GDR Masthead

Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb

New World Computing

Reviewed by: Diana Griffiths

Links: Cheats,Patches
Author: The Dreamers Guild
Category: Fantasy Graphic Adventure
Medium: 3*3.5"
Multiplayer: None
OS: DOS
Protection: Only one check from the manual
Type: Commercial
Price: $24.00 US (for CD version from a US based computer game mail order company)
Version: Release 10-May-94
Requirements
ComputerGraphicsMemo.DiskCD
Minimum286-??320x200x2562M8M
Recommended386-??
Reviewed on486-4016M

Controls: Keyboard, mouse
Sound: None, Sound Blaster, SoundBlaster Pro/16/32, Pro-Audio Spectrum, Gravis Ultrasound, Audio Source, Sierra Aria
CD-ROM version requires 1 Meg HD space, MS-DOS 5.0 or greater

Overview


The Legends of the Humans

Inherit the Earth (ITE) is a unique adventure in that all the characters in the game are animals which have been given the human gifts of thinking minds, feeling hearts, speaking mouths, and reaching hands. Many of the animals believe that the human s gave them these gifts then left the animals to ...inherit the earth. Some of the animals do not believe the humans ever existed.

There are several tribes of animals: foxes, boars, elk, wolves and many others. Each of these tribes has many human attributes (including prejudice against others not like themselves!) and their original animal instincts. For example, foxes are cunni ng and suspected of thievery, while the elk are noble and the dogs playful.


Final Round of the Grand Tournament

The action begins at a fair, where a fox, Rif, is competing with a rat for the first place prize in a puzzle game. After lo ing to the rat, the scene is interrupted by guards announcing that the Orb of Storms has been stolen. This orb is used to predict the weather and hence is very valuable and must be found. The fox's reputation leads to him being the prime suspect. His girl friend is held hostage and he embarks on a quest to prove his innocence. A boar named Okk and an elk named Eeah, are assigned to guard him.

The player takes control of Rif's actions at this point, Okk and Eeah prove to be useful; and loyal companions, not just guards. All three characters appear on screen, Okk and Eeah following Rif's lead. Thus begins an enjoyable trek over hill and dal e visiting many tribes who live in near and distant countryside, in an effort to find the Orb of Storms and the true culprit behind the theft.

I had little preconceived ideas of what this game was going to be like. It is now two years old so I didn't expect it to be state of the art. I remembered reading a good review when the game was reasonably new but it didn't seem to become one of the highly acclaimed games of the period.

Puzzles

Some of the puzzles are straightforward. To start with the animals you meet will tell you what they want in exchange for something you want from them. But as the game progresses the game gets more difficult. You are forced to explore a great deal ove r quite a wide area and number of locations. There are not too many items to collect so your choices are fairly limited when it comes to using objects from your inventory. Exploring can become rather tedious as some places look identical to another a d it is not easy to keep track of where you have and haven't been. I know that experienced adventure game players have found this game challenging. One of the greater challenges are a number of mazes. Mazes are not typically part of graphical adventu re games. And these mazes can be quite frustrating, requiring mapping unless you luck out or have good spatial memory. New World Computing likely carried this concept over from the CRPG genre.

Combat

There is no combat in this game and your characters can not die. The party can be trapped or imprisoned so then it's up to you to find a way out of this situation.

Graphics

The graphic scenes and animation of the on-screen characters is done very well. The portrayal of 'morphed' animals (as these intelligent breeds are known) and the earth setting looks in keeping with the premise of the story. It is fantasy like, colo rful and fun to look at. The animation is smooth and quite realistic.

Sound & Music

The music was also entertaining, changed to match the scene or mood of the scene. It never got on my nerves nor enamored me. It just seemed to jog along as it should with the game.

Since I was playing the floppy disk version of the game, there was no dialogue spoken by actors except during the opening scene. If the quality of the opening scene is anything to go by the CD, which includes digitized voices for all characters, shou ld be worth hearing. Having played mainly CD games recently, I really missed the voices of actors.

There are sound effects. They seemed to fit in as they should.

The sound quality was excellent. I don't believe I heard any glitches in sound at all.

There are separate volume controls for the music and sound effects. This is something I wish more games would include. However, if the volume is too loud and you want to lower it, you have to increase the volume before you reach the off and low volum settings. This can be painful on the ears. The speed of the dialog display can also be set.

User Interface


User Interface

When in normal game interaction mode, the screen is divided into various sections. The top two thirds of the screen is the action screen where the scene is displayed and the characters are animated. You can zap through long sequences using the key.


Overhead Map Interface

When traveling across country, this is changed to an overhead display of the land. Travel from one location to another is done by moving your party, represented as a star, over a detailed map of the territory. The map too fits in well with the whole spirit of the game.

Immediately beneath the action screen is the status line. This is where textual commands are built and displayed which are then acted on. On the far right of the status line is an icon of a floppy disk. Clicking on this icon invokes the Options menu .

Beneath the status line, the remaining area is divided into three sections.

The central character's portrait is displayed on the left. This is usually Rif.

The command screen is to the right of the character portrait. This contains a list of commands, such as Walk To, Pick Up, which the user can invoke by clicking on the appropriate command. It is not necessary to use these verbs too much. Usually the d efault command displayed is the one you want.

In the lower left of the screen is the inventory. You can store everything you pick up in the inventory. You can scroll through the inventory to look for items. I didn't find I collected an unmanageable number of items, so the inventory interface is ery easy. You can click on inventory items to get a text description of the item.


Inventory Map

Clicking on a map you can obtain during the adventure will display the map in the action screen.

Dialogue


Example of dialog sequence : Rif chats with a merchant

When you are in dialog mode. the command and inventory screens are replaced with the dialog options and a portrait of the character the central character is in conversation with.Rif initiates a conversation using the Talk to verb. Sometimes this elic ts a direct response from the character spoken to. But the player is often presented with a list of dialogue options. Progress depends on picking the correct option. However, usually, the player has an opportunity to try out all the possible options.

Since the dialogue during game play is only displayed as in the above screen shots, each characters words are displayed in a different colour.

System Options


Options

The options are reading speed, music volume, sound volume, continue playing, quit playing, save and load.

You may save up to 24 games. I found this a sufficient number. Apparently the options icon flashes every 30 minutes to remind you to save. I didn't notice this happening so it can't be terribly obvious, or I saved often enough.

Installation

I found installing from floppies a bit slow and more arduous, since I have been playing CD games lately. The sound card was automatically detected and the game installed with no problems and ran perfectly. I was actually very impressed as I remember much much worse floppy installations and a myriad of floppy disks to contend with just before the game companies changed to distributing on CD-ROM. ITE comes on only three floppy disks.

Run-Time Bugs

Absolutely none! A miracle of robustness! I can find absolutely nothing to say here at all...but I seem to do have done so at length!

Hard-Copy Documentation

ITE comes with an installation card, a registration card, a CD-ROM upgrade card and a manual.

The upgrade to CD costs $18 US including shipping charges. Overseas shipping costs an extra $15 US.

The manual is quite delightful. It has a beautiful colour cover depicting the three lead characters in an appropriate setting (same as the art on the box). Inside the manual there are also many enchanting pen and ink sketches of characters from the g ame. The manual provides a clear description of the user interface, including monochrome screen shots and short cut key sequences. It also contains a large amount on the culture of each of the animal tribes; some of which is useful and relevant; som e of which is just interesting background material.

Closing Sequences

Game control takes over a bit sooner than I think it should. I thought I should have had more control in the final confrontation but this is played out as an interesting animated sequence instead.

(SLIGHT SPOILER AHEAD -Ed)

The game ends with a suitable celebration and the reuniting of friends and then cuts to a scene with worrisome portents. It seems as though the animal tribes may be in for some more problems which will undoubtedly require courageous adventurers to ta ke to the wild reaches once again.

(SAFE NOW -Ed)

Conclusion

Although a little dated, ITE is still an excellent game. It is robust, has good music and sound effects, and I expect good dialogue on the CD version.

The graphics and animation are very good and everything is in keeping with the premise of the animals having inherited the earth. The story is innovative and interesting. The puzzles are challenging and the game is a decent length. I don't understand why this game has been under-acclaimed. ITE is priced quite low now and I suspect the floppy disk version, if available, is not worth buying. If you are a fantasy adventure game fan I'm sure you'll like this game.

Summary
Appeal:classic fantasy adventure fans
Originality & Story:innovative: very original premise and interesting story
Graphics:in keeping with premise, well drawn attractive art
Audio:in keeping music, some OK sound effects, little digitized dialogue with floppy version, flexible volume controls
Longevity:12 hours plus, depending on problem solving skill, no replay value
Presentation:easy user interface, no delays
Packaging & Docs:high quality manual with interesting text and pictures
Bugs & Problems:none!

Pros: robust, innovative, attractive art, difficult puzzles, smooth game play

Cons: limited long term value, no digitized voices during game play with floppy version

Copyright © Diana Griffiths for the Games Domain Review, 1996. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced without permission.

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