Ghosts

Media Design Interactive, 1994

All my life, I have been listening to ghostly experiences encountered by different individuals and reading ghost stories, but I never believed them myself, as I never come across any ghost in my life or maybe the reason is that I don't live in England. It is said that England is the most haunted country in the entire world with its haunted castles, manors and stately houses. This interactive multimedia game is a collection of similar legendary paranormal stories that surround some phantom figures or ghosts that have become an important part of English heritage.

As you enter the Hobb's Manor your host, Christopher Lee, the most frightening figure of the big screen greets you in the role of Dr. Marcus Grimalkin. He invites you to go on your quest of venturing into the Manor and find all the objects gathered and placed in the different rooms and halls of the Manor, which are bound to some ghostly background. Once you find an object you will be informed of its ghastly nature by  Dr. Grimalkin. There are six detailed ghost stories presented with a slideshow, and many short tales scattered around the Hobb's Manor.

The static background graphics and all the objects in the game are completely rendered in 3D, in which the player ventures using a point-and-click interface in 1st-Person perspective. Every room has its own ominous orchestral music and creepy sound effects are added with every action. Christopher Lee's superimposed full-motion-video figure appears in the foreground of every scene that hides some information. This cross between interactive media and adventure game is worth playing if you really believe in ghosts and even if you don't, this is quite an entertaining piece of information.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

On-Line Systems, 1993

The Hound of Baskervilles is one of the most obscured CD-ROM titles based on the legendary Sherlock Holmes Mystery novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The mystery involves the murders that took place in the small town of Baskervilles, which are rumored to be the act of a hound. The game is a better example of a multimedia novel, where the player views Dr. Watson's desk in the perspective of famous detective Sherlock Holmes. The player solves the mystery by going through the clues gathered by Dr. Watson by clicking the dates on the desk calendar and other documents scattered on the desk. Once you click on a clue, you get two options to select from either reading the document by yourself or hearing it in a cinematic Dr. Watson's voice. The game has very few graphics, which in return are quite dated for the time it was released. I recommend this game to every mystery adventure gamer and especially to all the Sherlock Holmes mystery fans.

The Ward

On Deck Interactive, 2000

The Ward is an excellent Science-Fiction adventure that, to some extent, will make you believe that this could be the possible future of our space technology. The game takes you in the spacesuit of astronaut David Walker, a member of the Apollo XIX crew. The intro shows that you are doing research on the moon surface away from your crew members when a strange alien spaceship appears and blasts off your friends. Soon after, a huge lightning sphere, which rises from the moon's horizon  surrounds you and renders you unconscious. When you awake you find yourself alone in an alien medical ward. In fact the plot of the game involves two different alien races, one who is after the destruction of the universe and one who is trying to save the universe with the help of humans, or one human to be precise, as foretold by their  prophecy, and you're it!  You have three quests in this game, the first quests is to explore and safely escape the alien's moon based building complex, the second quest is to free all the humans imprisoned on Mars and the final quest involves saving the universe from destruction.

The Ward is a true adventure game keeping all the standards of the genre, which includes a point-and-click interface, huge inventory, mild-action and multiple dialogue option. The game is choke full of puzzles that vary from easy to very hard including some kind of board games and sliding tiles. Some puzzles are timed and need quick action to accomplish. Graphics as well as animated sequences are well done, which are spiced up with good quality sound and music. If you like science-fiction adventures and you can excuse some very hard puzzles and irritating long walks between two locations then the Ward is really your kind of game.