67 lines
3.9 KiB
Plaintext
67 lines
3.9 KiB
Plaintext
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CHAOS IN ANDROMEDA
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What? They make computer games in Denmark? I guess so; for the most part,
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Denmark has been more famous for the rampant piracy of _other_ peoples' games
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than for the production of its own. I'm not sure CHAOS IN ANDROMEDA is
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adequate compensation, though; a potentially interesting fiction is marred
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here by a CRPG system we've all seen many times before. (This review is based
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on the Amiga version)
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The fiction is that the player has been summoned from people in the future in
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need of abilities from the past. The problem with the fiction is that the
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_entire_ manual is organized around it. For instance, the designers don't seem
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to have it in their hearts to call a floppy disk a floppy disk; in CHAOS IN
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ANDROMEDA it's a "micro data storage unit," MDSU for short.
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It only gets worse from there; the first half hour (at least) of coming to
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terms with the game is a very frustrating, and quite needless, process of
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translating the "futuristic" jargon back into plain terms so that figuring out
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how to actually play the game is more likely to occur. The very end of the
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manual provides an actual 3-page command reference "card," which is all the
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actual game really needs.
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And it's that 3-page card that gives the whole lot away. There's just not
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much to CHAOS IN ANDROMEDA. Configure the main character with the appropriate
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levels of stats, send him off into the gameworld, Talk, Get, Buy, Fight, etc.,
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etc., etc. Little in the way of story is included in the actual game. A
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CAPTIVE-like feature provides for some amusement; your character can remote-
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control some droids at different locations in order to manipulate and prepare
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objects for your use when you arrive. But that's about it. In order to claim
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non-violence, everything is translated into the metaphor of "psionics," but it
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makes little difference; the player mind-blasts enemies and, well, they just
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wipe out as badly as they would if they were struck with a Halberd+3.
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Perhaps I have become jaded by seeing one too many CRPGs that set up a
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marvelous premise, with all sorts of neat names, descriptions of locations,
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inhabitants, journeys and goals, only to find that actual gameplay consists of
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an endlessly repetitive series of limited point-and-click actions, which move
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a limited character animation into and out of a series of endlessly repetitive
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gray (or heck, even colorful) "rooms," or boxes, all for the sake of finding
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the Ultimate Box with the Ultimate Object being withheld by the Ultimate Bad
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Guy. I can stand this kind of assembly-line activity for only so long even
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when it is ensconced in even the most thoughtful of game designs. When it is
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encountered in a game which substitutes an over-complex, obtuse story in the
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manual for an explanation of actual gameplay; and which attempts to provide
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the illusion of depth by trying to get the player to imagine everything having
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to do with his computer as being part of the gameworld; and which finally
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provides an interface and game process that don't even begin to live up to the
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premises, well, my interest fails entirely.
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CHAOS IN ANDROMEDA comes on two copyable disks, and will run off of one
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floppy drive in 512K of RAM on Amiga 1000s, 2000s, and 500s. A mouse is used
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for interface; no hard-disk support is included. Graphics and sound are both
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adequate for the game.
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Perhaps for veteran CRPG players, with patience and much time on their hands,
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CHAOS IN ANDROMEDA could prove worthy of consideration. At least there were
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no significant bug problems I could discern during play. And this _does_ seem
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to be a first design by a young team attempting to break into the world of
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game design; as such, it's perfectly professional in programming execution.
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But beyond that, I can't feel particularly excited about CHAOS. Better luck
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next time!
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CHAOS IN ANDROMEDA is published and distributed by On-Line Entertainment,
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Ltd.
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