Previous Next

It's a stormy night, and you are out for a drive with your kid brother. Suddenly a strange figure appears in the middle of the road, vanishing again just as swiftly. But already you have reacted, and your car swerves out of control, and wraps itself round a handy tree.

Clambering from the wreckage, you find yourself outside a forbidding mansion, with lightning and thunder crashing above. Of your brother, there is no sign. Assuming he has taken shelter from the storm, you open the front door to a loud creaking sound, and enter the mansion. The door slams shut behind you - you are locked in.

The atmosphere inside the house is disturbing, and so you lose no time, and head off towards the corridor in search of your brother. There are four doors and a staircase leading off, and you are just deciding which route to try first, when suddenly...

Here is a tale of ghosties and demons. The rambling house holds many bizarre secrets, and the grounds outside seem just as strange. In the garden is a chapel guarded by fierce dogs, and a Magisterium, entry into which seems to be something to do with a pentagram. Now who would want to guard a chapel? Meanwhile, back indoors there's something pretty nasty going on up in the attic.

Each room is illustrated with a picture that occupies about one quarter of the screen area, but the detail is so fine that its size does not detract from the game. The pictures reflect the state of play, so, for example, when a door is opened it is shown open. In addition, there is a certain amount of animation, and the sound effects of the storm, the baying of killer dogs, and various other chilling noises in the mansion combine with the graphics to make a very atmospheric game.

Although there is a text commentary on the action, and text replies to actions such as EXAMINE, the player is not able to type a single word from the keyboard, except following the command SPEAK, and for SAVE GAME filenames. The commands are issued through a mere eight verb icons: EXAMINE, OPEN, CLOSE, SPEAK, OPERATE, GO, HIT and CONSUME. To play the game, you just sit back and operate the mouse. Select OPEN and point at a door in the picture, and providing it is not locked, the door will open.

Taking and dropping objects is carried out literally. The mouse button is held down when the arrow is on the object, which is simply dragged out of the picture window into the Inventory window, when releasing the button deposits the object. More complex actions not covered by the verb icons, are achieved with an OPERATE, a key in the Inventory window, and a door in the picture. It is surprising how many different commands can be built up in this way, although of course, it is a far cry from the subtlety that comes with a sophisticated parser.

Opening containers causes contents windows to open on the screen, and these, like the Inventory and Text windows, can be moved around, sized, and scrolled. I went mad in the kitchen and opened all the cabinets and the cooker, ending up with about ten extra windows laid over each other on the screen.

If you want a change from hacking away at a keyboard, then sit back with a mouse, and try this highly atmospheric and suspenseful adventure. There's a lot packed into Uninvited, but it costs a pretty sum too. At £25, I would have expected at least a free hint-sheet service, instead of a $5 charge. I feel £15 for the package would have been a more realistic price - and the price level at which I would have given this adventure a top Value rating.