textfiles/games/REVIEWS/berlin.rev

  EAST VS WEST: BERLIN 1948

  EAST VS. WEST: BERLIN 1948 is a graphic adventure written by Time Warp
Software, published by Rainbow Arts, and distributed by Electronic Zoo, and
it offers outstanding graphics, excellent animation, a knockout 15-minute
introduction sequence (with voice-over and soundtrack on cassette),
all-mouse control, save option, and copy protection. The basis of this
review is the Atari ST version, for which you'll need 512K, a color
monitor, and a 720K drive. BERLIN remains playable on STs with a 360K disk
drive, but the introduction sequence and other graphics will be
unavailable.

  BERLIN 1948 has excellent graphics and a slick (if anachronistic) story
about an atom bomb and Cold War double agents, but the game suffers from an
all-visual, all-mouse interface that'll drive you goofy, most during
interaction with other characters: while everything in BERLIN is aimed at
the eye, it's not necessarily intuitive, and a steep learning curve took
away a some of the game's enjoyment. All is not lost, though, as we shall
see, and you might find BERLIN worth your time and effort.

  The plot of BERLIN revolves around Colonel Harris, a double agent who, at
some point during the Berlin airlift, smuggled an atom bomb into the city.
As agent Sam Porter, it's your undercover job to find the bomb before it
falls into the hands of Stalin. To accomplish this, you must roam the
streets of Berlin, on foot or by taxi, enter buildings, talk to other
characters, and follow the clues until you've unraveled the mystery and
found the bomb.

  BERLIN is completely mouse-controlled and the ST screen display consists
of a scrolling overhead view of the streets of Berlin, and, to the right of
the action screen, an advertising pillar. On the streets with Sam are
pedestrians, soldiers, jeeps, motorcycles, garbage trucks, and expensive
cars that no doubt carry important diplomats. Click the mouse on any part
of the screen and, barring obstacles, Sam will move there. When Sam reaches
a screen edge, the next city block appears, and the signs on the
advertising pillar reflect the current street and building numbers.

  Also on the advertising pillar is a clock; when selected, it can be used
to "wait" in the current location: advance the clock by clicking the
forward arrow and Sam will hang around for a while, though if anything
important happens, the wait will end automatically. Save/load options are
also available from the pillar, but only while Sam is outdoors.

  Move the pointer on to a building and a "description" bubble will appear;
click on it and either your game guide or the taxi driver will describe the
building. Indoor bubbles describe items. Click on Sam's head outdoors and
you can see his inventory; click on his head indoors and you can use items
in his inventory, such as money or black market valuables. Click on a
description bubble containing a door icon and Sam will enter the building,
where, since you will be in a room rather than on the street, the action
display shrinks and the advertising pillar is deactivated.

  You can talk to a character by getting close and clicking on the
character's head. A picture of Sam appears; click on it and you can give
away money or cigarettes (big on the black market) or use other items. Move
the pointer to the picture of the character and a "Talk" icon appears;
click on it and the Talk bubbles appear, along with the most frustrating
part of the game.

  In a Lucasfilm graphic adventure, MANIAC MANSION for example, clicking on
nouns and verbs constructed sentences; in BERLIN, clicking on pictures and
icons, of other characters, places, street names and addresses, and items,
constructs questions, statements, and commands. The click moves the picture
or item-icon from the Selection bubble to the Edit bubble; there, you
select an ! for a command or a statement, or a ? for a question. Then you
must click on the action arrow, which is in the Selection bubble rather
than the Edit bubble, and wait. Eventually a reply will appear.

  The problem I encountered with this was that I wasn't always sure I'd
selected those picture-icons that asked the question or made the statement
I had in mind; worse, in many cases the reply was ambiguous enough to make
me think I did even if I hadn't. Errant clicks de-construct sentences (an
event sometimes indistinguishable from questions or commands so garbled
they simply can't be understood by the program), or send you back to the
street or room where the encounter began.

  The BERLIN 1948 package comes with two 360K/720K disks that are
copy-protected, a trilingual instruction manual, a poster with a map of
postwar Berlin on the back, and a cassette. The disks are jammed solid with
compressed data: the introduction sequence is timed to load while the
cassette plays; the game itself takes forever. Other than normal drive-head
jumps from directory to file and back again, none of the thumps, bumps, and
raspberries usually associated with the loading of compressed data were in
evidence (somebody tell Psygnosis). As noted earlier, users with 360K
drives will miss out on some of the graphics. Once the game is loaded,
there is disk access but nothing horrible.

  BERLIN's introduction sequence is one of the most marvelous pieces of
computer work I've ever seen on an ST. Onscreen, in a darkened theater,
you'll watch an ancient postwar newsreel and listen to scratchy music and a
zealous announcer on the cassette. When the newsreel ends, you'll see maps
and photos onscreen, while on the cassette a Narrator tells the story
behind BERLIN. Side two of the cassette comes into play later when,
assuming you can find a hard-to-get entrance ticket, you can watch the
weekly news broadcast at the local cinema.

  For the most part, BERLIN 1948 is an excellent piece of work. It looks
great, moves along smoothly, has an intriguing story, and plays well.
Character interaction could have been handled better and messing around
with it casued much frustration; of course, with some work on your part it
can be figured out: no doubt it's simple to understand but so far I haven't
found the key. The map on the back of the poster matches up with the Berlin
streets, though not to any scale: in the game the streets are much longer.
The manual was apparently translated into English by Europeans; it's
simultaneously amusing and confusing.

  If you can playtest BERLIN in order to see the interface you'll be
dealing with, it'll be a big help in deciding if you should part with your
money. If you can't playtest it, you might want to take a chance anyway:
BERLIN 1948 is an excellent game, with the potential to be nearly as cool
as CRASH GARRETT, but be prepared to spend time working on the interface.


  EAST VS WEST: BERLIN 1948 is published by Rainbow Arts and distributed by
Electronic Zoo.