Fine adaptation of a classic book
The legendary hard sci-fi book by Arthur C Clarke provides this inspiration for this detailed and complex graphic adventure that hails from the early days of interactive fiction. The original book is pretty dense stuff, with plenty of complex themes to get your head around so it might not seem the obvious choice for a videogame adaptation, but thanks to some thoughtful consideration of the source material, this is a fine slice of sci-fi that genre fans should seriously consider checking out. The game follows the plot of the book pretty closely and revolves around the sudden appearance of a mysterious spacecraft that enters the Solar System in the 22nd century. Players take the role of the commander of the ship sent to investigate and must explore the craft, solving puzzles as they go and uncovering the mystery of the aliens and their craft. This being an early graphic adventure, like The Tracer Sanction, the game features a few visuals alongside the text-based portions of the game which provide the meat of the story. While the visuals are not particularly impressive, lacking in detail or charm, fortunately the descriptions more than make up for any shortcomings in this department and are well written, highly detailed and which provide a lot of atmosphere and tension to match that of the book. The puzzles too are generally pretty strong, with some clever ones that will keep even genre veterans tested but which aren't so punishing that newcomers will be put off and overall, whether you are a fan of graphic adventures or Clarke's work in general, this is a fine adventure that is well worth seeking out.
