76 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
76 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
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B.A.T.
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B.A.T. by UBI SOFT has one major flaw --- it lacks play protection.
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You can actually load this game on your hard drive and play it. An
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insidious flaw that makes any other complaints about B.A.T. pale in
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comparison.
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To quote the game manual, "Our aim was never to create a computer
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game as such. As a writer we would have written a novel, as a
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film-maker we would have made a film..." --- as a computer game
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publisher, they have made a dud.
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Because of the possibilities hinted at in the manual and the
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promises made on the box and in the manual, the failure of B.A.T.
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to deliver is a true disappointment. From the way the game plays,
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much more attention was lavished on the manual than on the game
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itself. From the disparity between game play and manual claims, it
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appears that the manual writer never played the game. If _you_
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insist upon playing the game, loading instructions are on page 22
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of the manual.
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I spent several hours a day for nearly a week trying to "get into"
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B.A.T. --- that is trying to play the game to some sort of progress
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stage. Had I not been reviewing the game, I would have erased it
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from the drive the first day. Although the graphics are artistic,
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they are static. Wandering around in B.A.T. has about the same
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feel as flipping through a comic book.
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Rumor has it that there is a rhyme and reason to the NPC
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interactions. Rumor has it that if you speak to certain characters
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at a certain time you will progress in the game. I could find no
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clues to these times, and in some instances, could find nothing to
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talk about. Conversations are severely limited by the menu and
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instead of being a mystery, there is a giveaway when the questions
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you are allowed to ask, change. Language is a problem even though
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you are equipped with B.O.B. --- a language translator cum macro
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program.
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When I read in the documentation that I could program my arm
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(figuratively speaking, of course) to do things like monitor my
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status, flash messages on the screen and translate alien languages
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I was REALLY impressed.....until I began to program B.O.B.
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(Bio-Directional Organic Biocomputer) which turned out to be a set
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of macro instructions, few of which were of any use, and some of
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which did not work all of the time.
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Then there is the COMBAT mode. Actually, rather than a "mode"
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there are apparently random arcade type sequences that just pop up
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on the screen and kill you. The only apparent strategy is to save
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often and run. Not my idea of CRPGing.
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In fact, B.A.T. is not my idea of a CRPG at all. B.A.T. is more
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like the old graphic adventure games (before KQ) with some pumped
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up resolution in the images. Unlike the old adventure games,
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however, puzzles in B.A.T. are rare or unpuzzling. The character
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statistics are explained well in the documentation, but in gameplay
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seem to be meaningless.
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I get the feeling that the character statistics are there to give
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the appearance that B.A.T. is a real CRPG. I get the feeling that
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the combat is present to make an adventure game appear to be a
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CRPG. I get the feeling that the promised "necessary elements for
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an adventure" have gotten so diluted in this execution that they
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are invisible. I get the feeling that I have been had.
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B.A.T. (Bureau of Astral Troubleshooters) is published by UBI SOFT
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and available in either 5.25 or 3.5 disks. VGA is required, hard
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disk is recommended. DOS 3.2 or higher is required. A mouse is
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recommended and the game will run on IBM PC/XT/AT and compatibles.
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No memory requirements are listed in the documentation and I had no
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trouble running the game under DOS 4.01.
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B.A.T. is from UbiSoft/Electronic Arts.
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