textfiles/games/REVIEWS/whereusa.rev

 WHERE IN THE USA IS CARMEN SANDIEGO?

 The work never ends at the Acme Detective Agency. You've chased Carmen around
the world and finally have her and her gang all safely behind bars, when...oh,
no! Matt Brannigan, your pal at the Agency, shows you the headlines: Carmen's
broken out of the toughest prison in Europe, and she's headed straight for the
United States! Well, you've always wanted to get to know your country better.
Maybe you can take in a few sights as you head off to capture the computer
world's most notorious criminal.

 If you've never played any of Broderbund's CARMEN SANDIEGO games, you've missed
out on the closest thing to TRIVIAL PURSUIT in the computer gaming world. If
you're a fan of such pastimes, this series will easily hook you for hours of
fascinating and informative play. Even if you're not a fan, the combination of
the simple-to-use interface, the wonderfully drawn and detailed graphics, the
enormous database of facts and details about life in the U.S., and the cute
animations of various thieves will entertain you for many hours. This review is
based on the Amiga version.

 The point of WHERE IN THE USA IS CARMEN SANDIEGO? is to combine the bits of
information you gather about a thief from the numerous innocent (and sometimes
not-so-innocent) bystanders you encounter at each place you visit. Once you've
collected enough information about the thief's looks, favorite meals, hobbies,
favorite sports, music, and so on, you enter it into the crime computer. If you
have enough clues to identify the thief, you're issued a warrant for his or her
arrest. You then collect additional facts (to assist you in figuring out where
the thief is going), pursue your suspect as closely as possible, and finally
catch up with him or her and make the arrest.

 You have a set time limit (usually a week) in each case to locate and capture
the thief. If you're successful within the allotted time, you're congratulated
at headquarters, and you move one step closer to a promotion. Solve two cases,
and you're promoted a step. Further promotions involve an increasing number of
successes per promotion and increasingly harder cases; there are ten promotions
in all.

 The difficult segments are nicely paced. Thus, there's plenty of fun and little
frustration to begin with. As you become more proficient, there are lots of
challenging puzzles to solve.

 Part of the fascination of WHERE IN THE USA IS CARMEN SANDIEGO? stems from the
way you collect your information, and from the kind of information you must
collect. You travel from city to city across the 50 states; within each city you
visit three locations, selecting among universities, libraries, sports
facilities, tourist bureaus, etc. (Which three depends on the city you're
visiting; when in Lincoln, for instance, you can get information from a grad
student at the University of Nebraska.) The answers to your questions involve
mention of facts you need to connect to places. For instance, while visiting the
sports facility in Seattle, you might be told that the thief was looking for
tickets to the main Formula One racing event in the U.S. It's your task,
independent of the program, to figure out where that event is held, and then to
head there in the hope of drawing closer to the thief.

 Each time you stop in a city, you're greeted by a beautiful picture (a scenic
vista, a monument, an event) representing some aspect of that place. The picture
is always a joy to observe, and the database of pictures -- like the database of
facts -- is quite large.

 Before making any queries, you receive a bit of information about each place
you visit. Over time, this information proves helpful in your pursuit of the
thief, so it's a good idea to take notes during your travels. A copy of FODOR'S
U.S.A. (Broderbund Edition) is included with the game. This is a sizable (879
pages) tome, chock-full of details you'll need to complete your tasks. As you
progress in the game, the clues you must collect become ever more abstruse, so
keep this book handy!

 The game is simple to control: To ask questions, take flights to cities, and
enter data into the crime computer, you make selections with the mouse from
various menus. Most screens are beautifully done still-shots; animated screens
appear when you're hot on the trail. A member of V.I.L.E. may show up, doing
something suspicious, or disguised as an innocent bystander posted by Carmen to
keep an eye out for you (my favorite is the scruffy guitar player). If you get
even closer, nasty things start happening: Knives are thrown at you; bombs
explode; bags of flour drop. However, none of these has any affect on you (this
isn't an arcade game, after all!).

 When you're finally at the point of nabbing the thief, the pursuit and capture
are nicely animated. If you didn't obtain an arrest warrant, you see yourself
walking away from the scene, growling; if you did get a warrant, the thief is
shown locked in the back of your police wagon. On the Amiga, hilarious sound
effects accompany each animated graphic. These features provide a welcome series
of minor interludes in the midst of game play.

 The Amiga version requires 512K of RAM and a mouse. The manual includes
detailed instructions for hard disk installation, and for changing the Tool
Types so the game can make use of more RAM, if available. It's clear that the
manual's author knows the Amiga well, an admirable quality I wish we'd encounter
more often.

 The game comes on two disks, one of which must be inserted as a key disk when
starting play. All the files on both disks can be copied, although an entire
copy can't be made of the key disk. You can play WHERE IN THE USA IS CARMEN
SANDIEGO? with just one drive, but I'd advise against it: The second disk is
accessed whenever you use the crime computer, and gameplay is much smoother if
you have two floppy drives or have installed the program on a hard disk.

 If you like playing sleuth, or enjoy games that test your ability to organize
facts and make logical deductions, WHERE IN THE USA IS CARMEN SANDIEGO? should
be tops on your list. The game is appealing to both kids and adults, and
provides an agreeable little facts-oriented tour of the geography and history of
the United States. While playing, you might even decide where you want to spend
your next vacation. But make sure Carmen and her gang are safely behind bars
before you leave!

 WHERE IN THE USA IS CARMEN SANDIEGO? is published and distributed by Broderbund
Software, Inc.

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