Family Computing, v5(8)

~1 minute read

Aug 1987

SOFTWARE REVIEWS

Bureaucracy

Steve Morgenstern

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS: Amiga, 128K Apple IIe/IIc, C 128, IBM PC, Macintosh.
PUBLISHER: Infocom
PRICE: $40

You've just gotten a fantastic new job and an appropriately fantastic new home as well. Not only that, your fantastic new employer is about to send you off for two week's training — all expenses paid — in Paris! Wow! All you have to do is take your expense check (it should be in today's mail) over to the bank, grab a bite to eat, take a cab to the airport, and it's off to Paris.

Unfortunately, the bank never processed your change of address form, so the check doesn't show up — and from that seed of bureaucratic bungling Douglas Adams spins an interactive tale of extraordinary complexity and uncommon strangeness, involving computers, cannibals, llamas, fast food, and air traffic controllers, although not necessarily in that order.

The game's puzzles vary widely in difficulty; some are absolutely a snap, while others are mind-bogglingly obscure, and bring you to a dead stop until you solve them. There also seems to be an unusual number of red herrings in this game — people, objects, or strategies that seem promising and can lure you into spending hours trying to use them, but ultimately prove to have been merely side issues.

While the puzzles drift into the realm of unfairness from time to time, the quality of the writing is consistently excellent. While not quite as funny as Adams's previous game, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it's a genuine pleasure to read Bureaucracy. The author taps into a rich vein of popular paranoia, skewering petty annoyances such as rude waiters and interminably complex airline terminals while reminding us that "just because you're a paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you."

Have a hint book or a few imaginative friends handy while you play Bureaucracy. It doesn't quite live up to the lofty standards set by its bestselling predecessor, but it's still far more entertaining than 97 percent of the software on the shelves.

This article appeared in
Family Computing
Aug 1987

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