Universe
Game developer: Core Design
Game publisher: Core Design
Game release date: 1994 year
Game status: Released
In the 90's the PC was really gaining on other systems in terms of new games and one of the most popular genres was the point and click adventure. The most popular games were released by Lucasfilm and Sierra but sometimes other companies came along and tried their hand at the genre. Universe is such an adventure made by Core who were mostly known for their action games. You play the part of Boris Verne who is a bit of a game programmer and while coding some stuff on his newly acquired machine his mom comes in with some letters he has to deliver to his uncle. His uncle is a an inventor and Boris is unable to sit still so he finds a
pod with loads of flashing lights, going inside it and pressing some buttons you are instantly transported to another place which is where your adventure begins.
You land on what seems to be an asteroid and even though there is a city nearby there is no way for you to get there. Your first job is to get there and having such a low gravity allows you to jump from asteroid to asteroid so you can pick up vital items to help you out. This is only the start of your quest and you later find out the Golden King is after you as you apparently are the man who is to fulfill a legend which is not good news for the king. That means you'll be chased by plenty of baddies who are after you and so you'll have to fly around the universe trying to get help from all manner of people including a hermit who bears quite some resemblance to Yoda from Star Wars.
The interface is more elaborate than most point and click adventures and actions are subdivided into eight different options including eat, insert, throw and jump. This can cause some problems because sometimes you mean to do something but the game doesn't allow it. One example is when you try to insert a key card into a machine but it fails because you have to USE it on the machine, this can be quite annoying at times and I could have done without all the extra options. Graphically the game is excellent with colorful digitized backgrounds and rotoscoped characters giving a fairly realistic look to the animations.
I've played plenty of adventure games in my time and I must admit that Universe is quite good, it's not too difficult and can be quite funny at times. There are little annoyances like the interface and at times you have to backtrack unnecessarily, also the obvious Star Wars jokes are a bit over the top but that's my opinion. It's not too difficult for the most part and only some puzzles will require more than a bit of thought. Seasoned adventurers won't take long to finish the game but they will surely get a laugh out of it so give it a go.
Game genre: Adventures, Space Games
Platform/System: MS-DOS Games, Amiga Games
Universe : Is it worth playing?
