LITTLE BIG ADVENTURE 2 - Twinsen's Odyssey

                Played by Peter Clark on PC

The original game, Little Big Adventure 1 is a game that I have
not played although reviews of the game were quite good.
Electronic Arts and Adeline Software in 1997 published Little Big
Adventure 2, as a sequel. The game is set initially on the planet
Twinsun. You take the part of Twinsen, a young Quelch and hero of
the planet. Four main races exist on Twinsun.  There are the
Quelch who can be recognised by their ponytails, the Grobos who
look like elephants, the Bouboules who are little fat people and
the Lapichans. On other planets you will meet four other races.
The Knants who look like sausages, the Sups who have triangular
hearts, the Mosquibees who are like large insects and the Blafards
who are the Tristo people.

Your task is to restore peace and harmony to all these planets,
saving not only your friends, but also the wizards and children of
the planet Twinsun. To do this you must find the objects and
elements that will help you and you must also seek out those
people who can lend you their knowledge and assistance.

You will have to travel great distances in your attempt to save
the world and overpower the evil Dark Monk. Your enemies can gain
the upper hand at any time and put paid to your quest for peace.

Thus says the introduction in the manual but what of the game? I
must admit that I installed this game with a certain amount of
trepidation as I had heard that the control interface in the
original game was difficult to master. The mouse is not used as
the directions are all controlled from the cursor keys and all
other actions are keyboard controlled. However, I found little
difficulty in playing the game. After a half hour or so of play
the control became quite natural.

The game is huge and involves travel between several planets and
lands many times. It is not completely linear and tasks can be
completed, to some extent, in different orders. To start with, you
are permitted to carry out your tasks without hindrance but, later
on after your world is invaded, you will have to contend with
quite a selection of aliens that seem to have no other task in
life but to exterminate you. It takes a page out of the
role-playing games in that you need to find power ups as you
progress and, as you receive damage from adversaries, your
strength will diminish. The same applies to money used in the
game. You start with nothing and have to unearth coins as you
progress. Whilst I was playing the game I discovered a cheat code
that allowed me to top up both my strength and money at regular
intervals and so I cannot really say just how difficult these
tasks would be. However, I found no real difficulty in finding
power ups and money before finding the cheat so this may not be
too difficult a task.

Twinsen can operate in four different modes. There is the NORMAL
mode where he walks everywhere and you must be in this mode to
find money. The second mode is SPORTY and here Twinsen runs and
jumps. Thirdly, AGGRESSIVE mode allows you to fight and use any of
the many weapons that you will find as you progress through the
game. Lastly there is DISCRETE mode that allows you to creep
quietly around and can be used to bypass some but not all of the
opposition.

Transport comes in many different shapes and sizes and your first
task is to find a remedy for your sick dynofly. This is very much
a cross between a dragon and a dinosaur. When he is well, he will
be able to fly you to several of the places that you must visit.
Within the game there are several ferrymen that you will have to
pay to transport you around. One of these is needed to cross a sea
of molten lava. At other points in the game you will have to
master driving a car through the desert and using a rocket back
pack. The acquisition of a space shuttle that doesn't belong to
you becomes necessary and is another method of transport that you
will need several times if you are to be successful in your task.

The save game facility is one that I used many, many times as
there are a large number of places where Twinsen must negotiate
rivers, cliffs and molten lava and, unless you jump from the
correct place, you die! Towards the end of the game the number of
adversaries increases to a point where it seems that all you are
doing is fighting. If I have any criticism of the game it is here.
I found that the continual hack and slash became boring. However,
it is only the last part of the game that is affected this way.

The graphics are good if a little dated but the sound, especially
the background music, is really very good and enjoyable.  There is a
control within the game allowing you to alter the volume of both the
speech and background. This is one of the few games that I have
played recently where I have not wanted to turn the music off.

I bought the game on budget label, Electronic Arts Classics.  The
game needs Windows 95 or upward. I played on Windows Me with no
problems. Any Pentium processor will do and only 8Mb RAM is
needed. Usual SoundBlaster cards are accepted and anything over a
quad speed CD ROM Drive is Ok.

All told, I would recommend this game. It took me around a month
to complete even with help from the net. Go for it. It's worth a
few quid if it is still available.
                              - o -