ChronoQuest-II


Title           ChronoQuest-II
Game Type	Adventure
Publisher	Psygnosis
Players		1
HD Installable  Yes (see below)
Compatibility	All (512 KB)
Submission	daveyw@ihug.co.nz

Review
This was the first ever Amiga game I played, back on my A500 in 1991, and
remained a favourite of mine for quite a while. The sequel to the
diabolical ChronoQuest, the game is thankfully very different to its
predecessor. The game begins with you and the Explora time machine
stranded far from home. The interface consists of a large window
displaying a (usually) static image of your present location, with a row
of icons down the bottom. A small window separates the two, for text
messages, dialogue, etc. The graphics were good in their day, and still
stand up okay today, though are hardly of photographic quality.

Your objective is to return home. The temporal gamezone is divided into 13
stages, which you jump back and forth in the Explora. The time machine is
now powered by feeding metal into it, and your basic quests consists of
arriving at a stage, solving some puzzles, finding a new piece of metal,
going back and chucking it into Explora, and then whipping off to another
stage.

ChronoQuest 2 is a lot more simplistic in terms of navigating from
location to location. Instead of a multitude of directions to try, CQ2 has
just two, "advance" and "retreat". This makes the game extremely linear,
as you must solve the puzzles in a set order, to be able to advance. It
also makes the game feel rather small, as some stages consist of just a
few screens. Thankfully, the puzzles are rather good, though advanced
gamers will probably zip through them.

The time periods drawn in for this game include the birth of Christ (!)
and Arthur, but mostly Homeric legends, and the Three Musketeers, so
you'll alternately play Odysseus and D'Artangan. CQ2 shines in character
interaction, which includes brief clips of digitised speech. Conversations
are similar to Monkey Island, where you choose a response from a list.
Being of French origin, everyone speeks wiz an akzent, but they're rather
charming. Also being French, there are a few raunchy sections where you
seduce (or are seduced by) beautiful women.

The instructions claim the game is hard drive installable, but when I
tried to play it off my HD, it froze when I clicked on a button. This
may've been a stack problem, but even with 50000 I still get this. It may
work for you.

ChronoQuest II is a big improvement over ChronoQuest I, though it can't
stand up to today's adventures. Still, if you've played everything else
under the sun, you'll get a week or so of solid gameplay from this little
number.



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