Recent reviews by Kinrah

I played this game countless times before owning it on Steam, with the physical copy that takes up three discs and originally came with all the feelies, the 3D glasses and the in-flight magazine. Playing it without the need for faffing around with the antique operating system it was designed for or having to switch around the discs frequently is certainly one for nostalgia. That said, I've played often enough to know exactly what the answer to every puzzle is, even without consulting the original Prima Games manual, so my playtime of 89 minutes isn't indicative of a playthrough by an unfamiliar player.

For fans of Douglas Adams - and even Monty Python, the game having two characters voiced by Terry Jones and John Cleese - this game is a definitive expansion of what was originally a footnote in Life, the Universe and Everything. Adams/Python humor is everywhere, from the TV in the opening scene being incredibly realistic - same thing on every channel - to the characters themselves, all benefiting from many hours work done by the voice actors to respond to many different dialogue questions.

However, the game has been previously described as 'impossible without a walkthrough', and while that statement is untrue, a couple of the solutions are a little obscure. At least one puzzle requires use of an easily overlooked UI feature, and if you're just wandering at random, it is a very big ship, and only some rooms are ever important. If you're buying this game for the first time, be prepared to get frustrated by some of the logic.

There is one more failing, but it is unfortunately one which can't be remedied, if only an aesthetic one. One of the puzzles was designed to be used with red/cyan 3D glasses, a pair of which was packaged with the physical game, but obviously not with a Steam download. The puzzle is still perfectly possible, but it remains an indicator of the period when the game was made and released.

Still, I recommend this game, not only for the nostalgia, but for a puzzle experience on par with Myst (if a little more frustrating).

(Also, if you see it available, do check out the tie-in novel, written by Terry Jones. It contains little to no spoilers for the game, and is well worth a read.)