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W hen it comes to producing the fabled ‘Interactive Movie’, all credit has so far gone to Cinemaware. With sophisticated graphics and sound, titles such as Lords Of the Rising Sun and Defender Of The Crown wrote their own page in the annuls of software’s history. Unfortunately everything with these games followed a set path with one or two ‘movie’ interludes. On the other hand, American software house Sierra have been beavering away on their own style of interactive movies, namely the Police Quest and Space Quest series. Though the graphics and sound were on the poor side, Sierra products featured animated sequences following on from player actions, spiced with humour and puzzle elements. Future Wars takes off from where Sierra apparently stopped. It is almost second generation in much the same vein.
You start off as a low window cleaner high up on the outside of a sky scraper. The introductory sequence shows him accidentally knocking his bucket over and taking a rollicking from his boss. Half-closing the window behind him the boss disappears back into the seclusion of his office, leaving you to ponder your next move.

All the in-game orders are issued through a menu of just five commands to move the main character. Quite basic, but all the objects and puzzles are designed around that method making the game smoother to play.
The problems you are faced range from tricky to obvious; just a small amount of lateral thought is required. For instance, the first real problem is how to stop your boss catching you outside his office. Simply take the bucket to the WC, fill it up at the sink and balance it on his half-open door. When he comes out the bucket crashes on his head and the computer quickly takes you to the safety of the next room.

There is a plot. The Earth has been under attack for many years now, but thanks to the SDI system she’s held her own against the aliens. Two scientists discover that the aliens have gone back in time and landed in the year 1304. What this has to do with you is not made clear, so it leaves plenty of room for discovery.

Future Wars has some excellent animated sequences, gorgeous backdrops and a multitude of problems and characters to face. All backed up with sampled sound effects and the simple control method. A perfect game for the long winter months.
CD WARS




As well as producing software Delphine have a successful record label with Richard Clayderman as their principal artist. Not satisfied with writing and producing the soundtrack for the game, Jean Bauldlot also re-mastered and recorded them to CD. As luck might have it we have 6 of these ultra-limited edition CDs to give away. Just answer these simple questions.
What was Delphine’s previous Amiga release?
In which French city is Delphine based?
Answers to: CD Compo, CU, Priority Court, 30-32 Farringdon Lane, London EC1R 3AU. Entries must be in by 4th January 1990.


Mark Patterson

GRAPHICS 86%
SOUND 82%
PLAYABILITY 88%
LASTABILITY 88%

OVERALL 88%

Title Future Wars: Time Travellers
Publisher US Gold (1989)
Developers Delphine
Game Type Adventure
Players 1
HD Installable Yes (With WHDLoad)
Compatibility OCS (All with WHDLoad patch)
Submission John Burns (john@jgb.abelgratis.co.uk) Profiled Reviewer

Review
Long before Amiga adventure fans were subjected to the surfeit of
graphical richness which was provided by games such as Monkey Island, we
were given only the limited colour and animation of the Sierra and early
LucasArts products. Good though the adventures themselves may have been
the graphics were, to put it mildly, flat and primitive. However, from
this graphical wilderness the French developers, Delphine, brought forth a
new style which they called "Cinematique" incorporating an adventure style
within an animated game.

The first game that utilised this new technique was Future Wars. Gone was
the flat lifeless movement of the character sprite, no more did it look
like your character was a piece of paper being moved jerkily over a flat
painted background - here was a game in which the character appeared to
interact with his environment in a more fluid and life-like manner. There
was depth to the background and a sense of 3D, with the character's
movement within that area reflecting this perspective. Gone too were the
basic simple colours of Zak and his kin and their worlds to be replaced
with proper shading and enhanced palettes. Even today its graphics are
nice and they certainly make many of its contemporaries look older than
they are.

So graphically this game is above that of its peers but as an adventure
where does it stand? Well, overall it is somewhat linear in play and
whilst there is the odd puzzle to solve which may require some lateral
thought, in general the problems encountered verge on the easier side of
average and provided you've found the necessary items there shouldn't be
any problem in figuring out what to use where. I don't think I once had to
use the old ploy of trying every item out with another to solve a problem.
That said, when I first played it I couldn't for the life of me figure out
how to get rid of my boss - one of the first problems - till someone told
me. (No Internet to provide walkthroughs and cheats in those days).

Aside from the adventuring elements of the game there are a couple of
arcade sections. The first is around the middle of the game and is a sort
of Op Wolf style shoot em up where you have to kill a certain amount of
aliens and the other is at the end and involves you having to negotiate a
snakes and ladders style scrolling screen maze to get to the final
objective and then to the exit all within a tight time limit. This final
part of the game is perhaps the weakest and hardest part as it involves
pure trial and error rather than any real skill - I defy anyone to say
they managed it without having to reload from a saved game. After many
attempts I myself used a map from a cheat book and even then the time
limit makes it pretty difficult.

Control of the game is by mouse using the good old point and click
technique. I suppose by today's standards the game controls could be made
better but for its time and even now it was, and is, pretty much intuitive
and up to the task. Saving and loading games from floppy is pretty quick
and there is a pause facility which can be pretty handy during the arcade
sections if you need to take a breath and recharge your mouse finger.

The game has its faults such as the odd silly puzzle and bad translation
resulting in a "Franglais" sort of word. Like a lot of other point and
click adventures you do need to examine just about everything and some
important items are little more than a coloured pixel (the map flag at the
start for instance). Many games both before and since have suffered from
this same problem and it is annoying when it happens and you have to
reload a saved game to re-search a previous location for a missing item
which you need. There is no going back to a previous location once you
have entered a new one in this game and often items found are required on
later levels not the one on which you presently are.

For me this was a really good game and one worthy of praise, maybe not as
an outstanding product in itself but as a forerunner of what was to come.
Many praise the animation etc. of Delphine's later games, Another World
and Flashback (and rightly so), but seem to forget that this was their
antecedent - had this one been unsucsessful then maybe they wouldn't have
been made. If you liked Another World and Flashback but haven't seen or
tried Future Wars then I'd say get a copy and see from where those games
evolved.