Federation

Not everyone likes adventures set in the fantasy worlds of dungeons, trolls and lands of magic. CRL's latest space fiction adventure, Federation, should partially satisfy this need.

I say partially, because if you substitute robots for trolls, gleaming metal corridors for twisty rocky passages and magnetic data cards for magic rings, you end up with what may be considered a classic adventure scenario.

But whichever way you look at Federation, it provides a good run-of-the-mill game. It has plenty of puzzles and although the hi-tech sounding names for some of the objects may throw you at first, examining them will usually explain what they are and sometimes give a clue to their uses.

You play the part of a Federation agent who has the unenviable task of hunting down a treacherous alien scientist who has hijacked the Federation's latest and most powerful spaceship.

It was to be the flagship of the Federation fleet, but its designer, Erra Quann, has taken it to an outpost of the evil Empire to sell the secret of its engines.

The story opens with your space hopper, Crimson Cloud, badly damaged but almost docked to flagship Quann Tulla. Air is leaking out of your hopper at an alarming rate and your first task is to find some means of staying alive.

Having solved this fairly simple problem, you must board the Quann Tulla to continue your mission. After a brief walk down the unconnected docking tube and ending up floating in space, you realise that (a) the program restarts very quickly, and (b) that although there has been a severe failure of most on-board systems, pressing the right buttons in your hopper's cockpit will save your bacon. Pressing the wrong button gives the opposite effect fried bacon.

When you at last get aboard the Quann Tulla you will be faced with numerous minor problems, the solution of each taking you one step nearer to your objective. There are a good number of objects to find and manipulate but there is not a great deal of descriptive text and the graphics are fairly rudimentary.

Reasonably complex commands may be given, but generally a verb and noun input is all that is needed. Only one command may be issued at a time, but the speed of response and screen display updating is quite fast so there is little loss of continuity.

The redesigned typeface is not always too easy to read and the programming is somewhat sloppy. On occasions words are split from line to line und certain responses are given even although they should only be provided at specific places.

For all these petty irritations Federation, is fun to play and should be a good game for the novice. Just remember to SAVE at regular intervals, as death is often just around the corner.

Bill Brock

Federation