Previous Next

In the third of the Questprobe series, you control both the incredibly strong (and imaginatively named) Thing and The Human Torch, who can, as his name suggests, turn into a flaming mass. Your task is to resue Alicia Masters from the evil Doctor Doom, which makes a change from collecting gems as in other Scott Adams games.

Otherwise there is not much difference between this and the others. The graphics are often stunning, and really catch comic book style. There are some difficult puzzles, probably Adams' most endearing quality; the first, involving a tar pit, will prove popular with the helpline I'm sure. But the text is pathetically brief, with virtually no description. A useful complete list of vocabulary is given, and it runs to 700 words. Some of these are plurals however, and when playing, the parser still feels restrictive. The responses are limited, and the game has an annoying habit of printing OK if it understands only the *first* word of your input - even if the rest of it is absolute rubbsih, or before any messages (for example, "OK Sorry I can't" which is just sloppy English).

Questprobe 3 is not a bad game in itself, but when compared with products like Level 9 games, or even some budget titles, it is weak. Adams has produced better, such as Spiderman. Unless you like tough problems or pretty pictures, I wouldn't recommend it; and as for the US Gold claims that "Scott Adams is the undisputed master of the art of adventure writing", well, I'm disputing it!