It is a proven fact that action gamers are suckers for eye candy at
the expense of plot and theme. Medical research has shown that this myopia is
the direct result of a lack of brain cells in the frontal lobe caused by one too
many games of Quake and Doom. Adventure gamers, on the other hand,
are not so easily appeased, and God pity the poor fool who tries to pull the wool
over our eyes and substitute graphics for depth. But what does one do when the
“poor fool” is one of the best-selling authors of our generation–Michael
Crichton, the creator of Jurassic Park, Congo, The Andromeda Strain, and
ER?

Crichton’s Timeline was one of the best-selling novels
of the past year. Imaginative, yet soap opera-ish, it was a story that begged
to be made into an adventure game. A team of archeologists, working on a large
excavation in the Dordogne region of France, discover they can time-travel back
to fourteenth century feudal France. And travel they must, for the dig’s leader,
Professor Johnston, has mysteriously disappeared, leaving behind a videotape disclosing
his whereabouts. Now you must rescue your professor amid a perilous world of knights,
jousts, castles, and dungeons. Shades of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s
Court, this is the stuff of classic literature and, with any luck, adventure
gaming.

Now, if you have an hour or two to kill on a lazy afternoon, then
Timeline will fill that void. Your eyes will be dazzled by the graphics,
your senses stunned by the realism, and your pocketbook violated. Not only is
this the shortest game I have ever played, but it is also the most dumbed-down.
It is one thing to purposely structure the game to attract new gamers, but quite
another to actually provide solutions. As if you have not already guessed that
your next step should be to visit the inn, especially after a townsperson and
your partner have both told you this, you are then reminded in no uncertain terms
what to do next when your screen flashes the following message, “You should
now visit the inn!” Uh … thanks. This is truly adventure gaming for the
Beavis and Butt-head generation of gamers.

If you have read Timeline,
then be informed that the game follows the plot of the book exactly–only
with fewer characters. If you have not read the book, don’t despair, for it is
included in the box with the game. In fact, if you can find Timeline in
a clearance bin for about $10, then you will have found a real steal, especially
since the paperback retails for $7.99 plus tax.

After undergoing the shortest
training period in gaming history, you are then transported to fourteenth century
France. You first step, after one of the members of your party is slain, is to
slide down a slope to the castle area. There are historical reasons for the location
of the castle and the slope, but we will discuss those later when we explore the
tutorial. Since the game is played from a first-person viewpoint, all you see
in front of you as you slide down the hill is the mud. And the boulders you have
to avoid. And the apples you can pick up for an energy boost in case you have
crashed into a boulder. You can even make yourself slide faster or slower! What
an innovation. Wait a minute, didn’t I do this same thing three years ago, only
with better sound effects and more excitement, in Crash Bandicoot?

It
is all downhill from here. The puzzles are not puzzling, the action sequences–which
include a joust, a bow-shooting competition, and a horseback ride–are of a difficulty
level befitting arthritic senior citizens, and any urge to explore is hindered
by a restriction on your character’s movements. Death will come often, as certain
jumping puzzles are impossible to navigate, but in this game death is a welcome
choice.

About halfway through the game–or in gaming terms, thirty minutes
later–I decided to experience the interactive tour of the Timeline world,
narrated by Michael Crichton. The tour was without a doubt the best part of the
game, as Crichton explained the layout of the castle and provided detail that
brought the game to life. At times, he even discussed why certain aspects veered
from historical reality in order to compensate for artistic imagery. I then returned
to the game only to find that all of my saves had been overwritten by my guided
tour. It was at this point that I decided I was glad that the weapons in Timeline
were all nonviolent–the arrows and swords you wield only stun or shock your
enemies into submission–because for some strange reason I had a sudden urge to
prod the Timeline creative team in their buttocks.

There is a time,
though, when realism in a game can be taken too far. Such an instance would be
when the inhabitants of the town of all speak in their native French tongue and
the only way to understand them is when your partner translates their conversations.
Obviously, the Timeline creative team considered it too much of a stretch
to believe that the average gamer could still imagine that the game was set in
the Middle Ages of France if the citizens spoke English. Luckily, I had just returned
from a visit to Cryo-Networks in France when I played Timeline and thus
was able to fluently translate. Now call me crazy if you will, but I overheard
two knights in a corner whispering, and I swear they pointed at me and then giggled
in French, “Yes, zat is ze dumb bastard who paid $40 for zis game.”
As stated previously, sometimes realism can be taken to extremes.

Final
Grade: D

If you enjoyed Timeline:
Play: Knight’s
Chase
Watch: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Read:
Timeline

System Requirements:Pentium
II 266 MHz
3D video card with 8 MB memory
64 MB RAM
Windows 95/98
4X
CD-ROM
600 MB for installation
DirectX 7 or higher

Brief
Interview with Michael Crichton

Was Timeline written
with the express goal of creating a software company and game from the finished
product or was it just an afterthought?

The game company
was started in 1997, almost a year before I began writing the book. The company
was created to make all sorts of games, and the first year was spent on the rendering
engine and the authoring system. Then when I wrote the novel Timeline, which
appeared two years later, we decided to make a game of that. It seemed like a
good idea.

How do you plan to handle future episodes in
the Timeline series; will they be available in book form first and then
as a computer game, or do you foresee some as book-only or game-only projects?

I
won’t write more Timeline books. I expect there will be more games.

Does
Timeline Computer Entertainment have the options to only future Timeline projects,
or does the company have the rights to transfer some of your past novels (Coma,
Jurassic Park, etc.) into game form?

We may do game
versions of some old projects, but for the moment I am looking forward to new
things. Several of the old projects, such as Jurassic Park, have already
had games made from them.

How much input did you have into
the Timeline game as compared to previous games produced from your writings,
i.e., Congo, Trespasser?

I had nothing to do with
any previous game such as Congo or Trespasser; most of them I have
never seen. I was very involved with Timeline. I spent most of the past
year working on it.

What eras of history would you like
to cover in future Timeline projects?

It’s my longstanding
policy never to talk about future projects. I have a pretty clear idea of where
to go next, though.