Personal Computer News


The Hulk
By Adventure International
Atari 400

 
Published in Personal Computer News #070

Green Giant

Green Giant

The master returns! Scott Adams, doyen of adventure lovers, has teamed up with Marvel Comics to produce QuestProbe, a new series of text plus graphic adventures. This is the first of many and features that jolly green giant, the Incredible Hulk.

Objectives

Using simple two-word commands, you take charge of Bruce Banner and his alter-ego Hulk and guide them around their strange world. You have to locate gems and store them in a safe place (you must find where!, solve all the problems to confront you and, above all, survive.

In your travels, you'll meet other Marvel characters Doctor Strange and Ant Man. The adventure is overseen by a narrator known as the Chief Examiner.

In Play

The Hulk

An impressive title page depicting the Hulk kicks off the adventure, the imaginative graphics setting the standard for the rest of the game.

Each location or development is pictured - even the 'I' (inventory) command brings up a portrait of Banner or Hulk with their current possessions. In text mode, the room description is fixed at the top of the screen while a scrolling message area fills the rest.

After being asked if you want to restore a saved game, it's on with the adventure as Bruce Banner materialises, bound hand and foot to a chair. Although by current standards, the verb/noun command-driven adventure is a bit old hat, the first glimpse of that "What shall I do now?" invitation sent those familiar tinglings down my spine.

The Hulk

No messing about but straight in to the first puzzle - how to get out of the chair? Hulk fans will know the obvious way: Banner undergoes a metamorphosis into the super-powerful Hulk whenever he experiences anger or pain.

Once transformed and free, you'll soon find the Hulk changing back again into Banner as gas seeps into the room. Puzzle two - how to deal with the noxious chemical?

Thereafter, Adams piles on puzzle after puzzle, each with enjoyable graphics.

Verdict

The Hulk is one of the few adventures where the graphics do add that extra something to the pleasure of playing. It's irresistible. The combination of Scott Adams and Marvel Comics, of textual puzzles and imaginative graphics, result in a humdinger. Go get it, True Believer.

Bob Chappell

Other Atari 400/800/600XL/800XL/130XE Game Reviews By Bob Chappell


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