'Planetfall' is undoubtedly one of the finest games in the history of interactive fiction it may be my favorite Infocom game, to boot. My only complaint about the game is that the laser wasn't described well enough, making two puzzles difficult. Overall, Planetfall is easily one of the best adventure games I've ever played because of the balanced and logical puzzles throughout the game, the humorous writing, and the amusing characters.

It merely feels like one because the game is constantly charming you in one way or another. There are many amusing sidelights and funny responses from the author to your failed actions, but it is not at all a straight comedy in the same sense that Leather Goddesses of Phobos, or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy would be. Often billed as a science-fiction comedy, it really is not. Planetfall was the first Infocom game I played, and still my favourite. He is the main source of humour in the game (for instance, when we make a save around him he says: “Oh boy, are we gonna try something dangerous now?”) but he’s not just a comic relief, we grow really attached to him over the course of the adventure. The first one is certainly our sidekick, Floyd. Floyd is integral to a couple of challenges and should have been used to much greater effect.Īt least two things makes Planetfall memorable. Beyond inserting objects in slots most puzzles can be easily solved by dying, working out what has gone wrong, and then trying something different. Moreover, there is a lack of challenging puzzles. This happens a lot, sometimes in almost endless successions. Worse is the fact that I try to pick up an item but only to find it tumbling to the ground along with some other items of importance. Unfortunately, no such item exists in Planetfall. In most games, an item is included which allows the player to carry more without destroying the delicate limits of belief. Most adventure gamers accept the fact that there is a limit to how much the player can carry.

Inventory juggling has always been a problem in adventures. In contrast, the game's greatest weakness is its inventory management. The goal becomes clearer to the careful reader as clues hidden in locations come together to paint a picture of what has happened and what must happen in order for you to return heroically to Stellar Patrol. Although relatively simple in itself, it is developed with control that rivals a novel. The game's greatest strength is its plot.

In fact, we'll guarantee it - every crumb of it - because that's just the way the cosmic cookie crumbles. It's even possible that you'll actually travel to an unknown corner of the Universe, where you'll save a doomed planet - or die in the attempt. Maybe you will indeed narrowly escape disaster. And since that day the closest you've come to Deep Space heroism was scrubbing down the radioactive leper colony on Ishmael-3.īut suppose that jumbo fortune cookie you got at Qwang's Take-Out Asteroid last shore leave was right. Images of exotic worlds, strange and colorful aliens, and Deep Space heroism had danced in your head as you signed the dotted line. 'Join the Patrol, and see the Galaxy!' You took the poster's advice, bait and all, and marched right over to the recruitment station near your home on the backwater planet of Gallium.

Colony survival game dotted line