Bliss: An Interactive Harrowing by Cameron Wilkin
                     Part of Disk 1314

                  Reviewed by Nick Edmunds

A rogue dragon has been rampaging through the land and it's quite
simply the last straw when we are awakened by our Page to find our
city in flames.  Without even a pause for breakfast we depart post
haste to dispatch the dragon responsible. It must be another one
of those days because things are just going from bad to worse when
we are captured on route by orcs and imprisoned in the dungeon of
the evil wizard Margoth. It's exactly the sort of thing that
shouldn't happen to a royal adventuring hero such as yourself.

Thus, as the game opens, we find ourselves trapped and alone in a
cell with no immediately visible means of escape. Fortunately orcs
are a bit dim and make ideal prison guards if you're a prisoner
intent on absconding. There really can't be much of a selection
process for evil henchmen - maybe evil tyrants are too busy being
evil to search out suitable candidates.  Hatching nefarious plots
must be particularly time consuming, or perhaps the wages of sin
are peanuts, cos we all know what you get when you pay peanuts -
YTS (although orcs are probably lower down the evolutionary scale
than your average YTS).  This initial prison cell imagery works
well, as it's so clich‚d we can all picture the scene instantly. A
few simple moves later and we're able to hack and slash our way
out in the tradition of many a boys' own adventure in order to
continue our quest.

At this stage Bliss is almost a text version of a slash 'em up,
dealing as it does with a fairly standard plot while containing
some nice action involving the sort of physical puzzles that tend
to be cumbersome in IF, but handled here in a simple and effective
fashion.  Sounds a little cheesy I know, but don't let appearances
grind you down before they're hatched.  Bliss may appear to be a
conventional D and D style adventure but it soon begins to hint at
much more.  The first clue is your character's seizure-like
headaches - that's never a good sign - and then your tasks seem a
little too easily accomplished, i.e. Killing a dragon while armed
only with a knife. If only everything in life were that simple.
Bliss is also quite well written, so that the simplistic plot and
puzzles don't quite gel with the literary style of the whole - or
so you would think.  It would appear that the fantasy world
escapism that is the foundation of adventure games could have a
deeper and darker side, even to the extent of blurring the
boundaries of reality.  Thus the interesting conclusion, that
serves to question our own enjoyment of the tasks we've just
accomplished, makes Bliss well worth playing to the end.

The game itself is well structured and written, if a bit thin on
plot, but as the initial story is merely a vehicle for a greater
whole it's more than acceptable in this instance. Bliss plays well
in its own right and the ending is handled deftly, as there was
potential for moralising or coming across all pretentious like but
the author has merely raised a point, leaving any decisions on
these issues up to the player. It's also interesting to see a game
based killing spree handled in this manner as I, for one, have
certainly become a little immune to PC carnage and routinely
slaughter thousands after my tea without a moments thought.

While there have been many psychological studies into the alleged
effects of violence in films and television I am not aware of any
such research carried out specifically with computer games.  Even
should this research happen it's unlikely that text adventures
will dominate any headlines when games like Quake and Doom make
such convenient scapegoats and others, like Grand Theft Auto,
openly court controversy as part of their advertising.  Perhaps
the effects of game violence would correlate closer to cartoon
violence than to film violence as, at current technology levels,
the game can clearly be seen to not be "real".  However, as the
march of technology advances and we approach the possibility of
almost total immersion into the gaming environment it may be
interesting to see any behavioural effects, both on the industry
and the individual, that this may have.

For myself I would consider a gaming environment to provide
therapeutic escapism in a stressful world, much like Sue's
daydreaming (Daydream Believer, SynTax Issue 72), for while I'm
often bewildered, particularly at work, I've yet to confuse the
two realities and bust a cap in someone by mistake.  Reality can
be harrowing, Bliss proves the point quite effectively and were
the twist in the tale not so enjoyably shocking I might wish for
my ignorance again.
















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