~Ringworld 2 - CD
3
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Return To Ringworld - Animated Adventure by TSUNAMI

Review by Lu Richardson


I vaguely remember playing Ringworld and mildly enjoying it - that's 
about it, that game did not stake a claim in my memory.  Therefore, 
you can easily deduce that it was hardly memorable.

So here is Part 2 - in olden days (say, two or three years ago), 
this product would have fitted snugly on four HD disks.  However, 
this is the CDROM age, therefore you pick up a perfectly ordinary
problem-solving adventure and you pad it out for all it's worth.  
Shove in a whole lot of unnecessary talk and endless marching about, 
and you've partly filled the CD.  Add some uninspiring music and 
sound effects and, wow, you are nearly there.  And that's the good 
news.

The bad news is that this is rather a mediocre game made worse by 
maximum verbosity, plenty of gobbledygook and silly conversations, 
not to mention prolonged sequences you cannot avoid.  The sound 
effects are minimal and the music is best countered with thick 
earplugs.  The problems you have to solve are mostly difficult 
because of the illogical approach and the fact that you can hardly 
spot visually the things which would make all the difference.

So, OK, the graphics are decent and the interface fairly simple.  
These two parameters tend to be more decisive than you'd think.  But 
essential as they are they, by themselves, do not determine the 
quality of a computer game.  And this is no quality game.  Indeed, 
the only truly enjoyable bit is a "game within a game" - a card game 
you can play from the computer consoles.  Now, that is fun.

The fact that you can toggle between your three characters and have 
a triple dose of this tremendously long adventure doesn't make it 
any better.  If only there wasn't such a lot of time wasting one way 
and another, it could have been fun.

My advice to you is save your money for something more worthwhile.  
If you were unfortunate enough to receive this game as a gift from 
your Aunt Ethel, then let Cheet Sheets take the strain and send you 
on your way.

But basically, you want to steer clear of it.  It's overlong, rather 
boring because of the lack of action, and has nothing new to offer to 
the eager adventure player.


Text Copyright (c) 1995 Eurowave Leisure Ltd.
