German version of this page

Translation: The Fantastic Journey to Terra-Gon

On the search for new game ideas Martin Mirbach travels through space and time. He luckily located it before his own doorstep...

Often smaller developers provide fresh wind - in all industries, which have something to do with creativity, entertainment and media. Thus also within the area of computer games. Regularly here unspent heads bring in their new ideas on search for the new, the different, the never heard of. The young German label Modern Games pushes into this notch, throwing itself head first into an anyway already hard-fought genre with the unusual experimental adventure "The Fantastic Journey to Terra-Gon". Does the world need such a game?

"In the year 2442 the Halley's comet approached our world so near that its attraction threw earth from its course. On our planet, which is now drifting towards the sun, there is no more life, since the surface heated up so strongly that only a handful of humans succeeded to save their lives and find a shelter. But only I, professor Omar Tempel, could escape the inevitable death as last survivor with the help of a time machine that I created. I assume that the Dogons, a clan in Africa, had once contact with extraterrestials. They possessed knowledge of the orbit of the earth around the sun, the spiral form of our Milky Way and the double-star system Sirius. It exists a theory, which says that the earth was settled once by aliens from Sirius via Mars. Therefore I believe that the double star Sirius plays an important role in rescueing earth."

This litarally quoted Intro helps the gamer twice. First it explains the sub-title of the game "The Sirius Mystery" and makes clear thereby that there is a superordinate problem to solve besides the many single puzzles. On the other hand it gives a first, even if only very superficial, assistance to the player with his initial orientation attempts. Because at the beginning only the way is the target with this truly fantastic journey. The gamer neither receives a clear acting specification nor a game objective - he must gain both in the process of the game independently.

Beyond all frontiers
Where the intro ends, your journey begins. You are in the shelter of the last humans and sense your environment with the eyes of the only survivor, professor Tempel. Only a limited number of rooms can be attained within the shelter. Among them is an outlook, which shows the present status of the earth, and the professors's study, where you find his note book and a safe with important information. Particularly these two things are of enormous importance for the gamer, since he hasn't the same knowledge as the character, which he has to control. Visiting the study becomes a regular routine, because new hints can be found in the safe in regular intervals.

This method becomes possible by a removal of the traditional space/time structure. The professor's time machine, which the gamer can use likewise in the shelter for the first time, transports its passenger not only by thousands of years, but also to the most diverse places on earth. At a later point of the game it will even be possible (and necessary), to leave earth and visit alien worlds. The places on earth, where important tasks are to be fulfilled, are many mystic cult sites such as Stonehenge, the pyramids, the Oracle of Epos or Khalamu in Nepal. Up to 150 million years before Christ the gamer can back-travel in time.

Intellect, eye and ear
At which point of the game you might be, the environment is always arranged with carefully designed 3D graphics attended by fantastic sound. Exploring your surroundings, you move from one fixed image to the next and not completely free in a three-dimensional world. You also have to obey given directions, you can't always walk where you want to. Thus the game is divided into two parts. First the gamer must solve most different puzzles in the most diverse epochs on earth. Not until this tasks were completely solved, the second part of the game begins, the actual journey to Terra-Gon.

However you are always exclusively concerned to travel around and solve puzzles. As the only living beeing, there is naturally no threat in the present by other humans, wild animals or other forms of life. And this concept applies in the entire game. The dinosaurs in the primeval times will thus not attack you, the Druid in Stonehenge will even give you important hints - if you make the right decisions. Because this is the real difficulty: To solve all puzzles in the correct order and not be distracted in the future, when in the past not all puzzles are completed yet. The quality of the puzzles will even demand a lot from experienced players. Since the game is played directly from CD and doesn't take the smallest hard disk space, in addition an innovative loading system was invented. Wherever you leave the game, you receive a code, which helps to reenter later exactly at the same point (and therefore with the same knowledge status) again.

Not for the world
To finally answer my initially asked question: No, the world sure does not need this game. Because the world is the broad mass, and enormous numbers of pieces will probably not be sold from a game like this. Therefore simply too much is demanded from the gamer: He must be ready to train himself step for step into the game, he quasi has to earn it. He must be ready to abstain from any dramatic and operate only with his brain. And he must be ready to say good-bye to the traditional adventure concept and take a new way. Who is not prepared for this, can also forget the rating below, he will not enjoy the game. Who however with much time will engage with this experiment, will be rewarded with an exciting, sense provoking and sometimes nearly meditative experience. Lately some attempts were made to let grow a surrreal experience from the classical adventure idea. The Fantastic Journey to Terra-Gon  definitely belongs to the better ones of these attempts.

Developer: Modern Games

Screenshots

Minimum system requirements:
486 DX 66, 16 MB RAM, Windows 3.1

Pro
lnnovative game design
excellent graphics
impressive soundtrack

Contra
Sometimes too long loading times

Rating:

• Fun: 36 of 50
• Handling: 8 of 10
• Graphics: 18 of 20
• Sound: 17 of 20

Total: 79

PC Power April 1997