~4 minute readMARKETALK: Reviews
Suspended
Suspended. By Michael Berlyn. When Infocom released Zork two years ago, it was evident that this new company cared about quality and its customers. The full parser was an innovation â- freedom from putting the cat in the hat in two words or less, and a vocabulary that seemed to want to understand even when it didn't.
On top of the technical excellence, the adventure story was entertaining and its puzzles logical and intelligent.
As new Infocom products arrived, they merely cemented these impressions. Innovation and excellence are a way of life for the folks at Infocom. A breakthrough is something they must make approximately once a week.
Meanwhile, high in the mountains of Colorado, a science-fiction writer was not plying his trade. He'd fallen in love with the Apple he'd bought to write his books on and had taken to writing computer adventures instead, under the banner of Sentient Software. But Berlyn couldn't stop plotting. The clever, rounded plots that make good fiction kept creeping into his adventures, bringing them critical acclaim despite their limited parser (cleverly done) and Berlyn's beginning programming status. Oo Topos was a promise that Cyborg began to fulfill.
Like the people at Infocom, Berlyn drove himself for the best he could produce; he would push beyond his capacity.
Wouldn't it be wonderful, adventurers might muse, if Infocom and Mike Berlyn could get together? It would, and they did, and it is. The first product of Mike Berlyn at Infocom, working with Infocom's specially developed tools and methods and the input of the company's designers, Marc Blank and Dave Lebling, is exactly what you might expect in your wildest dreams: a highly intelligent, intricately plotted, totally playable, challenging and satisfying adventure, and, of course, a breakthrough.
Suspended takes place on a computer-controlled planet; the failsafe, in case of computer malfunction, is human â- that is the role the player assumes; and, as you begin, the computer has just malfunctioned.
Awakened just enough from a cryogenic sleep to think clearly, but still in a vulnerably suspended state physically, you must direct the actions of (here's this week's breakthrough) six unique robots to manipulate the controls that maintain the planet manually and to ferret out the causes of the malfunction and correct them.
Each of the six robots is individual, with strengths and weaknesses. Auda can hear; she cannot see. Iris can see, but she is confined to a small section of the control center. Sensa can detect physical waves and emissions, but she cannot manipulate things well. Waldo can manipulate just about anything, but he cannot always figure things out. Whiz is terrific when he's getting information from the central computer, but he's little more than an errand runner away from his plug. And Poet, well, Poet's makers missed the boat in debugging; he does his job well â- he understands much through touch â- but he speaks in poems and riddles.
There's a good argument that the robots are essentially personifications of human senses; if that fascinates you, consider it now. Once you begin playing Suspended, you are apt to be so charmed by the individual personalities of the six robots that you won't want to think of them as symbolic of anything. They are themselves, varied and colorful and friendly.
The robots are independent of each other. You can send several to various places and have others do other things while the first are on their way. In fact, to win the game, you'll have to find efficient ways to keep all the robots working simultaneously. Infocom provides a full-color laminated map with stick-on symbols of the six robots to help you keep track of who's where.
The object of Suspended is to repair the malfunctioning parts of the control center with the least possible fatalities planetside. At first, it seems impossible to finish the job at all before angry humans from the planet storm the control center to replace you for a job poorly done. But once you've solved all the puzzles, the temptation to go back and do it all more efficiently is strong. Can you do it with no fatalities?
Berlyn has succeeded in devising an adventure that is so absorbing, so compelling in the pleasure of the achieving, that you can replay it again and again.
Recognizing this, Berlyn included three extra modes of play, advanced, configure, and impossible. Advanced starts you off later in the game with one robot out of commission. Configure lets you choose your own parameters â- how many robots are functional, how soon angry humans come in from the planet. Impossible â- well, impossible's a joke.
As usual with Infocom games, the vocabulary is even more extensive than the last Infocom game. If you are using your mind, Suspended will probably understand you. If there's an approximate common word for a concept and a precise uncommon word, try the precise one. That's the way the minds at Infocom work, too. It's a pleasure.
Suspended is an intelligent, logical, well-plotted, compelling and absorbing, challenging and satisfying text adventure that begs to be played over and over again.
What more can an intelligent adventurer ask? Graphics?
Bite your tongue.
Suspended, by Michael Berlyn, Infocom (55 Wheeler Street, Cambridge, MA 02138; 617492-1031). $49.95.
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