Time - Empire œ29.99
            (Icon/mouse-controlled graphic adventure)

Time starts with a chilling vision of the future, as fires burn
among damaged buildings in 2064 after worldwide war on Earth, 
the War of the Machine Age, has left it devastated.

But luckily that's all it is - a vision, for the year is in fact
only 2047. Earth is under a preservation order and few people
currently live on it, most of them having been moved to satellites
while the planet is being renovated.

The game starts as you, Agent Hillman Hunter, a Mechanoid Technician,
arrive by space shuttle at Historisat 1. Just before your shuttle
lands, a message comes by view-screen from the Director of the
Historisat; he wants to see you straight away. Disembarking, you
make your way to Reception where the receptionist, Tracy, greets
you and gives you some bits of information about your new
environment, including the location of the Director's Office.

No-one ignores a direct order from the Director so, following
Tracy's directions you head to the right. Oh-oh, problems ... in
between Reception and the Director's Office is the office of Al
Bernstein, the officious Historisat Curator. He likes to know
what's going on, he doesn't know why you're here and as a result
there is no way he is going to be helpful. Can you pass to see the
Director? Fat chance. Al is blocking your route and has no
intention of moving.

Luckily there is a solution to this first problem close at hand
and soon you're in the Director's office being briefed and
instructed to travel to Earth to meet with a Dr Delaney. If you
can get past Mrs Delaney, the doctor will tell you about the
possible future devastation on Earth that he has seen with his
Time Machine. Apparently it will start with the uncontrolled
self-replication of one particular mechanoid which is currently
on the Historisat.

Visiting the future to see this for yourself, who should you meet
but good ol' Al who tells you, cryptically, "In our past lies our
future" before giving you a code. Returning to 2047 and the
Historisat you must use the information gained to travel back in
time to certain points in history in order to gain the objects
and knowledge to save the planet.

My first impression of Time was that it reminded me of Future
Wars. My second thought was that it was much, much better! For
one thing it is much more user-friendly. The graphics are good
and take up a small, mock view-screen at the top of the display
and the icons are arranged below. Movement is just left or right,
either fast or slow and you can pick up, drop, use and give
objects, speak to other characters and examine things.

You might think mere left/right movement would be restricting but
Empire have got round the problem in an elegant way. Tracy the
receptionist explains to you that the Historisat uses multi-doors
which are marked by lights. By clicking on the door icon, you can
alter the destination, so many rooms have more than one possible
right and/or left exit.

The sound effects are adequate and the animation is pretty smooth
though the main character's movement can slow down a bit when too
many other things are going on. I didn't mind though - the sight
of a space shuttle slowly descending against a backdrop of stars
as Hunter plodded along a connecting tube in the satellite was
so well done that it didn't bother me when he slowed down so much
that I thought he was going to grind to a halt!

The eye icon which opens when you pass an item of interest makes
finding objects so much easier than it did in games such as Future
Wars and the Chronoquest series. All the problems I have found so
far have been logical and relatively easy. Often it is a case
of waiting till a character tells you what he/she wants and then
finding it or solving a problem for them. I'm still happily playing
the game as I write this, not having got stuck yet apart from
being stupid through not reading the instructions properly
(moral: always read the blurb in the packaging!) Time is great fun
and definitely my game-of-the-issue!

                                             Sue