Technical stuff first
Min requirements -
- IBM & 100% PC compatible
- 486/33MHz DX
- PCI SVGA or Accelerated VLB
- 8Mb RAM
- 8-bit sound (windows compatible)
- 2x speed CDROM
- Windows 3.1 or later or DOS 5
Best performance -
- Pentium
- SVGA w/ 16-32 bit colours
- 3x / x4 CDROM
The game is a good 5+ years old now but I ran it successfully on my Windows
ME, P3, 750Mhx + Voodoo5 card PC without any problems.
The Daedalus Encounter (DE) is a point and click 1st person adventure with
mixed graphic and FMV animation.
The Game -
Quite an unusual little offering this.
The time is the future towards the end of an intergalactic war. You play
Casey, one of a trio of space soldiers (Casey, Ari, played by Tia Carrere a
former Bond girl, and Zack). While patrolling a sector of space you are
attacked by a number of enemy space craft and have to evacuate in the
emergency pods. Unfortunately, Casey's escape pod is struck by a disabled
enemy fighter.
You wake up several months later, to discover that your body was beyond
saving, but a medi-team have managed to save your brain and insert it in to
a mechanical device and enhance it with a number of augmentations.
You and your former colleagues have now gone into the galactic salvage
business and the game starts with the trio aboard their salvage vessel. The
first mission played is a brief training session for you to become familiar
with the interface and controls.
The game starts properly when you make a jump through hyperspace and
crash land onto an enormous alien ship of unknown origin. Unfortunately for
you the ship is hurtling towards the solar systems sun and you have four
hours to get into the ship find the navigation controls, divert the ship
away from the sun and save yourselves.
This is the main theme of the game. The major aspect where the game deviates
from conventional adventure games is that you, as Casey, are a small remote
control automated craft and this is the medium through which you interact
with the environment. I actually quite enjoyed this element of the game, as
you had quite a few nifty things to play with (an analyzer which examined
various materials and objects, this is a vital aspect of the game and is
needed to kick-off several of the puzzles, there is also a grapple arm,
flashlight, a diagnostics function, you can transmit information and simple
yes/no responses etc.). The interface is relatively easy to use and quick to
master. You view the game through Casey's control panel and I liked this
feature, it added interest for me.
The story unfolds through an animated movie (FMV sprites against a 3D
graphically rendered backdrop) and at various points the movie stops, for
you to explore a particular environment or solve a puzzle or perform a
specific task in order for you to continue. Once done the movie then
continues logically from your actions. Though the story is essentially
linear, it can develop along a number of different paths ie. you may find a
particular object required for the end section in one location during one
game and then in a different location if you play the game again.
Essentially, irrespective of the order and sequence of events the game
culminates in the same end sequence, though depending on how you handle the
end sequence there are a number of different endings.
Overall I liked this game. There was nothing particularly outstanding about
it, but also there was nothing particularly dire about it either. I was a
little disappointed in some aspects. It was a shame that the game developed
through the movie as I would have liked to have roamed through the ship by
myself, for certain sections of the game you seem a little superfluous as
the action unfolds without any interaction and you are only called upon to
solve a puzzle to get through a door (or something similar) before the movie
takes up the action again and carries you along with it.
I enjoyed the puzzles, they were a good mix of patterns, spatial
relationships, mechanical devices etc. and required a good amount of
thought. You have to be a little patient though as the initial part of the
game develops the story through the animated movie and there is little for
you to do. But stay with it, as you find yourself becoming increasingly more
handy as you venture further into the alien craft. Be careful as there are
many timed puzzles, I usually do not like timed puzzles, but in this game it
was in-keeping with the story and actually enhanced the gameplay.
In conclusion, this is not a classic, but I enjoyed it. It is a little
different from conventional adventure games and incorporates some original
ideas and features. I would recommend giving this a spin, it is not a long
game and not too difficult (though some of the puzzles can test the old grey
matter for a while). Like most games it could have been better, but it was
an enjoyable experience and I would give it a whirl if you get the chance.
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GameBoomers
