The Final Word game review

Alien Virus -- Vic Tokai

You've landed at a space port only to discover that everyone is missing. You must discover where everyone went using only your wits and the items you find along the way in this new graphic adventure from Vic Tokai. Alien Virus is for the Sony PlayStation.

E.Phoenix
I'm baffled why so many point and click adventures are coming to the PS... not that they are bad, in fact most are really cool (ie. Silverload, Discworld). But, I figured with all the amazing hardware under the hood of the PlayStation, that we would see developers shying away from this genre. In fact, I haven't seen this many point-and-clickers since the NES (ie. Uninvited, Deja Vu, etc...). Anyway, Alien Virus is packed deep with what-the-hell-am-I-supposed-to-do-with-a-pair-of-wire-cutters-and-an-industrial-size-tub-of-Vasoline!?! type puzzles. In fact, those mind numbing puzzles are the basis of this odd PC port. I thought Alien Virus was a bit on the difficult side right out of the box, but it is a satisfying game none-the-less.

R.I.P.
This game is your standard graphic adventure. Graphics are nice and clean but nearly all of the graphics during play are static images. The one thing that detracted from this game for me was it's linear nature. On a number of occasions I found myself absolutely at an impasse in the game until I happened to stumble across the item that opened up the next segment of game (like early on you have to figure out that you need a light bulb and then remove one from a fixture in a room). This results then in a good bit of time just wondering in a circle until you find the "trigger" that opens up the next game segment. If point and click graphic adventures are your thing though, you should have some fun with this game, with out a doubt it is challenging. For everyone else though, I'd say stay clear.

>>>>> 34.5/50 <<<<<		E.Phoenix	R.I.P.
Graphics		3.5	4.0
Sound		3.0	3.0
Gameplay/Control		4.0	3.0
Longevity/Playability		4.0	3.0
Overall		4.0	3.0
Total		18.5	16.0

(02/96)