"Bugs, Mr. Rico! Zillions of 'em!" If that cry sends chills down your spine, if creepy-crawlies give you the heeby-jeebies, if the thought of multi-legged critters four times your size is your worst nightmare, Entomorph may not be for you. This is definitely a game about bugs.

Of course, one could say that a "game about bugs" applies to almost any software product these days (heh), but here we are definitely dealing with the kind that fly and crawl rather than lurk in software. A few of those did raise their ugly little feelers, but we'll come to that in due time.

Entomorph takes place in the world of Aden, but aside from that, there is no connection at all between this game and Thunderscape. Engine, interface, graphics, and gameplay are all new, and the setting is a different area of the world, the island of Phoros.

Phoros used to be a happy place, where all the hard work was done by large domesticated insects, collectively known as "jagtera". When Darkfall occurred ten years back, the jagtera suddenly disappeared, and the island went into a decline. Now, so the rumor goes, the jagtera are returning, and the population is celebrating. Perhaps they are celebrating a little too soon.

Your character, Squire Warrick, arrives on Phoros in search of his sister. It isn't long before he discovers the truth about the jagtera revival, and it's not a pretty one. The Phorovian nobles are giving special nectar to the inhabitants that morphs them into insects. Even worse, the nectar is tainted with evil: the jagtera created by it are all vicious and bloodthirsty. Those who do not become jagtera usually end up victims of their insatiable jaws.

Naturally, no red-blooded hero could resist this situation, and Warrick determines to put an end to the nobles' schemes. Since there are no jumbo sized cans of Raid handy, he'll have to do it the hard way.

Entomorph is not exactly a role-playing game in the traditional sense. Warrick comes pre-created, without visible stats (strength, intelligence, dexterity, etc.), and there's no character advancement in the form of experience points or levels. All you see are two indicators on the screen, one for hit points and one for mana.

Combat is equally simple, with two methods of attack. Physically, Warrick disposes of enemies by punching them out, literally. He has no armor or weapons of any kind. Later, after going through some morphing himself, he becomes somewhat less than human in form and adds spitting to his repertoire, giving him a distance weapon.

His other type of attack is magic. Warrick has the ability to cast spells, once they've been found. The spells are both offensive (lightning bolt, mana bolt, and similar) and protective (healing, poison cure, armor, etc.). Spells can be cast at any time, provided Warrick has enough mana. Up to three spells can be ready for casting from the menu bar.

So Entomorph is more in the action/adventure category, although it is certainly not a slaughterfest in the Doom mold. While you could spend a lot of time crunching insects, much combat can easily be avoided simply by walking around hostile critters. The point is not how many monsters you can kill, but getting to the end of the game and setting things right again.

Of course, there is still a fair amount of fighting to wade through. Sometimes, you just have to bash a bug that's in your way, and there are a number of set encounters with hostiles that can't be avoided. Yet, if handled properly, this game has less combat overall than many traditional CRPG's.

Even so, you may not care much for this style of combat. Happily, Entomorph comes with five difficulty settings: Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard, and Very Hard. These control how powerful the opposition is, and so you can tailor the fighting to your own taste. Keep in mind, however, that even at the easiest settings, some creatures are going to be difficult, no matter what.

In addition, once the difficulty level has been set, it can't be changed after the game begins. If you find the combat is too hard, and want less of a challenge, you'll have to start a new game.

Graphically, Entomorph has overhead view instead of 3D, similar to the Ultimas. You see Warrick on the screen all the time, as well as all of the immediate area. Movement can be by mouse, keyboard, or joystick. With the mouse, there are two forms: normal and travel. Normal movement requires you to hold down the mouse button. In travel mode, you click the button once, and Warrick moves continuously in the direction of the cursor. I really liked travel mode; it's much easier on the hand and fingers than always holding down a button or key.

Interacting with the world is also simple. Moving close to someone and clicking on the person starts a conversation (if that one was something to say). Clicking on a button or lever causes Warrick to take the appropriate actions. In some situations, items have to be used. Most of the time, an object will be used automatically if it's in the inventory; sometimes, you have to choose what to use yourself. There seems to be no limit to what the inventory can hold, although Warrick never carries too much at one time.

Entomorph allows plenty of room for saving: there are thirty slots available, each with its own little picture of the save position. Unlike in Thunderscape, with its meager four saves, here you should have no trouble returning to an earlier position if you find yourself in a bad situation. You can save or restore almost any time in the game.

The game installs under Windows only (3.1 or '95; I have 3.1), and also requires Win32S. If you don't have that, it's on the CD and will be put up for you automatically when you install the game.

You have a choice as to how much of the game you want on hard drive; the maximum install requires about 80 meg, not counting room for saves. Since I had the room, I opted for the maximum. The game ran pretty well with that, although there were waits whenever Warrick crossed a boundary to a new area, and sometimes, when the screen was busy (lots of animation), there was a noticeable slowdown in Warrick's movement. Generally, though, it was smooth going.

Entomorph has no automap. However, the areas are not all that large, and since you do a lot of back and forth between them, in time they become familiar. The closest thing to a maze is the ant hill, and even that isn't really complex.

Aside from talking, fighting, and exploring, there are some puzzles to solve, although they are not, for the most part, hard (the game difficulty settings do not affect the puzzles). However, after a point, what to do can be somewhat less than obvious.

At the start, Warrick receives a certain amount of direction from various people. Beyond that, he's pretty much on his own, and it may take you awhile to figure out where to go, or that some places are currently dead ends. For example, early on, you can get into the ant hill, but you won't be able to do anything there for a long time, except perhaps learn how to not be killed by the warrior ants.

Similarly, if you miss an item in the third rebel hideout, the game is at a standstill, since the item is vital to allowing you access to the giant beehive behind the Ziggurat. This one (yes, I did overlook the object first time around) cost me many hours of fruitless wandering until I picked it up.

It's also important to revisit locations throughout play. The world changes as time progresses. In particular, the island becomes more ravaged as the jagtera mindlessly munch everything around them; the lush forests turn into chewed tree stumps (a nice touch there), and eventually even the town is deserted except for a few transformed humans. Some places that weren't accessible earlier open up; unless you return now and then for a look, you won't know it.

One thing this game needed was better control for combat. There is really no way to dodge or back up. Warrick always turns to face the way he's moving, which can be awkward at times, if not deadly. Keys to allow for sidestepping to avoid blows/poison spit/spells, and to backup while facing opponents (to get off your own spells or spit) would have made combat more playable.

Entomorph ran cleanly overall, but, in a game about bugs, perhaps it's not surprising a few of the software variety showed up. There were three instances in the game where problems surfaced.

The first was in putting a flower on a certain grave. The option to do this didn't appear, and using the flower from the inventory didn't work. The only way I found around this one was to restore back to before entering the third rebel hideout (where you hear about the grave), and playing on from there.

The second was in the Keechda cave. The game hung after the head Keechda began a certain repair job for me. SSI fixed the problem here (I sent them a save game), and this one seems related to where Warrick stands in the room when he begins the conversation. If your game should hang, restore and try different positions in the room.

The third was in the kitchen of the Mutalid palace. Here the game froze again, this time after Warrick listened in on a conversation between the chef and a worker bug. Position didn't matter; the game always hung no matter what. This one I got around on my own by restoring to an earlier save in the palace and playing on from that point.

Entomorph uses something called "Redbook" for music, which requires special drivers that I don't have. Ergo, I can't comment on the tunes in the game, but the digital voices and effects came through fine on my Gravis Max. However, there isn't much in the way of voice.

Conversations are actually done via text. Voices are heard only in special instances, which are usually the automated sequences that pop up now and then featuring a particular villain or the storyteller.

The storyteller is a character Warrick meets early in the game, and who gives our hero an amulet so he can see what Warrick is doing (and thus write about Warrick's heroics). After that, every so often, the game is interrupted while a window opens with the storyteller commenting on the current situation. Occasionally, he drops a hint or two in his comments, but otherwise his only purpose seemed to be to belabor the obvious, and his interruptions eventually became irritating. He could easily have been left out and the game none the worse for his absence.

Overall, Entomorph is something of a hybrid: part action, part adventure, part role-playing. While it probably does not have enough of any one element to satisfy fans of a particular genre, the game does work fairly well with what it has, and is a quick play. It's the sort of game you do while waiting for the next epic to come along. If you don't mind romping amongst the insects, or the somewhat limited combat, you might have some fun with it.

System Requirements:

486
Windows 3.1/95
8MB RAM
1X CD-ROM