~2 minute readMARKETALK: Reviews
Planetfall
Planetfall. By Steve Meretzky. If you pet Floyd, he snuggles up to you; if you leave him, he runs to catch up, shouting, "Hey, wait for Floyd!" He loves to play, but he'll give his life for you. Incidentally, he's a robot.
Planetfall is a science-fiction text adventure, and it's also a comedy. Lots of the lines and descriptions will make you laugh, but Floyd will only make you smile â and care. Floyd is the star, although the player represents the hero. Floyd puts robots in the same category with children and animals; they're masters at upstaging. You see? He's just upstaged Steve Meretzky's humor.
The story takes place in the 210th century; it begins with the malfunction and explosion of a patrol starship, which our hero survives if you're clever. He lands on a planet that seems deserted. With him, you get to explore a large research complex of a unique civilization that appears to have been cut off suddenly, much like Pompeii, discovering its habits and values and goals. You also discover its troubles and the remarkable way it was dealing with them.
There's plenty to see and to read, and plenty to figure out how to work. There are also some malfunctions to fix; don't be dissuaded if you lack knowledge in electronics or chemistry; you don't need them â just logic.
Except for one of those troubles to which you've fallen heir, there's very little danger in most of Planetfall. The need to find a source of food and liquid is your most life-threatening problem until quite near the end. Even then, the dangers come from mistakes, yours and those of the long-gone civilization, not from evil. You won't miss the danger. The delight of a new world and superior puzzles, and, of course, a friend like Floyd, is plenty.
Many of the puzzles are outstanding, although one good one does have the hero running up and down between floors a bit even after the puzzle is essentially solved. The gaming system is Infocom's normal one, superior and ever improving.
But it is the writing, the prose, that merits the most attention. Meretzky is an adventurer, not a seasoned writer, as a few rough spots attest. Overall, the text is rich and colorful and intelligent. As with a fine novel, it takes only the cooperation of your imagination to see every nuance of the setting in close detail and to empathize with the characters.
Perhaps it is those very rough spots that, by contrast, bring to awareness how close well-made adventures are to becoming a legifimate form of literature. While a number of people are struggling to bring literature to the computer via hybrid short stories, interactive fiction, and other new forms with varying degrees of unsuccess, the old adventure, being honed and refined and filled out, is getting there first.
Hey, Floyd, isn't this an exciting time to be alive?
Planetfall, by Steve Meretzky, Infocom (55 Wheeler Street, Cambridge, MA 02138; 617492-1031). $49.95.
This article appeared in
Softalk
Aug 1983
These historical, out-of-print articles and literary works have been GNUSTOed onto InvisiClues.org for academic and research purposes.
