Analog Computing, #28

~3 minute read

Mar 1985

Cabin Fever Fantasies

Cutthroats

Steve Panak

CUTTHROATS
by Michael Berlyn and Jerry Wolper
INFOCOM
55 Wheeler Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
48K Disk $34.95

Cutthroats follows Infidel as Infocom's second installment in Tales of Adventure series. True-to-life dangers and rewards are the cornerstones of this series. You'll find no magic -- nor little elves -- to aid you.

There's sunken treasure out there somewhere, and you must dive for it... not only because you want it, but also because you're forced to. It seems that you've fallen in with the wrong crowd. You have the money, maps and diving skills that they need to recover a treasure. But any of your "friends" (Johnny Red, the Weasel, or Pete the Rat) would just as soon kill you if you get in their way. The thought of double-crossing them shouldn't even enter your mind.

Interaction with the characters is necessary to succeed, and their unpredictability will keep you on your toes for hours. Even more than in most of Infocom's games, you must keep your eyes and ears peeled for any clues which may reveal the characters' true personalities and motives.

In Cutthroats, you wake up in your hotel room to find a note that has been slipped under the door. You begin to remember the events of the previous night, how your friend Hevlin gave you a map with sunken treasure pinpointed. Then Hevlin's luck took a downturn -- and he turned up dead. Now Johnny Red, a particularly shady fellow, invites you to the Shanty, a particularly shady bar, for a little conversation.

He wants you to take him to the treasure Hevlin told him about. It seems that Hevlin had the loose lips sailors always worry about. You're also enlisted to pay the way and dive for the riches. All Johnny wants is the glory and the bucks.

What's more, lurking in the shadows are those who would like to see you lose the treasure -- and those who would like to see you dead. McGinty, for example, is a nervous and uncooperative little fellow who will try to foil any attempts to form a diving party.

If you survive the journey, the shark attacks and the untold other plot complications, you'll end up bringing back the treasure (and yourself) intact.

There are two separate sunken ships with treasure, and in any given game, you're not sure which one you'll be diving for. Using an enclosed booklet, you must piece together clues supplied by Johnny Red, to determine which treasure you're after. And, if you're wrong... well, one doesn't think of such things on an empty stomach.

Infocom has introduced a new packaging design and has repackaged all of their games. The new carton is similar to a book in size, and the cover opens up to show the latest issues of True Tales of Adventure. This can be read both for clues and for fun, and it also provides the new adventurer with basic game information, rules and strategies. When the book is finished, pop open the back. Inside the carton is your disk, along with the other necessary game materials.

Infocom has started rating their games by level -- Junior, Standard, Advanced or Expert. Cutthroats is Standard, on the same level as Zork I, the Enchanter, Witness and Planetfall. It was a bit too easy for me, as I'm somewhere between Advanced and Expert. Still, the challenge lasted a few hours, and the difficulty (of lack thereof) rarely spoils an Infocom experience. I must admit that I used a printer this time, and being able to reread the text between sessions is a great help.

Infocom games must be reviewed more as books than as games. The descriptions are complete and vivid, just what you would expect from Infocom, but Cutthroats lacks the humor of some earlier offerings. I missed it. Nevertheless, the characters are brought to life, and this is one of the best compliments that could be paid such a game. Overall, Cutthroats is not one of Infocom's best games, but is still so far above the competition as to make them pale by comparison.

I just realized that, unlike the arcade games that litter the market, there are few copiers of Infocom's interactive fiction, few imitators. Can it be done? Probably. Can it be done as well as Infocom does it, or better? Unlikely. With each new game, Infocom is further entrenched in their position as manufacturer of the most unique, highest quality software available on the market today.

This article appeared in
Analog Computing
Mar 1985

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