Inherit the Earth - New World Computing RRP œ39.99
  (Point and click adventure for PC, disk or CD-ROM (reviewed))

Rif is in deep trouble. Not only is he bitterly disappointed at
losing a puzzle game to an opponent who he should have beaten -
mainly through his inattention to the game, his mind having strayed
to the thought of the prize he was hoping, no, expecting, to win -
but now he has been virtually accused of theft. The Orb of Storms,
used to predict the weather, has been stolen. Rif is the prime
suspect and, in the tradition of those who are unjustly accused of
evil deeds, he must prove his innocence by recovering the Orb and
unmasking the culprit.

In order to ensure his attention to the task, his girl friend
Rhene has been held hostage against his return. Should he fail,
her fate won't be pretty. He is also given two companions to
travel with him and keep him on the straight and narrow.

A traditional tale, you might think. And it would be, if not for
one subtle twist. Rif is a fox, and his companions are a boar
named Okk and an elk called Eeah. For this is the future, one in
which the humans have vanished from the face of the Earth which
has been, as the title suggests, inherited by animals, who have
gained the powers of speech and intelligence.

The animals are arranged in tribes, each with its own
characteristics. The boars are war-loving slobs who like nothing
better than to wallow in mud. Rats are avid seekers after
knowledge. Elk are more sensitive creatures who love the beauty of
nature. Foxes are cunning, which is why Rif is suspected of the
Orb's theft. There are more tribes about, some of which Rif will
come into contact with during his travels.

The game uses a, by now, standard point and click interface with
permitted actions (open, close, talk, use etc) ranged along one
side of the bottom of the screen, and carried objects displayed on
the other side, the main viewing window which shows Rif and his
surroundings taking up the largest area at the top. It's simply a
matter of walking him about, talking to characters, offering them

items, or doing them favours, in order to get a hint for the
next place to which to travel.

Travelling from one main area to another is done using a large map
which shows the places of interest, Rif and his crew being shown
as a star which zizzes from one place to another. At first only a
few locations can be visited but several of these consist of
large scrolling areas, such as the faire at which the adventure
starts, the Temple of the Orb and its surrounding grounds, and a
ferret village.  Many of these have other buildings to enter and,
of course, you never know which one will be vital to your quest.

Later, Rif (through one of his 'favours') will gain a map of the
Wild Lands, an area to the north of the starting locations and
then the game really opens up. And beyond that? I'll just say that
even more weird and wonderful places await him, mystifying him and
his companions, especially Eeah who finds all these wonders a bit
too much to take in.


As with all games of this ilk (or should that be 'elk'?) there is
a danger that progress will be linear. ITE doesn't suffer too
badly in this respect though the fact that often during the game,
object A must be found, given to character X who then wants you to
get him a B and the only person who has one of those is character
Y ... well, you get the idea.

I first saw ITE advertised in Computer Gaming World, an American
magazine to which I subscribe. I hadn't seen it mentioned over
here so I ordered the disk version (the CD-ROM version wasn't then
available) direct from the States. It came in about a month, and
didn't work - it failed to install. I contacted New World
Computing and they sent a replacement disk. This had the same
problem with the installation program.

A chat to Richard helped me unpack it. Lo and behold, I discovered
it needed MS-DOS; I use DR-DOS and this is the first time I've
come across such an incompatibility. I contacted New World again
(thank heavens for FAXes!) and was sent a DR-DOS compatible
ITE.EXE to replace mine - but for the CD-ROM version. So I sent
another FAX, explaining why I still couldn't use it but asking how
much it would cost to upgrade to the CD-ROM version and they
kindly sent me the CD-ROM disk free of charge.

Well, all this to-ing and fro-ing took a few months but it was
worth the wait. ITE is one of the most enjoyable graphic
adventures I've played. I'd even rate it about DOTT and I thought
THAT was good. I don't know what's been so special about it; the
characters certainly come across very well and the speech on the
CD-ROM version adds a lot to the atmosphere. Downsides? I found
the scrolling areas a bit frustrating and slow to move around,
though only having a mingy 386SX-16 doesn't help.

I would recommend ITE highly. The difficulty level isn't too high,
the storyline and characters good, the speech and sound effects
excellent. I'd also recommend New World Computing's after sales
help. They couldn't have done more.

                                                  Sue
                              - o -