Lately I’ve been fortunate to review some of the most recently released games from private developers. I invite anyone to do a search on Google, Altavista, or any other search engine to find freeware adventure games. Some of them are pretty awful or very old but a great number are quality products. As long as you don’t go in expecting them to be up there with the major league game developers, you should find a game that costs only the cost of downloading that’ll keep you occupied until you fork out money for a retail game.

The Key is an interesting title. It can proudly hold the banner of a one-man team. Jon Cooper did everything himself, from the graphics and story to sound and marketing. I was struck by the similarity of the position Jon was in to that of Cheyenne Wolford, developer of Nacah. The similarity did not end there. Both games incorporate a degree of Christianity to their storyline and are obviously influenced by the grandmother of all adventure games, Myst. On the other hand, the loneliness of the game and its overtones of a world war reminded me of Last Rose in a Desert Garden.

The Key centers around a civilization called the Exiles that are at war. They realize that a power source on the planet Arcadia holds the key to their victory. You are summoned by an Exile to the planet to restart this power source (or hand it over to the beings that banished the Exiles, depending on your decision at the end). A human being is the only creature that can control this planet’s destiny. This story is similar to many others where the hero has a messianic component to their being and must “save” the world. I was intrigued, though, by Jon’s willingness to incorporate Christian themes when there was a possibility that he might alienate the non-believers who would otherwise have played his game. Perhaps it is the degree of development behind the storyline that makes it more accessible than it would otherwise. It is obvious that he has thought long and hard about making a believable yet interesting story. Particularly interesting is the involvement of moral decision making that influences the outcome of the game.

Similarly, Jon has worked hard to make the puzzles be a natural part of the game environment. There is much to read via the computers on the planet, and within the reading is to be found the solutions to many of the puzzles. I was overwhelmed by the reading. The detail detracted from my enjoyment. Similarly, because there were no other characters, I found myself feeling that each solution to any puzzle merely opened up another section with other puzzles. If there had been some more major events that transpired from area to area, I may have been more intrigued by the developing storyline.

The graphics are quite interesting. The game is made up of three parts (which can be downloaded individually) and there is a huge difference in the quality of the graphics from part one to part three. The graphics are adequate to convey the feeling of a lonely abandoned planet. I played both the JPEG and BMP versions and didn’t notice much difference in quality but graphics purists out there will undoubtedly want to play the high quality version. Ambient noises occur every few seconds, though they do not seem to relate to events that occur in the story. On several occasions I thought I had done something wrong because there was an awful noise while I was solving one of the puzzles. Unfortunately, there are no subtitles, which would make the muddy sounding beginning cutscene a lot easier to understand.

The game played completely stably-I experienced no crashes at any time. The interface is easy to use (there is a menu above the viewing screen). There are hints accessible while standing in front of every puzzle, even to the point of supplying the player with the solution if required. It is unfortunate that the game plays in a window. It is possible to downsize the screen to 640x480 and then it plays in a window that fills the screen. It would have been more immersive to have had a full screen option.

This game is going to please a lot of people because of the difficulty. The puzzles make sense and can be solved by using the head. The graphics are great considering this is an independent game and the sound is adequately lonely. I often wonder what could be achieved by some of these developers if they had a staff and a budget… This game deserves a B overall.

Be certain to get the patches for the game (there are different ones for both versions). The Key can be downloaded in JPEG form or a disk can be purchased to cover the cost of copying the BMP (better quality) version (available from www.godcentric.com/thekey/main.htm).

Final Grade: B

System Requirements:

The game requires a 386 or better processor, running Windows 98 or later. (It may also run on Windows 95, but I haven't tested it). The computer must be capable of displaying 32bit True Color at a 640x480 resolution (most computers can, so this shouldn't be a problem.) If your computer can't do this, you can still play the game but the images will look grainy. No sound system is required, but it is strongly recommended: the game isn't nearly as interesting without the sound effects. No graphic accelerator, CD-ROM, or DVD is needed.