Classic Game Review: Planet Fall

Planet fall is a text adventure game that begins with you, a lowly ensign, scrubbing the decks of the Stellar Patrol Ship Feinstein. Your life has never seemed worse, and your future looks very bleak, boring, and uneventful. Right about this time your ship is rocked by an explosion.

In order to save your life you rush to the nearest escape pod and are jettisoned out into space. By using your wits, you are able to ride the escape pod down to the nearest inhabited planet. There you are marooned on one of two islands on the planet.

Your mission, besides finding food and a safe place to sleep, is to get rescued from the planet. But your first order of business is survival. Finding a safe place to sleep is not difficult but you must find food before your emergency ration kit runs out. Once you have the food supply and know where it's safe to sleep you can begin your real adventure (Watch out! In this adventure you can even get sick and dream while you sleep.)

On the island you will find two huge deserted complexes which must be mapped. In your wandering through the first complex you will meet a robot named Floyd. In the beginning, Floyd might be a nuisance because of his incessant babbling, but as you have probably already guessed he plays an important part in the completion of the game. Floyd's interaction is a very unique concept in this game. It adds animation to the game without relying on graphics. (In certain parts of the complex I had already mapped I found myself hurrying through the rooms.

As this left Floyd far behind, I ended up slowing down to wait for Floyd to catch up.) There are more than 100 rooms in Planet fall and each one has its own very detailed description. Part of the enjoyment to these games is just reading these descriptions. I found myself wanting to know more about the complex - why for example, it was deserted, and where all the people went.

The puzzles in Planet fall involve special access cards, tools, and the fixing of machines that have broken down. I found the solutions to be logical with just enough depth to give me problems but not enough to cause me aggravation. The documentation is almost as enjoyable as the game itself. With the software you get a diary, post cards, an I.D. card, and a manual. The diary looks hand written and is on Stellar Patrol letterhead, it tells about a few days of the Ensign's boring life. The post cards are very funny. The manual as always should be read carefully. Often the problems you run into throughout the game can be made easier with the help of some clues or explanations from the manual.

For those of you that are text game or Info COM fanatics this is another excellent adventure to add to your collection. The addition of Floyd the robot as your partner is a unique boost to the interactive nature of these games and I hope to see more of this type of creative innovation in future games. For those of you who have never played these types of games before, Planet fall would be a good place to start.