The Agon Codex is what
the music industry refers to as a “remix.” That
is, it is material which has been published before, but is now packaged
differently
and might have a few changes thrown in.

The original material is Agon episodes one through three. These
games have already been reviewed individually in JustAdventure. How
good are they? Well, I spent my $10 on the first and after playing
it went right out and paid $10 for the second. And then again for
the third. I am anxiously waiting for the opportunity to spend money
on the fourth. They are worth opening your wallet for.

And, if all goes well, there will eventually be a thirteenth. The
Agon is a serial in which our hero and avatar, Professor Samuel Hunt,
travels the world in search of twelve hidden board games. Each game
is won when Professor Hunt finds the game and beats the caretaker
at it. Once complete, the game is ours to play as often as we like,
either against the computer or on-line against others. A very nice
concept and the first series which actually has a chance of being
completed.

The disk autoboots to the wonderful trailer for the game. The folks
at Private Moon Studios are talented artists and the trailer is sure
to hook you. In fact, they are so good that the fourth episode has
been delayed which they create a video trailer for their city to
help attract the tourists. It is one thing to be a talented artist.
It is another to be able to sell your work.

With the trailer behind us and the adrenaline still fresh in our
system, the first game starts with a narration by Prof. Hunt. While
he brings us up to speed on just who he is (scientist at the British
Museum) a lovely watercolor of a horse and carriage is created for
us in the background. The monologue and the painting finish at about
the same time and the picture morphs into the opening cut scene.
With two strong effects together like this, I was totally won over
from the start.

The first episode acts
as an introduction. No surprise there. Our night-own professor
has just received a mysterious letter from a “W.K.” It
encourages him to solve the mystery which has been placed in the
lap of the British Museum. The letter also contains a page form an
ancient manuscript – medieval in style and possibly illuminated.
This codex tells of a demonic influence called the Black King which
takes the hearts of men and stirs them to a passion for war. To counter
this influence, twelve board games were created to take the competitive
nature of man and channel it into peaceful pursuits.

For some unclear reason,
the original inventor is not able to release these games and defeat
the Black King. He is, however, able to take
these games all over the world and entrust them to different families
to guard until someone comes later and declares that they “have
come for the Agon.”

It is now several hundred years later and the British Museum has
just come into possession of a large granite statue of a Black King.
This statue contains the clue we need to find the first family.

The game is well made and ends with the professor off to find the
first board game in Lapland. We see the professor board the train,
fade and cut. That was when we had to stop and order the next game.
But now the first three episodes all come together and instead of
Windows, we are taken to the Professor’s desk, sometime in the distant
future.

At the desk we find several old letters written back and forth between
the Professor and his associate, Smythe while the professor was traveling.
There is also a biography of the Professor and we get to read one
of its chapters. All of this goes to tell us more about the Codex,
which Smythe is researching, and about what is so special about Professor
Hunt. This acts as lead-in for the next episode.

At the end of the second episode, we return to the desk again for
more letters and another chapter in the biography. Then on to Madagascar.
At the very end it looks as if we are finally going to exit the game
and wait for episode four, when a surprise letter arrives from Smythe
telling us…

So what do you get with the Agon
Codex? Three delightful adventure
games nicely packaged together with several layers of plots to keep
you intrigued.

I would encourage you to go back and read the individual reviews
of each game and then go out and buy this disk. It’s a keeper.

Reviews: Agon
1 | Agon 2 | Agon
3

System Requirements:

• Windows® 98/Me/2000/XP
• 800 Mhz Pentium® III or equivalent processor
• 128 MB RAM
• 32 MB DirectX® 8.0 Compatible 3D Video Card (GeForce2 or equal)
• DirectX® Compatible Sound Card + Stereo Speakers