Frederik Pohl's Gateway

Gateway kuuluu ehdottomasti klassikkopelien joukkoon jo sen takia, että Frederik Pohlin romaanin tunnelma on onnistuttu vangitsemaan kylmälle tietokoneruudulle. Lisäksi kunnollinen parseri, korea grafiikka ja erittäin nautittava musiikki vain lisäävät pelinautintoa. Valitettavasti tämä pelintyypin ystäviä on aika harvassa. Kokeilkaa kuitenkin ennen kuin nappaatte sen Super Mario nelosen kaupan hyllystä tämän namupalan sijaan.

Forget everything you've ever heard about text games being obsolete. Time has not killed the text adventure; it has not fallen victim to progress. Rather, time has finally allowed text games to reach their potential. Gateway is an Infocom game for the nineties, built with state-of-the art graphics and classic text.

All in all this is a great game, that shouldn't be missed if you're a fan of adventure games. They just don't make them like this anymore. I give it a four out of five, the last point being subtracted due to the music and the fact that the game is over too soon. Enjoy!

Frederik Pohl’s Gateway is the first game from Legend Entertainment I have played. Based on Pohl’s famous Gateway Saga, the game occurs in the same Heechee universe from which the books are rooted. Highly imaginative and a pleasure to play, Legend Entertainment has become a game developer to be reckoned with since publishing this title. Gateway is underrated by many gamers when it is initially released. Fortunately, like many cult classics, it eventually rises to become a sleeper hit worthy of Pohl’s name.

On the whole, Gateway is a mixed bag in both story and puzzles. There are no parts which are bad or even below average, but for example compared to the great scenes based in 'virtual reality' where the puzzle quality really shines, the exploration of a few of the planets the protagonist visits falls short. Either plot development or better puzzles would have been enough in these intermediate scenes, but the game provides us with neither. A missed opportunity, but a worthwhile waste of time.