Remember a while back when Jim posted a preview of Planetfall 2?
Well, today I found a copy of a CD Mag called Interactive
Entertainment. It contains a story on the game, which it calls Return
to Planetfall: Floyd Strikes Back. (It's IE #6, Sep 1994.) Here's
the text of it.
---BEGIN---
Lately, the computer adventure game market seems to be a
contest to see who can come up with the best rendered graphics and who
can hire the best band to record the CD stereo soundtrack. It's hard
to believe that, not too many years ago, the field was dominated by
text-only games. These products had only one aspect that kept them
selling: great stories. There was no question that the dominating
company in this text-game universe was Infocom. While they were best
known for the Zork fantasy games, another of their most popular
products was a hilarious science-fiction comedy adventure called
Planetfall, and its sequel, Stationfall, both written by Steve
Meretzky.
Meanwhile, on another consumer electronics front, the Atari
2600 was kicking the butts of all the other home entertainment
systems. The credit for this can not go entirely to Atari, however.
Everyone knew that the best games for the system were produced by an
independent company named Activision. Most folks bought the 2600 so
they could play games like Pitfall and MegaMania. They sure didn't buy
it for Space Invaders.
Flash forward 10 years, and Steve Meretzky is still very much
in demand in the computer game world. His work has been compared with
that of Douglas Adams. (Appropriately enough, since the two of them
collaborated on the text game version of Adams' Hitchihker's Guide to
the Galaxy.) Meretzky's latest project, Superhero League of Hoboken,
was reviewed in the last episode of IE. Infocom no longer exists, but
Activision is stronger than ever. They bought the rights to all those
great Infocom games, and had a major hit on their hands with a graphic
continuation of the Zork series, Return to Zork. Now, they're hoping
to enjoy even greater success with Return to Planetfall: Floyd Strikes
Back.
For those unfamiliar with the original Planetfall games, Floyd
was a robot with the enthusiasm of a ten-year old. He followed the
player around everywhere, not being very useful, but always eager to
play a quick game of hider-seeker. Floyd was easily the most popular
character in the entire text-game medium. In an uncharacteristically
tragic moment in Stationfall, the player must kill Floyd to save the
universe. Many players wrote to Infocom testifying their tearful
experiences playing those last moments of the game.
The new game's content is very much in keeping with the humor
of the original series. The player returns to his unnamed role as an
Ensign Seventh Class, working this time on an insterstellar cruise
ship overrun by yuppies. So, not only do you have to perform menial
chores from scrubbing floors to filling out requisition forms to
clearing glasses at the piano bar, you also have to deal politely with
tourists in Hawaiian shirts. Fortunately, your good robot friend Floyd
has unexpectedly returned from the dead, and he is as eager as ever to
accompany you on your adventures. Yes, adventures. You didn't think
the whole game would be kitchen duty, did you? Among other things, you
get to uncover an ancient robot religion, a secret scientific
technology that could transform the universe, and an insidious plot to
reduce all human life to a zombie-like existence, much like your
current job.
Of course, however good the story, this wouldn't be much of an
update if the new Planetfall was nothing but text. The graphics on
Return to Planetfall are nothing short of spectacular. Activision
promises a cast full of celebrity actors to flesh out the population
on board the cruise ship, and all through the game. As this cast list
develops, you can count on IE to keep you posted. On top of this,
there's lots of beautifully rendered animations that bring Meretzky's
twisted vision to life.
Speaking of Steve Meretzky, he is the designer of this latest
Planetfall installment, but his other current projects have kept him
too busy to write the entire game. Instead, Activision brought in the
team of Hans Beimler and Richard Manning, the head writers from the
recent television hit Star Trek: The Next Generation. One of the
things that made Next Gen really stand out, not just as science
fiction, but overall, was the excellent scriptwriting. Since the
show's conclusion in April, it's hard to imagine a better choice of
writers to follow in Meretzky's rather imposing footsteps.
Between the phenomenal graphics and the cast of celebrities,
not to mention the ever-important writing, Return to Planetfall will
certainly be successful, both economically and artistically.
Activision plans to release this update in the second quarter of 1995.
---END---
Shame it wasn't completed. And in the interest of clarification, I
must
