OOZE: CREEPY NITES by INC A text-only version of the original game by DRAGONWARE Available on SynTax disk 1003 (PC) Review by Bev Truter "Another HACK game by INC!" the README screen cheerfully announces, after a very brief description of the game; and this is the only information you are provided with before plunging headlong into Ooze. The original version of this game contained about 20 graphics (colour), an instruction manual written in the form of a diary, and information on how to obtain hints by interacting with a character called Murx - CALL MURX summons him. This INC version of Ooze has no instructions, graphics, scoring system or mention of Murx, and I had to read up Andy Thompson's review of the original Ooze, and a solution (by Neil Shipman?) to glean some vital bits of information. (Issues 7 and 8 of SynTax.) There were some files with no extensions ranging from P1 to P22, but I didn't discover any way of viewing them - perhaps these are the missing graphics? The apparent lack of a scoring system (points for Character, Charisma, Courage, Health and Hit Points) proved fatal to finishing the game, as in the endgame you can only vanquish the Major Baddie (Ooze) if your Hit Points, Courage, etc. are over a certain level, and since this version of Ooze doesn't keep track of such things you are bumped off unceremoniously in the final confrontation scene, as the game assumes you have a zero score. Ooerr, actually Ooze just *might* keep track of your score internally and invisibly - I've just remembered I ate a bag of jelly-babies when the game complained I was feeling hungry, and that resulted in me feeling very sick...perhaps *that's* what lowered my (invisible) Health Points and prevented me from completing the final few moves...ponder, worry, think, think. Anyhow, I have no intention of replaying the whole game with its many (70) locations to find out if this was indeed the case. In Ooze you play the role of Ham Burger, nephew to the deceased Cheez Burger. In order to save your uncle's soul you have to return to Carfax Abbey where he was killed by the wicked Ooze, track down this Ooze, and defeat him in a final confrontation. Before searching out Ooze you first have to befriend / help the nine ghosts lurking about Carfax Abbey, and have a sufficiently high score - the latter still remains a mystery to me, I haven't a clue if the scoring system is functioning, albeit invisibly, or not. Ooze begins like a traditional horror yarn, but then wavers uneasily between true horror and corny comedy. The "horror" consists of lurid descriptions of scuttling rats, crawling spiders, dangling cobwebs and an assortment of ghosts - all rather tame fare for an adventurer, surely. But from Ham's hysterical reactions to lurking spiders and the like it seems he's something of a wimp in the adventure department. The first few locations in Ooze are well written and rich in detail, which hits exactly the right note of creepiness. The interior of the Abbey continues in the same vein, but all the locations have so much detail that eventually ploughing your way through the sheer quantity of text becomes tiresome; and the atmosphere gradually turns from eerie to overdone. Assuming you are intrepid enough to be undeterred by all of the above, and still fancy a bash at Ooze, make sure you have a solution handy! Ooze has vast, rambling location descriptions and the puzzles / problems are obscure, some requiring utterly baffling inputs to solve. The parser is poor, there are no synonyms for several unlikely actions you are required to perform, and it's hard to distinguish which items are important and which are merely scenery. For instance, most locations have an abundance of items arranged in them, from drapes, curtains, carpets, tapestries, panels, tables and chairs to a trunk, a chandelier, a bed, etc. So you waste an awful amount of time in each location just fiddling about with the scenery, trying to discover which item, if any, has a purpose in the game. All seemed well on the grammar / spelling front, although the verb EXAMINE had me stumped for a while. It can only be shortened to EXAM - EX results in a list of available exits, and X maddeningly seems an abbreviation of QUIT. Typing EXAM or SEARCH usually results in a superficial description of the object you are trying to investigate, and LOOK AT seems to be the phrase that works better at getting information about various objects. In a few places it's necessary to preface your command with an adverb, eg, QUIETLY OPEN DOOR, and it's here that the lack of any kind of instruction file becomes obvious. Oddly enough, in spite of Ooze's many shortcomings, I quite enjoyed playing it up to about the halfway point. The extremely long chunks of text were well written, and there were enough puzzles to save it from being just a long, pointless narrative. The most annoying feature for me was the *very* obscure inputs required to solve many puzzles. By today's standards Ooze features almost all the cardinal sins that should be avoided when programming a text game - text too verbose, puzzles too obscure, no X for EXAMINE, no apparent score, and no instruction file. But then this INC version of Ooze was released in 1990, almost a decade ago. Considering the original commercial version of Ooze retailed at a staggering œ24.99, this INC version of Ooze is worth a look, if just to compare the games of yesteryear with current text games available. Oh how I wish I'd never eaten those jelly-babies . - o -