A Quick Look At ...

                           By Sue

The City of Lost Children - Psygnosis

This latest graphic adventure from Psygnosis is based on the film
of the same name. The film is evidently quite surreal and tells
the tale of a crazy scientist, Krank, who cannot dream and because
of this is aging rapidly. He is trying to reverse or stop this
process by stealing dreams belonging to the children of the city,
by kidnapping them with the aid of his henchmen and using a
device to steal their dreams. One of the missing children is the
brother of a circus strongman, known as One, and a young
orphan girl, Miette, tries to help him find his brother during
the game/film.

The film is evidently excellent but the game falls short, being
dull and uninteresting as Miette collects items to give to people
and hold brief conversations with some of them. Control is via the
keyboard (arrow keys, enter, page up, page down, tab and space
plus CTRL and arrow to run). There is a limited number of save
slots and the game is also pretty short. The graphics, however,
are good, using pre-rendered scenery and animated 3D characters
and the music effective. It sounds, however, as though you'd be
better off hiring the video of the film!

*

The Feeble Files - AdventureSoft

This SVGA point-and-click adventure runs through Windows 95 and
comes from the Simon the Sorcerer team. This time, however, you
play an alien, named Feeble, who lives in an oppressed society
which is controlled by the Company which is made up of the
Omnibrain and its Enforcers. Briefly, your aim during the game is
to defeat the Omnibrain and free the population from its tyranny.
This revolution comes about because at the start of the game, an
accident gets Feeble on the wrong side of the Company and into

prison where he meets up with Delores, a revolutionary and a
military robot, SAM, so that the three of them join forces.

The game is controlled by the mouse and a variety of cursors
according to the action you want to perform. Movement from one
screen to another can take some time and there isn't a `short cut'
option to move quickly from one area of the game to another.  You
will need to collect and use objects, as usual, and these are
managed through an inventory which takes the form of a futuristic
wrist watch known as The Oracle and which also contains useful
information and can provide cryptic clues.  There are also some
interesting puzzles, and at certain points of the game you will
control SAM rather than Feeble, but the game itself is, in
general, fairly linear.

The game comes on 4 CDs and features over 5000 lines of speech,
some of which is voiced by Robert Llewellyn (Kryten from Red
Dwarf).

*

Broken Sword II : The Smoking Mirror - VIE

This game also runs under Windows 95 and features George Stobart
and his girl friend Nico who were in the first game.  At the start
of BS2, they are attacked by thugs when visiting a professor who
has some Mayan artifacts and George is left tied to a chair while
Nico is kidnapped. George will need to do some pretty fast
thinking to escape from this initial predicament but once he does,
and then he and Nico will have to try and work out just what is
going on! Fortunately the plot will be gradually revealed as you
play.

The game controls and interface are very similar to the first game
in the series with a good mix of puzzles, excellent graphics and
good music and sound effects. There is a fair amount of humour in
it as well so you can be amused as you try to save the world.


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