ESCAPE FROM A VERY LARGE CAVE - Amiga PD on Disk 849
                    (Graphic adventure)

                   Reviewed by Steve Clay

Normally when writing a review of a computer adventure you can
allow yourself fifty to one hundred words on the story. With Escape
From a Very Large Cave I can just about manage fourteen words. You
have fallen down a hole into a cave system and have to escape!  Now
that isn't my interpretation on some flowery tale involving dark
servants of evil and nasty wizards with vowel-less names.  That is
the plot! Not daunted by this I remember many adventures when a
slightly ropey storyline has given way to a puzzle packed feast of
a game so I still held out hope for Escape, could it be a classic?

Er.. no. Escape From a Very Large Cave has to be the most appalling
graphic adventure I have ever had the misfortune to play. The game
uses the traditional point and click interface, where you select
your command from a menu - Walk to, Examine, Pick up etc - and then
click on what you wish to interact with. The interface actually
works okay although there is a slight sluggishness about it all and
one major bug means if you drop an object within a doorway then you
can't pick it up again as the door sprite takes precedence over any
object and the object is lost forever. While on the subject of
doors I should mention that on my first game I thought the doorways
leading south out of the location were stains on the floor or some
kind of rug. A better method of displaying exits would have been an
arrow rather than the unclear method used.

There is a great deal of wandering around in search of puzzles.
Upon finding one character I selected the violence option - (You'll
be surprised how easy violence comes to mind playing this game) -
and proceeded to stab the character repeatedly. This act earnt me a
packet of extra strong mints. Well it's obvious now I think of it.
Among the rooms there is a television salesroom (I kid you not) and
a room that appears as lots of scribble with two doors in. This
room contains an 'Orc type dude'.  All the characters in the game
are 'type dudes'; 'Little girl type dude', 'Old man type dude'
et-banal-cetra.

The top item in your inventory is always obscured by the command
line. Most objects on the screen can't be examined and finding
objects that can be picked up is a real nightmare as they are
normally placed in such a way that they blend in with the mess that
is the location graphic. The result has you running the cursor all
over the screen in search of something useful. The text is minimal
and poor and there are even spelling mistakes. There is some
swearing because swearing is big and clever and not because the
language is suitable for the situation.  The graphics are really
poor. Most locations are made up blue-purple walls and black
rectangles that are the doorways. A closed door is a black
rectangle that you can't walk through - I've mentioned the floor
stains already.

The main sprite seems to have been animated by someone with a
twitch and he whizzes across the screen with a demented limp.
During play I was continually shouting out to the rest of the
family "He's walking in mid-air now!" and "That's never a bloody
coconut!"

The author whose name I have forgotten (and he should be grateful
for small mercies) claims the game was inspired by the early Lucas
games. They may have been inspired by them but they bear no
resemblance to this garbage. The game was written using AMOS and
the author has the gall to berate AMOS for being unstable and
crashing several times while creating the game. I just wonder if
AMOS could see what it was being used for and was doing its best
not to let this game see the light of day. Play this game and
you'll probably feel a little unstable as well.

If curios are your thing then this may be worth a look, if you are
thinking of writing a graphic adventure then have a look and see
how NOT to do it.  However should you be looking for anything
approaching a game then avoid like the plague.





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