{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang1033\deflangfe2052{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f2\froman\fprq2\fcharset2 Symbol;}} \viewkind4\uc1\pard\f0\fs24 The Uncertainty Machine\par Developer: Ratracer adventure games (http://www.freewebs.com/ratracer/)\par \lang2057 Release date: March 2003\par Genre: Adventure\par Platforms: PC-CD-rom\lang1033\par \par \pard\nowidctlpar\lang2057 Review by: Jerome jvdpr@yahoo.com\par \par First of all, everybody who\rquote s giving effort to create games to us adventure gamers in his/her spare time without any profit deserves a big applause. Eduardo Campos aka Ratracer is an independent developer of adventure games using the AGS engine. His first game, called The Uncertainty Machine, is free for download at http://www.freewebs.com/ratracer/. If you are curious about the backgrounds of the game, check my interview with him here at JA+.\par \pard\par \b The story\par \b0\par The story is about a newspaper reporter called Susan Gant. After the introduction, when Susan went to work one day, she witnessed a robbery in front of the newspaper building. This was the first sign something big was going to happen. The assignment for an article given by her editor-chief made her get involved into a mysterious conspiracy. To solve the mystery she has to investigate the facts using all possible means. \par \par Like most of these games the plot is the most important part of the game. Some people may feel the story is being copied, but I don\rquote t agree with them. I think the game is recognizable because the developer was inspired by several popular games. This resulted in a collection of several story aspects combined to a unique mystery dealing with good and evil.\par \par According to the developer\rquote s website the game contains about 90 rooms, 40 dialogs, and 80 inventory items. Well, since I didn\rquote t count them, those figures might be true. But I must say I would expect a much higher amount of dialogs because the story is mainly told using text. Unfortunately, this resulted in an apparently endless conversations between characters at least at two points in the game. Nevertheless, the story is far from boring.\par \par \b Gameplay\par \b0\par The game is a third person point and click type of game. The developer must have played quite a number of adventure games. All typical elements you can imagine for adventure games are included, like for instance; use of a city-map, combine inventory items, do some pixel hunting, use a Lap-top screen, use a mobile telephone, have multiple endings, act-in-time and more. The developer made clever use of such elements and created his own version. To be honest, even of some nowadays leading professional developers still use such elements to ensure their success.\par \par The screen is divided into several parts. At the top you see the playing time and information when Susan adds a note in her notebook or laptop. Below this line you have the Inventory bar. Here you can use objects either with other objects in the inventory itself or on the playing screen. The playing screen is where the game actually takes place. During dialogs possible lines with questions are listed at the bottom. The interface of the game is simple; Left click to interact with things, talking to people, using objects and right clicking to investigate. Some of the inventory items can be used in close-up views such as the mobile phone and the laptop computer. \par \par Playing the game is not very difficult. However some puzzles may quite challenge you, none of them is really unsolvable. There is a walkthrough available, but to be honest you should not need it. If you get stuck you probably have missed a clue or conversation somewhere.\par \par \b Graphics\par \b0\par The game is developed using the AGS (Adventure Game Studio) engine (which is freeware\f1 \f0 http://www.agsforums.com/). This engine is based on technology used by Sierra and Lucasarts in the early nineties. You must remember games like Kings Quest. The resolution of the game is 640x480. On nowadays big screens this may result in a bit coarse graphic. Concerning this, the characters are still rather pretty. While I thought the pink outfit of Susan on day 1 was a bit boring, I was pleasantly surprised on day 2. \par \par Strongest part of the graphics is the backgrounds, especially some of the furniture. The quality of the backgrounds even seems to improve during the game. It looks like the developer increased his graphic skills while creating more backgrounds.\par \par Unfortunately the animations are very simple. Sometimes the movements of characters are so unnatural it tends to devaluate the complete picture.\par \par \b Sounds\par \b0\par Sounds... what can I tell about sounds? Okay the game \i has \i0 sounds. The effects are fine, like the sound of traffic in the street, the bell on the elevator, breaking glass and birds in the park. The game has no speech, dialogs are written only. That was quite common in the old days , so you get used to that. Just, in my opinion the weakest part of this game is its music. The music will do nice in the elevator scene but apart from that it is absolute not my taste.\par \par I was pleased too see, the developer mentioned on his website he intended to release a second version with a new score. But if you have read the interview you know this is probably not going to happen. Too bad, cause it really can use some different music. In fact, even no music might be an improvement but the game does not feature this option. Therefore, I renamed the file MUSIC.VOX to something different and surprisingly it worked. Be careful though, because I am not sure if the game keeps stable on your system. Before doing this, give the music a fair try, maybe it will fit your taste after all.\par \par \b Conclusion\par \b0\par Overall, The Uncertainty Machine is a very pleasant game. If you like adventure games and if you are into something different, you certainly will enjoy this game. Besides that, what do you have to loose? After all, Ratracer distributes this game at no charge so all you have to do is download the 20Mb installation file. \par \par I think Eduardo did a great job and I am thankful he spent his time and energy in creating this game. With this, I like to encourage him to continue creating adventure games and hope we will hear from him in the future.\par \par \b Final grade C+\par \b0\par \b System requirements\par \b0\par System requirements for AGS engine:\par \pard\fi-288\li288\tx288\f2\'b7\tab\tab\f0 Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000 or XP\par \pard\fi-720\li1440\tab NOTE: under Windows XP you may have to use the compatibility feature.\par \pard\fi-288\li288\tx288\f2\'b7\tab\tab\f0 Pentium 100 MHz or faster system\par \pard\fi-288\li288\f2\'b7\tab\f0 At least 32 Mb RAM. \par \f2\'b7\tab\f0 Mouse and keyboard, \par \f2\'b7\tab\f0 DirectX compatible sound card\par \pard\par Copyright \'a9 2003 Jerome for http://www.justadventure.com, all rights reserved.\par }