Below the Root

The Good
Everything. It totally tapped what the Commodore 64 (C64) had to offer to create a game which combines graphics adventure, action and cool storyline with a hint of RPG and arcade action. If you haven't tried this game, you simply have not seen how great a graphics adventure the C64 was capable of supporting.

It was because of this game that I read the Zilpha Keatley Schneider book trilogy. It is a masterpiece of storytelling depicting how understanding, acceptance, and spirituality can solve political, racial, spiritual, and social problems without the need to resort to violence. Like in the books, acts of violence or aggression are severely punished in Below the Root. The Kindar race can't eat meat without taking a nasty spirit loss penalty, because such foods endorse the killing of animals. Killing is simply unacceptable. You must always find another way if you are to succeed.

The game always had me immersed in the world of Green Sky. I would spend hours jumping off of every tree branch I could find, hoping to glide into some secret area to find an animal (spirit boost), elixir (boost stamina), or secret house with a new spirit leader (boost spirit and advance the storyline). I felt compelled to explore every inch of the maze of tunnels below the root, and really developed an appreciation for the detail and the vastness of the graphical adventure world of Green Sky. It is as colorful and breathtaking as any explorable world I've ever seen created on the C64.

The Bad
It was sometimes frustrating when I would collapse from exhaustion, fall through a hole, miss a jump, or get captured by a supporter of an enemy faction. Sometimes Shubas (gliders) and Trencher Beaks (saw-like bird beak) break all-to-easily, forcing you to carry spares and discover sources of emergency replacements. Also, Anyone who has ever missed a jump, landed on a spider, and been knocked down 8 or 10 times in succession know how tempting it can be to whip out a trencher beak and end it's miserable life - of course the punishment of such an act, loss of critical spirit power, is absolutely devastating. However, all these negatives provide an arcade-like challenge which serve to make the game just demanding enough to be fun, addicting, and replayable.

If anyone finds the storyline confusing, vague, or poorly drawn out, I recommend reading the book trilogy. People who criticize this aspect of the game who have not read the books are really missing the point of the game - to bring to life a world depicted in a classic novel. That is Windham Classics' primary goal in creating computer games, hence their name.

The Bottom Line
You start off as one of the various Kindar or Erdling characters, exploring Green SKY, a strange world of trees where people live in tree houses, sleep in hammocks, and travel from branch to branch with gliders. As you progress, you find sources of food, rest, money, and useful objects to help you explore further and soar to more distant trees (known as Grunds). The people you meet impart knowledge about the social structure and political challenges of green sky, and sometimes lead you important people who reveal key information about your quest and boost your spirit to help you develop a set of lost spirit skills. Armed with these key spirit skills and a few key secret objects, you finally have the power to explore the vast maze-like tunnels below the root to find and rescue Raamo, the lost Spirit Leader. Only he can restore peace and hope to Green Sky, a world troubled by a difficult time of social, political, racial, and spiritual transition (Read the Green Sky trilogy by Zilpha Keatley Schneider that the game is based on for details - they are truly classics in themselves).

All this, and a Mario jumping/flying/avoiding enemies type arcade interface that will keep you challenged for hours. You will have lot of fun looking for hidden areas and objects as you wrack your brain for ways to explore the furthest reaches of Green Sky's Grunds, the ground beneath, and the maze of tunnels that lie below the root.

From the moment I got to explore Green Sky, talk to a few people, and meet the Wize Child I was enthralled and obsessed with playing the entire game. When I got my own Commodore 64 and disk drive, this was the game I had to have.