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.