gadget

need a review on gadget before i buy...thanks

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another "aunt sophie" out to enjoy life!

Hi Vicky!

Gadget is one of my favorite "games". It's not really a game, but more a piece of interactive fiction like "Lotus Spring."

The author Hirihuko SHONO also did "Alice: An Interactive Museum" as well as "L-Zone".

The story is about a dictator who plans who control the masses with a machine called "The Sensorama". It was originally called "The Beam Machine" and it was built by some scientists initially to bring out latent powers within people's minds. These machines are powered by some alien-meteor that had fallen to earth. Unfortunately Orlovsky (the dictator) doesn't know what he's playing with and you get to meet some of the sad victims of his experiments with the Sensorama.

The universe the story takes place in is very Victorian and Orwellian. Modern technology crossed with big hulking machinery.

You'll see images of swamps with discarded machinery floating in them with odd looking trees...

It's a very surreal story with a very weird twist at the end (as you gradually figure out who you are).

The game is MYST-like in it's movement and simple inventory system. The only puzzle is towards the end; A maze that is easily navigated using a radar-system aboard the vessel you travel in.

It may sound sorta boring.. However if you like surrealism, old hotel lobbies and train stations, shadowy museums and such, You'll probably fall into it's trance and play it straight through to the end.

The artwork is wonderful, and the atmosphere so thick you could cut it with a knife.

I really hope you enjoy it..and don't worry..no shooting or arcade sequences.

Also, make sure you buy the unabridged version called "Gadget: Past as Future"..it comes with four CDs.

Han

[This message has been edited by Hanover (edited 04-20-2001).]

Hanover - thanks for this timely review.

I have wandered around the rain station, hotel and listened to wierd muttering on the train. Feels liek "The Prisoner".

I have this sitting in stasis - so I'll have to open up my sole lonly little saved game and play again. You are right about the surrealism in this game. It has a wondrous air about it.

Laura