Previous Next

Bubble Bus has always been known for huge, sprawling games. Remember Starquake? Well now there's another mega maze offering with The Fifth Quadrant, around 230 rooms and locations to explore.

Once again we set off into deep space. The Galactic Survey Vessel Orion is on a mission to explore and map the galaxies of the Hercules Cluster. After twenty years of work just one sector remains.

The crew put themselves into suspended animation and set off to go boldly where no one has boldly gone before. And then they get the Zimens. No, it's not some intergalactic space disease but a force of alien mechanical beings who infiltrate the Orion. When the crew regains its wits after waking from its space sleep, they find the ship's systems have been terminated and the computers reprogrammed in an alien language.

As the ship's energy drains away, the crew must try and regain control of the Orion.

To do this you have four robots under your control which must be used to explore the ship, access lifts to different levels.

Each robot has its own identity. They are SLOG, ship's captain and pilot, PLOT, navigator, KNUT, engineer, and BODD, the crewman. KNUT, in fact, is locked in prison when the game starts and the others must free him.

The computers are scattered throughout the ship.

While not the most original idea, The Fifth Quadrant is very playable and should appeal to all those who like problem solving, three-dimensional maze games. Nice graphics.