f1reball
Reviews
the Fourth Protocol (Commodore 64)
Surprisingly good and innovative spy fiction adventure in its first part
The Good
The first part of this spy fiction adventure was a pleasant surprise to me. The icon/menu driven gameplay feels compelling and tight. I also really like they tried something different from standard text adventure parser input which was common during that time and let the "action" take place in a single location instead of having you move around fetching items etc.
The Bad
Alas, it falls apart a bit with the second part. Your still have an icon interface but this time you use it in a more standard text adventure way because now you have to move around town and yes, also collecting items. Gameplay feels less tight when compared to the first part, and you have to move around in the subway A LOT. Also if you're like me and have never been to London you will have to spend much time to first look around which places you need to go exactly since this is absolutely not made clear by the game. Sure you sometimes get a location name but if you've never been there you wouldn't know where to go in the first place. The developers just seemed to assume real life knowledge of downtown London. Copying bad habits of old text adventures they also had to include a "maze of twisty little passages" somewhere.
The Bottom Line
I would recommend playing the first part for it's innovative non-standard adventure gameplay and compelling story and skipping the rest.
By f1reball on November 18, 2023