textfiles/games/REVIEWS/chamber.rev

 CHAMBER OF THE SCI-MUTANT PRIESTESS 

 Originally released in Europe as KULT and now more than slightly
repackaged and re-released in the U.S. under the above name, this
game (touted as an adventure) is one of the best graphics puzzle
games I've encountered in a while. In size and extent of the
adventure, CHAMBER OF THE SCI-MUTANT PRIESTESS (CSP) won't stand up
to the much larger and longer Sierra-style adventure games. But in
terms of graphics, sound, animation, and originality of puzzles, 
I've seen nothing in this genre that even begins to compare. (This
review is based on the Amiga version; IBM-PC version notes follow.) 

 The story itself is amusing, slightly cyberpunk, and
well-integrated into the design of the game. The gist is that you're
the Tuner Raven living among dull Normals. Tuners possess ESP
powers, and have hooked into an ESP network that communicates via
Hitachi-Gauss Amplifiers, otherwise known as Foetuses (kept in glass
jars, of course). This makes secret communication possible while
living among the Normals. 

 Tuners quietly control (and are feared by) Normals. Your
girlfriend, Sci-Fi, has been captured by a mutant religious cult of
Protozorqs who worship the god Zorq (get it?). The former refer to
the Tuners as "Offa," which gives you some sense of how they feel. 
Your goal is to undergo a series of ordeals, assigned by none other
than the Master of Ordeals himself. If you survive the five
ordeals, you emerge as Divo, Holder of the Egg and Messenger of the
New Order, and can then proceed into the inner sanctums in an effort
to find and rescue Sci-Fi. 

 Makes a great story, with the details filled in...but how's the
game? Fortunately, it's even more original and unique than the
storyline. There's no text input, but upon entering any room, you
can move the mouse cursor around to see if there's anything
interesting to interact with. The cursor changes shape and color
depending on what you find; clicking on found objects brings up The
Brain, which offers several Thoughts (represented by little bubbles
on its surface) to try out by clicking on them. (In a mouse-oriented
Lucasfilm-style adventure game, the Thoughts would be choices in a
text menu.) Because Thoughts vary from situation to situation and
object to object, different numbers of bubbles appear. You can click
on The Brain itself, and move it around the screen if it's
obstructing access to something in the room. While a good
parser-based adventure game might provide slightly more complex
interaction, this interface _is_ time-saving, and at least it
doesn't provoke any guess-the-right-word frustration. Also, the
dynamic quality of the Thought bubbles helps to avoid repititious
actions to a great extent. 

 Along with The Brain, you have a host of other onscreen controls
available. The Foetus is always perched in the upper left-hand
corner, ready to read your subsconscious thoughts and offer
suggestions on how to proceed. Because the Foetus spells things out
in a rather cryptic fashion, part of the fun is figuring out what
it's trying to say. 

 To the right of the main screen is a vertical bar of icons that
gives you access to a range of possibilities. For instance, using
your sci (psi) abilities, you can scan rooms to find hidden
objects, read other characters' minds, or turn on "Solar Eyes" to
see in the dark. Your sci powers are limited, however; overuse can
lead to their complete loss (quite detrimental to your chances of
success in the game). 

 Each of the five Ordeals is a separate room (or series of rooms) 
full of interesting visual puzzles. Anyone who's played a Sierra or
Lucasfilm adventure game will be familiar with the puzzle-solving
process. In some ordeals, it's just you and the inanimate objects in
the room; you have to manipulate them in the right sequence in order
to open doors, lower hooks, reveal clues, etc. In other rooms, you
must defeat wily creatures, or pretend to worship local gods. 
Further on, you even run into some other Tuners who are hiding out
in the hope they won't be found! The final goal in each Ordeal is to
discover and collect one of five skulls, which are then returned to
a Protozorq guarding the Trader. After the return of each skull, you
may try to trade one of your items for a different item by
interacting with the Trader. After recovering all five skulls, you
become the Divo. 

 All the creatures that litter CSP's landscape are nicely done, and
organized into a series of different classes. Most predominant, of
course, are the Protozorqs. They're mean folks who would sooner have
you out of their Temple altogether: One false move and they're all
over you with their Zapsticks. (They're not undefeatable, though, 
and under the right circumstances, may offer advice and
assistance.) These are, in effect, the Brain Police. 

 Then there are the other Aspirants, Tuners like you who are
competing for the position of Divo. They may be either treacherous
or helpful, depending on circumstances. 

 The Protozorqs' servants are known as the Vorts, weedy little
creatures who seem to serve a primarily janitorial function. If an
Aspirant fails, or a Protozorq is killed, Vorts are likely to show
up to carry the carcass out to a room named The Return, where they
dump it in the water. 

 The best thing about these creatures is that they all talk with you
-- not only in text bubbles, but in digitized voices. Their voices
are at least 70% of what's fun about them: The Protozorqs are gruff
and rumbly; the Vorts pipe up like ants begging for mercy; the
Holo-Holo has a grating basso profundo; the Spider Creature sounds
like an irritating busybody aunt. Turn the sound up and you might be
able to convince the neighbors that you're controlling your very own
demonic cult; the language these creatures speak is exactly what
you'd expect from monsters of the world of Evil! I think I'll play
this one again on Hallowe'en.... 

 Failing an ordeal and dying isn't the boringly prolonged, 
repetitious process of the average graphics adventure: You don't
have to do anything to start up again; you're simply deposited back
with the Master of Ordeals and he sends you out on your next job. So
when you're first learning to play, you can keep cycling through
ordeals without interruptions for disk access and screen reloading. 
Once you're more confident, you can start saving the game to build
upon your successes (only one gamesave is allowed per disk). 

 The program files are supplied on one diskette that apparently must
remain write-enabled in order to play the game (copy-protection is
disk-based). You can work around this minor annoyance by accessing
the disk's files via the CLI, and copying them onto a normal
AmigaDos-formatted disk. Although you can't use your copy as a play
disk, if you leave it write-enabled and insert it after the
copy-protection has been verified on the distribution disk (about 30
seconds into the initial load), it'll work just fine. This way, the
original serves primarily as a key disk. The program requires 512K
of RAM and runs on A1000s, A500s, and A2000s; gameplay is entirely
dependent upon the mouse. 

 This is a unique, amusing, and originally designed adventure game. 
I hope future games flesh out the world of CSP by exploring other
aspects of the tale related in the booklet that accompanies the
manual: It's certainly a story rich with possibilities. 

 IBM-PC VERSION NOTES 

 CHAMBER OF THE SCI-MUTANT PRIESTESS is easily the quirkiest
adventure game to hit the IBM world in quite a hallucinatory blue
moon. The IBM port of CHAMBER shares all the wonderful weirdness of
its Amiga parent, though it does lose some chrome in the
translation. 

 The biggest disappointment in the IBM edition is the lack of VGA
graphics. These days, it seems de rigueur to use VGA 256-color mode
for ports of Amiga games. Still, the game does look sharp in EGA. 
But don't expect it to match the Amiga screen shots on the box. 

 Another minor disappointment is that the digitized voices of the
Amiga version are nowhere to be found in the IBM game. It might have
been nice to include these, if only for SoundBlaster or DAC owners. 

 But don't let this deter you. The story line and mouse-driven
interface of the original are preserved here. You can play CHAMBER
without the mouse, but it really flows beautifully with it. There is
plenty of spot-animation, and the game plays quite well on machines
of all speeds. There are some animated sequences that become tedious
after a while (particularly the death animation). Unfortunately, you
cannot cut these short. 

 Also, though you can install CHAMBER on your hard drive, you can
still only save one game at a time. Worse, CHAMBER uses a
hidden-file on your hard disk as copy protection, to ensure that the
game is installed only once. If your hard drive fails before you do
a de-install, you won't be able to play. While I dislike hardware
copy-protection schemes, I have to admit I didn't miss the document
look-up that's usually employed in place of CHAMBER's hidden file
scheme. 

 CHAMBER OF THE SCI-MUTANT PRIESTESS supports VGA/EGA (320x200x16), 
CGA (320x200x4), Tandy Graphics, and Hercules monochrome graphics
modes. It requires 512K RAM. Both the mouse and joystick are
supported, as well as the keyboard. There is no sound board
support. The game comes on three 5-1/4" disks; 3-1/2" disks may be
purchased for $7.00. 

 Despite the nits I've picked, I really enjoyed CHAMBER. It's a
refreshing off-the-wall game, with a unique background. Dark humor
abounds, and the interface is a joy. The puzzles range from easy to
almost-too-tough, but all were fun to tackle. For IBM adventurers
looking for a change of pace, I recommend a close look at the
CHAMBER. 

 CHAMBER OF THE SCI-MUTANT PRIESTESS is published and distributed by
Data East. 

*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253