82 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
82 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
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TERRAN ENVOY
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It's rare to find a game these days that presents an entirely original
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concept in a simple, enjoyable, playable form. TERRAN ENVOY, created by the
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designers of FIRE BRIGADE, Tony Oliver and Ben Freasier, is that kind of game.
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Who would have thought an Outer Space Gossip Simulator could be so much fun?!
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(This review is based on the Amiga version).
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The goal is, ultimately, to prove to the Ubbermenscha that you (and your
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human species) are indeed fit to become part of the Galactic Community.
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They've set you the task of finding out who the Usurper is; your mission is to
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eliminate him (it?) with the Ray of Justice once enough evidence is available
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to make a convincing case.
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The way you gather evidence is to flit around the galaxy, chatting with
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various amusing species of beings (19 in all). These species will each be glad
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to offer you one piece of information for free, but they need to be bartered
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with for more.
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To that end, you must also visit various planets and collect different kinds
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of crystals, some of which appeal to each of the species. The ship you travel
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in has only so much cargo room, cleverly limiting you from spending one half
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of the game just loading up on crystals, the other half on trading rumours and
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hearsay. Some planets are abundant in certain crystals, some have a little of
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a number of different kinds, and some are barren altogether.
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Planets also host the alien species, so some planning must take place in
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order to remember who's living where. Time can be wasted running back and
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forth aimlessly without an adequate map of crystal and species locations.
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With a proper supply of crystals, you then "gift" a particular species with
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the proper crystal, and they tell you nasty things (or nice things) about some
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other species. The reliability of their information depends, of course, on
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their own relationship with other species. Creatures who are friends are more
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likely to be telling the truth about each other than creatures expressing
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hostility towards each other. Your task is to sort out hearsay and innuendo
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from valuable information, to get to the point where you can ascertain a
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likely suspect with some reliability.
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To this end, your ship is fitted out with ARAC, a Xenology study computer and
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database. This unit gathers the information you collect as you go along, and
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offers likely profiles for each species (clearly, the success of the computer
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depends on the extent of your gathered info). Each species for which a profile
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is requested will be worked up in terms of likely friends, enemies, and
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favorite crystal type. Whether the species is friendly, honest or disloyal is
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also indicated by the system. All these inferences are generated out of the
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log of contacts, successes and failures you've made while attempting to get
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some straight talk.
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Once you think you've cornered the potential culprit, you must put together
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the right combination of crystals in order to fire up the Ray of Justice;
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firing the Ray essentially leads to the program's conclusion, where it
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indicates whether your identification of the Culprit has proven to be correct
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or not. Beware the Ubbermenscha: They are not pleasant when disappointed.
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TERRAN ENVOY is very much a static, window-oriented design. On the Amiga, the
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right mouse button calls up a menu bar at the top for entering commands, and
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various windows can be controlled by clicking on the appropriate places.
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Animations are limited to planet pictures and images of aliens, the latter
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especially well done. The engrossing qualities of the game come from the
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process of trying to figure out "whodunit" (or who's going to do it) rather
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than from the graphics or sound design (there is no sound).
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One of the more interesting aspects of the game design is that the location
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of species, crystals, and the nature of the relationships between creatures
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are ever-changing; no two games seem to come out exactly the same. This makes
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for good replayability, and sustains the mystery from session to session.
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TERRAN ENVOY comes on one copyable floppy for the Amiga, and requires only
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512K of RAM to play. It will run on the A1000, A2000, and A500 machines. The
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game is easy to install on a hard drive, and will make use of an external
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floppy for saved-game purposes, if desired. Either mouse or keyboard can be
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used for input.
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Comparable in some ways to MPS Labs' LIGHTSPEED, but without the potentially
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annoying flight sequences, TERRAN ENVOY can prove to be a fascinating little
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puzzler. Expect nothing here but plenty of fun.
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TERRAN ENVOY is published and distributed by Stratagem Games.
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