TWINSEN'S ODYSSEY (LITTLE BIG ADVENTURE 2)

                 Reviewed by Stefan Herber

Can't actually remember when I bought this but I can't believe it
was after I'd struggled and cursed my way through its predecessor.
I'm sure I would have said to myself - one of that sort of
experience is enough. Whatever it was one of a pile of
miscellaneous unplayed games and as man cannot live by bread alone
I can't live on a diet of just RPGs. So after replaying Baldur 1
(a mistake - I forgot how big it was) prior to tackling BG2 I
needed a respite from swords and sorcery. So LBA2 was installed.

One has to hand it to the French - there games are very weird and
very original indeed. To even classify LBA is difficult but it
probably is arcade with a few adventure elements thrown in.
Trouble is there's too much arcade and too much fighting so the
adventure elements are overwhelmed.


The game for these reasons is very difficult - precise positioning
is vital but even then it is impossible to know whether a jump
will succeed or whether a shot will hit the target. As it's
keyboard-controlled precision in wither matter is out of the
question. There are a number of other infuriations - monster
regeneration occurs whenever one returns to a site and some clues
are abstruse to say the least. The one plus in this outing is that
at least one can save anywhere - the above pleasures plus lack of
an automatic save really drove me to distraction in the first
outing. Not that this one didn't have me cursing on a regular
basis.

The game is set on the planet Twinsun where our hero lives.
Suddenly it is invaded by hostile aliens and in time one learns
that they wish to destroy the planet so that the prophecy of the
Dark Monk (their Messiah) can be fulfilled. Over to you as the
hero to prevent this. Death will come about 20 times per scenario
while you figure out what you're supposed to do and spend time
killing enemies all of whom regenerate as soon as you enter a
building in the same area.

There are no real puzzles as such - it's simply a question of
finding the right people and asking the right questions before
battling your way again to the next arena..

It's actually quite cute at times although I could have done
without the twee ending. But realistically it was only my hard-
headedness that caused me to finish it. The rest of you will
already know if this is up your street. It was a commercial
success in its time, so I wonder what happened to the developers?









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