Conference hydra::amiga_v1

2050.0. "Alternate Reality" by WJG::GUINEAU () Wed Dec 28 1988 14:10

Anyone played "Alternate Reality" by DataSoft? (distributed by Electronic
Arts)

There are several "sequels" to it. I have the first - The City.

It's kinda similar to The Bards Tale. You start off having been dumped into
this room by a space ship. The room has only one exit. A door with numbers
spinning above it and a view of the city outside. When you hit space, you
character attributes are determined by the numbers (set for stamina,charm,
strength,intelligence,wisdom,skill,hit points and wealth.

Enter the city. There are stores, banks, taverns, inns, smiths, healers and
guilds.

The game takes into account a tremendous amount of information. It's a real
time game with 4 minutes of game play equaling 1 hour real time. It even 
keeps track of your actions to determine your "Moral Alignment" (evil or good).


The graphics are real neat. Again similar to Bards Tale. The passage of time
is kept apparent by the sun - it actually starts high in the sky and sinks over
the horizon to darkness. Then (after a good nights sleep in an inn!) it's back
up in the morning.  

You visit inns and taverns to apply for jobs, sleep, eat etc.. Some jobs
require you to be smart or strong or honest etc. Guilds are like
clubs (I guess). You join one (if the required character stats are high
enough) and go to school to learn magic and skills.

One thing I was somewhat surprised (dissapointed?) by is the expandability
of this game. When travelling around the city, you may encounter a door
(one of many, I assure you!) which asks you to insert another disk (which does
not come with the game.) There are several more scenarios to play later.
Future editions include: The Dungeon, The Arena, The Palace, The Wilderness,
Revelation and Destiny. All seperate disks with another whole game play. The
idea of the city is to build your character to venture out to the other
scenarios. While this sounds mundane, it's quite fun. There are all sorts
of creatures and such to fight off, talk to and ignore.

One more thing. In the various stores and such (taverns, inns etc) they sing
you songs. The songs usually have clues in them. The songs are wild! 
Remember the old "follow the bouncing ball" on saturday morning (I'm not that
old, am I?). Well here the song lyrics appear in an area on the top of the
screen and as the music plays, another of Amys voices sings while the words are
highlighted. The "singing" is done with music, not the narrator!!



Overall I like this game and will probably even finish it :-)

Rating?? Hmm.  How about 8.5 out of 10.




JOhn