Frederik Pohl's GATEWAY Legend Entertainment / Accolade - RRP œ34.99 (Text/graphics adventure for the PC) Reviewed by Neil Shipman Somewhere between the orbits of Venus and Mercury lies mankind's hope for the future - a Gateway to the stars. Abandoned long ago by an alien race known as the Heechee, this huge space station contains hundreds of faster-than-light starships. There is no way of knowing in advance where the ships' pre-set course codes will take them. They could pop out of Tau space in the core of a star or fatally close to a black hole. But some destinations may be places where Heechee artifacts of unimaginable value can be found. The drudgery of everyday life holds little promise for most of Earth's 20 billion inhabitants and many dream of taking the ultimate gamble of a do-or-die FTL starship mission. The reward for success could be riches beyond one's imagination. In December 2101 you are the lucky winner of the monthly lottery sponsored by your home state and your employer, PetroFood Inc. The winner's prize is a one way ticket to the space station and the opportunity of becoming a 'Gateway Prospector'. A six minute introductory sequence sets the scene, following which you find yourself in your quarters on Gateway where your adventure begins. The light on the PV Commset is blinking and, by inserting the card which lies handy on your desk, you can read the messages which have been left for you. The Commset also gives access to news of current events from Earth, a bulletin board and classified ads, as well as allowing you to make calls to other folk on the station. There is a wealth of information here which will give you plenty of clues to what you ought to be doing. All "new fish" aboard Gateway are assigned a Proctor to help them settle in and provide them with their DataMan Personal Information System. Fortunately for you, your Proctor, Thom Seldridge, seems to take a liking to you and gives you an introduction to Terri Neilson, the Deputy Director of the Exploration Program Section. The powers that be have had some limited success in figuring out which course codes are more likely to take a prospector to destinations where Heechee artifacts might be found. Terri says she will sponsor you for this so-called Orion Program if you can go on two missions and come back with a completely unique discovery. So there's nothing for it but to try your luck. To begin with, though, you need to attend the ship handling course. Then, the next day, it's off to the hangar for your first of many trips in an FTL ship. The Heechee ships are easy to operate. Sitting in the seat brings up a full screen graphic of the control panel from which you can select your course code and click on the appropriate GO button. An animated picture of the ship leaving Gateway, entering Tau space and arriving at your destination then follows. If you find yourself in orbit around a planet then clicking on INFO and VIEW is useful before hitting the LAND button. Exploration of the only planet you can reach at this stage is simple and the problems involved in acquiring a Heechee artifact are easily solved. Getting back to Gateway is just a matter of clicking on ORBIT and RETURN. Once enrolled in the Orion Program you find that your first top secret course code takes you to Aleph 4, a planet on which strange alien beings appear to worship a Heechee machine. But your discovery puts Gateway Enterprises into a turmoil as the device gives warning of a serious threat to mankind's very existence. Whilst many benefits have been derived from Heechee technology, the use of the FTL starships has not gone unnoticed. Can you thwart the plans of 'The Assassins' and save your race from discovery and extinction? This is the task entrusted to you as you embark on the second part of the adventure, 'Other Worlds'. Four very different planets must be visited and the puzzles you are called upon to solve are well thought out and nicely varied. If you find yourself stuck trying to figure out the problems on one world you can leave that and go on to one of the others. The final part of the adventure, simply entitled 'Endgame', sees you in a confrontation with the enemy in which you will have to battle against the very worst nightmares of your own subconscious! GATEWAY employs the by now standard Legend interface; i.e. compass rose and option buttons in the top left window, interactive graphics top right, the menu bottom left and text input/output bottom right. You can play using the mouse to point and click or the Tab, Spacebar and Return keys to select words from the menu. But I am sure that all those of us who were brought up on the traditional text adventure will simply type in commands. The VGA graphics are a distinct improvement on the EGA ones in Legend's previous releases and there are a large number of full screen displays like the FTL ship's flight panel, the PV Commset and your DataMan. The astronomical pictures are excellent as are the animated introduction and the sequence of your ship leaving and returning to Gateway. Often when someone has a lot to tell you their picture appears together with speech or narrative boldly displayed in large windows at a comfortably readable rate. These can be stepped through using the Spacebar or skipped entirely (as can the intro and flight sequences) by hitting the Escape key in the same way as 'cut scenes' in Lucasfilm adventures. Music is up to Legend's usual standard and the many sound effects produced by their RealSound system certainly help to enhance the atmosphere, from the simple mechanical noises when inserting your ID card or using a dropshaft on Gateway to the mournful wail of an alien beast on a strange world. There are a few bugs in the adventure including the odd missed word, grammatical error and wrongly described direction. I also managed to duplicate one of the game's objects as I manipulated it while trying to solve one of the puzzles. More serious than these, however, is a bug which can prevent you from finishing. On Gateway there are a number of buttons. One of these, which needs to be pressed, is not always recognised by the program and can neither be examined nor operated. This only seems to occur if you restore a saved position when asked if you wish to do so at the beginning of the game. The solution is simply to restore from within the game rather than at the start. The relevant button will then be recognised correctly. Problems like these are really the result of inadequate proof- reading and playtesting. It is difficult, perhaps, for a small company like Legend with a limited budget to check absolutely everything and, as we all know, bugs and typos tend to creep in no matter how careful adventure writers may be. Unfortunately, though, this does tend to give the impression of a product which has been rushed out on to the market. I must admit to having found GATEWAY somewhat easier than Legend's previous titles, although this may, perhaps, be the result of my becoming more familiar with the type of puzzles their game designers set. But the first part, in particular, is rather linear and when you are on the space station you are given so many clues about what to do, where to go and when to be there, that it is difficult not to make rapid progress. Also, each planet's puzzles are self-contained and you cannot transport items indigenous to one world to help (or hinder) your efforts on another. For those players who do get well and truly stuck a hint book is provided in the package - something, I must say, that I am not in favour of. It is far more rewarding to finally solve a problem without recourse to hints, especially when so many different actions have been anticipated and often bring forth odd, sometimes humorous, responses. Do what I did: leave the hint book in the box and stick it up on a shelf out of the way until you've finished! Rather surprisingly, in view of the title, there appears to be little or no input from Frederik Pohl himself. It looks as though the author, Mike Verdu, has simply taken Pohl's original Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novel and his subsequent series about the Heechee as the basis for this adventure. But it is obvious from Pohl's introduction to the hint book that he is impressed, partly because adventures like this are a whole new dimension to him but also because he sees the game as "a first-rate example of science fiction at its most colourful and exciting." In conclusion, Frederik Pohl's GATEWAY will undoubtedly appeal, first and foremost, to text adventurers, particularly those who are lovers of science fiction. With the embellishments of high quality graphics, animation, music and sound effects - all necessary these days to attract players and boost sales - Legend Entertainment prove that the text genre is not yet dead and they continue to fly the flag once carried so proudly by Infocom. Legend supremo Bob Bates says that they have the rights to a sequel and I, for one, will look forward to taking a few more trips in the faster-than-light starships of the Heechee.