Previous Next

The Centauri Alliance is an intriguing import from Broderbund in the USA. Written by Michael Cranford, the creator of Interplay's Bard's Tale 1 and 2, there are no immediate plans to distribute the game within the UK. Any distribution deal would, presumably, be undertaken by Domark.

It was when two other life-forms were discovered on Alpha Centauri by a team from Earth that the Alliance was initiated. Technology was shared, ideas passed around, other alien races discovered. During AD 2214, six races officially formed the Centauri Alliance. Although a wish for peace predominated chaos still reigned throughout the galaxy.

Now it appears that an unfriendly lot, calling themselves DAYNAB, are searching for the 'ultimate weapon', the Fractyr Fist. This nasty piece of work has its basic components spread across the galaxy. The aim of the game, therefore, is to retrieve the bits of the Fist before the agents of DAYNAB do.

The Centauri Alliance arrives in a unique, hexagonal-shaped box containing three disks, two manuals, a map and reference cards. Adopting a familiar 'Bard's Tale' look, the game employs a multi-window play-screen. Top-left is a window containing menu choices and long-lasting psionic abilities (e.g. light creation). The large window on the lower half of the screen displays text messages. Top-centre is the window onto the gameworld, a first-person perspective that scrolls in a similar manner to Bard's Tale.

To the right of that is a list of your party of six characters (NPCs can be recruited too). Each character can be one of six races, each with their own abilities (e.g. technical and psionic) plus a set of six stats: strength, vitality, agility, IQ, life and psionic. Psionics is mental agility that replaces magic seen in Bard's Tale. It is handled in a similar way, though. You 'cast' a psionic ability as you would a spell. So you can create creatures to fight for you, cause earthquakes, detect the presence of radiation and so on.

An excellent aspect of each character's make-up is the Skill option. Each character is rated (0-10) for four basic disciplines: Combat, Tech, Psionics and Metamorph. Within each disciple are one to four skills. So the Combat discipline contains melee (close quarters), thrown (hurling knives and explosives), sidearm and master (an extension of the other three). Incidentally, metamorph is the intriguing description of being able to change a character's physical shape into one of several life forms.

Obviously, if certain problems require a certain skill you'll pick the most proficient character to complete it. So, for example, if you need to repair a mechanoid robot you'll choose the guy with a high 'hardware' skill (found in the Tech discipline).

Items are plentiful. Weapons range from the ubiquitous dagger to shurikens, UZIs and photon blasters. Armour ranges from combat to duro-fabric. There are umpteen artifacts to be found in the game too.

The game area consists of eleven worlds, each with their own characteristics. Each world is arranged in a similar way to The Bard's Tale, i.e. on a square grid maze system. You will need to travel between worlds to complete a variety of missions that must be solved before the final mission of finding the Fist is attempted. As you might have guessed, if you enjoyed Bard's Tale you'll love Centauri Alliance. However, if you didn't then... er, you won't. The graphics are quite nice, if a little repetitive in certain areas. Spot animation is plentiful though. Sound is minimal.

The actual RPG system is not exactly ground-breaking but it does vastly improve on The Bard's Tale series with the addition of skills and the unique combat interface. When this occurs you are transported over to a combat screen depicting a bunch of enlarged hexes. Standing on the hexes are your party and the enemy (each party is portrayed as one character). This hex-view gives you a chance to contemplate tactical manoeuvres and the like.

The Centauri Alliance is a solid RPG which contains a large dollop of gameplay. Any RPG player will enjoy the game but dedicated Bard's Tale fans are recommended to buy this game post haste.