Edifice by Lucian Smith
        (Part of Disk 1214 and on this issue's disk)

                  Reviewed by Nick Edmunds

"Here, in the forest where you have spent your entire life, stands
a huge Edifice, reaching into the clouds high above you".  A huge
edifice that you've never really noticed before and while your
curiosity is initially piqued you are also aware that the eyes of
your enemies are upon you and that prompt action is required in
order to survive. If you don't respond fairly sharpish then you
are deemed to have resumed, "your simple existence" as one of the
herd and effectively given up on your quest before even starting.

Once inside the Edifice we are confronted with three levels, each
with reliefs upon the walls and a door leading to a level
corresponding to a vague historical period. Each level is self-
contained, compact, bijou and neatly laid out, but rather
unusually they can be played in any order and movement is
permitted freely between them.

Examining yourself as you progress through each of these levels
gives an indication of where you are in the timeline. Initially
you are a lone, long-armed, hairy thing whose primary concern is
food and each level transports you further along the evolutionary
path.  Level 2 sees us as more of a Neanderthal type, at the
centre of a family group in search of a cure for our sick child,
while by level 3 we have become the leader of a small tribe who
need defending from a force of marauders.

Pretty soon we've been a very busy little monkey and turned into
one of those people who stand out among a crowd for not being able
to leave things alone.  Fortunately in the world of adventure
games being a smart-arse is a good thing and yet again meddling
with the natural order of things has paid off.

Personally I've often wondered about the unsung heroes who
invented/discovered things that we now take for granted, e.g. Who
was the first person to milk a cow, what did they think they were
doing and how did they persuade their mates it was a good thing?
Billed as an "interactive allegory", Edifice gives you the
opportunity of being there for some of the discoveries and
inventions that shaped human development.  These are, for the most
part, fairly fundamental things, such as domestication of animals,
writing for communication, fire for cooking and the use of tools:
things that have since shaped our world, and our species, with
their impact.

The game itself is quite small and not particularly difficult
although it does involve some interesting puzzles - my particular
favourite being the problem of communicating with the other fella
in level 2.  I was also delighted by the classic phrase: "Real
adventurers do not use such language" as this was one of the first
responses I ever elicited from a text adventure game and have been
pretty much permanently excluded from the Guild of Real
Adventurers ever since.  Coincidentally a recent survey
commissioned by Symantec found that over 50% of people asked do,
in fact, swear at their PC, probably not as regularly or with such
vehemence as myself but nevertheless I am not alone in my foul
mouthed torment (which is always comforting to know - I think).

While essentially a sort of low budget Quantum Leap affair Edifice
is well written, intriguing and easy to get caught up in.  It's
hardly surprising then that it was placed first in the 1997 IF
competition.














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