rs2000
Reviews
Suspended (DOS)
One of the Most Original Ideas for a Game Ever
The Good
As the 'main' character, you couldn't move, and were trapped in an extremely dark suspended animation cylinder. If that was it, then this would have been an extremely lame game. However, that wasn't it, beacause of the--The Robots.
Roaming the compex, monitoring various things, were six robots. They were so diverse, many of them majoring in one particular sense while weak in the other senses, each of them with there unique personalities (especially Poet). I enjoyed the plot.
The Plot involved subconsciously monitoring a nation's control station wich had the ability to create nearly-instant havoc or sustain the current tranquility. It was like playing God, but without the freedom, because if you became to lax in your duties some angry folks would come and... well, "take care" of you.
Suspended had the ability to put you in the game, with vibrant imagery. I could imagine myself as the robots, with their different sensors, detecting movement and analyzing objects. Also, I think this is one of the first (if not THE first) IF/Adventure game which allowed you to assume the identity of another entity.
The Bad
It was hard. Really hard. The manual was kinda lax on it's duties but there were no angry folks to "take care" of it.
The Bottom Line
It's definitely worth a play-through, and if Infocom/Actionvision were going to remake this game, I'd be one of the people in line at the checkout line.
I remember just when I'd really got into cracking the game there was this huge blizard that struck the north-east and our power went down for two v-e-r-y l-o-n-g weeks (almost two weeks, but it seemed like three months). While I sat without electricity I carefuly read the sections of the manual that described the robots, and produced a sketch of each of them.
(DISCLAIMER: These sketches were born intermittently in between other activities -- I'm not a total nerd. Isn't it funny what the lack of electricity can do to you?)
By rs2000 on January 18, 2001
Paratrooper (PC Booter)
It Had Potential
The Good
There was a 'booter' version of this (for the c64), which I played. I remember playing it for long periods of time (when I was around five years old) and thinking it was the coolest thing since sliced bread.
The Bad
However. I played it again about a year ago for nostalgia's sake and it wasn't as awsome. The enemies approached to rapidly, and the controls were too inadequete, and I always died within five minutes. Maybe I just lost the joystick mastery of my youth playing all those silly adventure games.
The Bottom Line
A fun diversion. But short on longjevity.
By rs2000 on January 13, 2001
Zork: The Great Underground Empire (DOS)
Zork?!? Zork What? Zork you too, pal.
The Good
That's what I said when I uncovered this relic from my disk box when I was eight or nine. Maybe younger. Zork? What kind of a weird name was that? It had to be a stupid action scroller, I figured. Or maybe one of those Ultima rip-off rpgs. Or maybe it was a curse-word. Back then I guess it was my surmise that in the gaming community there were only a few types of games 1) action 2) rpg 3) the sparse graphical adventure games 4) text-adventures with limited parsers. Well... I was wrong. Zork was a great game with an unparrelled (at that time) parser. There were no graphics, which put me off at first and it took me a while to discover that I didn't even need my joystick. Sadly, I set it aside and began tentatively typing orders. And, as I deciphered more and more commands, it showed me the light. The landscape surrounding the seemingly innocent white house was inhabited by few characters, most memorably the thief (with his trademark stilleto), a cyclops, and a troll. The descriptions provoked wonderful images in my mind. So I was content to wander around and push buttons rather than solve the puzzles.
The Bad
I dunno. Everyone should take a look at it once. It might not be your thing, but it's still a large chunk of gaming history.
The Bottom Line
CAUTION: Zork could spark a love for interactive fiction. I didn't even know what I was doing, but somehow I managed to find my way to a certian room and type [jump off the cliff], and I've never looked back since.
By rs2000 on January 12, 2001
Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress... (DOS)
To Be Honest...This Isn't My Favorite Ultima Game
The Good
The manual was an interesting read. I liked the overall concept. Space and/or time travel could have been really cool if they pulled it off...
The Bad
It took me forever to get a complete copy of this game. And then to acquire the neccessary patches. When the game finally got running...I had all these expectations. And I was sourly let down. I could have endured this game...if the food management would have been more realistic and all the tiles for seperate time periods didn't look exactly the same. I guess there wasn't enough story in U2 to enthrall me.
The Bottom Line
If you're a die-hard Ultima afficionado, it's worth a look. A short one.
By rs2000 on January 12, 2001
Deadline (PC Booter)
An Early Infocom Game
The Good
This was one of the first text adventure games I ever played (thus, why I never beat it, I suppose) but I remember there was a lot of 'action' packed into it -- the npc's wandered about, there was a lot to explore, and you could do some really neat detective command like ANALYZE '[crime scene object]' or 'ARREST [suspect]'. The game also came with some really cool documentation with a coroner's report and a bunch of background info.
The Bad
It was really hard.
The Bottom Line
If you're into text adventures, or Infocom, this game is definitely worth a look. Also, I don't think there's a difference between the booter and the dos version, but I may be wrong.
By rs2000 on January 12, 2001
BurgerTime (PC Booter)
Fun Classic
The Good
Making burgers while avoiding sausages was appealing (for some reason -- maybe because it was just different) and the level design was very well thought out.
The Bad
The controls were somewhat jerky and it wasn't that easy.
The Bottom Line
I remember playing this in a commodore 64 way back in the day...for several fun hours (until I became frustrated). As an added plus, the c64 version had many additional colors.
By rs2000 on January 12, 2001