the core concept behind the game, concept that really kicks-in in the later stages of the game as instead of exploring villages and castles you have to descend into abandoned military stations complete with Twilight Zone-esque "Evacuate" signs and assorted gloomy signs of human inhabitants.
Also regardless of the sweet-n-happy feeling you might get from seeing furry animals in medieval clothes there's some dashes of mature content here and there, not enough to make it a "mature" title per se, but enough to make you understand there were some adults behind the title aiming a little above kiddie-stuff (have fun discovering the [rather obvious] closet lesbian!).
Finally, in order to illustrate this wonderful world, the developers resorted to a combination of classic 2D hand-drawn sprites over backgrounds as well as pseudo-isometric tile-based scrolling areas that represent villages and larger locations you can freely roam and explore. To complement this a really effective soundtrack of midi tunes sets the mood for each location correctly (making a superb transition from the happy-sappy "Medieval Times" tunes, to the eerie sci-fi moments later on).
The Bad
Unfortunately there's a lot of stuff wrong in Inherit the Earth, a lot of it can be attributed to "first time jitters" and lack of experience, but it's still enough to justify the poor fame of the game.
First of all one of the cornerstones of an adventure game is missed: The story is really mediocre. Basically it all boils down to a bad guy stealing the title's Orb and you (as Rif the fox) getting tasked with finding it for some reason (you gotta love the morph's legal system: Rif is competing at a puzzle gaming convention when all the shit hits the fan, but wait! He's a fox! So yeah... That sounds guilty to me! And of course since he stole it, the only thing we can do is kidnap his girlfriend and send him out to find the orb with a couple of guards because it sounds like a fun adventure.... and of course our own police forces are...uhmm doing something else... right...). Anyway, regardless of that stupid premise the story eventually starts incorporating different sideplots that promise a lot, like a conspiracy between some tribes to start a war, and even higher webs of conspiracy, but all is left hanging amidst sore plot-holes and stupid resolutions. The end of the game seems horribly rushed so as to quickly wrap everything up under a "happy" ending, and none of the promising elements in the story manage to live up to the potential exhibited in the gameworld.
Moving on, the puzzles are really amateurish in the sense that they fall under that dreaded "gotta guess what the designer wanted me to do here" state, or become Fed-Ex moments where a character has something you want but won't give it to you unless you give him this and that and whatever... Prime example of first-time adventure development mistakes.
Finally you have the rather lame design flaws, which kill some of the game's promising additions and manage to annoy you immensely. What I'm talking about here are the pseudo-isometric bits and the mazes. Why make large tile-based maps for you to get lost into when all there is to explore in a village, fair or whatever are 2 or 3 hotspots? All other doors leading into the same empty generic rooms and all characters acting as clones of one another?? Why? It only makes it more annoying to find and get to the places you really want to go! And speaking of annoying.... who wants some mazes? Yeah!! That's what adventure games need! Stupid, pointless mazes to stretch the gameplay when the developers just can't think of another "fetch me the golden wazaboo" puzzle.
Finally while the art is really good, the animation is just terrible and the same sprites are used for all the poses of the characters, making them have the same perspective even when the background switches from 2D to isometric. And while this game can go down in history as one of the first early GOOD voiced-over titles, the same cannot be said of the sound effects, which get particularly annoying in the later stages when you have to put up with continually deafening waterfalls, bird chirps and bees.
The Bottom Line
Inherit the Earth is one of those offbeat titles that has a good gameworld, interesting premise and tackles the whole thing with a distinct sense of style that complements the package. Unfortunately by falling in most key aspects to the pitfalls of a genre they had no experience at, the developers managed to lose all their potential.
Regardless of how much are you willing to put up with the game's flaws for the sake of discovering this fantastic gameworld your impression of the game may vary, but make no mistake. There's a reason Inherit the Earth never was and never will be a hit. Of course, if you are a "furrie" this game is like a dream come true for you...Sicko!!
