The Immortals of Terra is a point in click adventure. It brings both the best and the worst to the genre. First of all the game is titled A Perry Rhoden Adventure, The Immortals of Terra. Which implies it's some kind of on-going saga. True that . . . if you come from Germany. In a certain sense this is Germany's version of Great Britain's Dr. Who. In a quick nut shell, Perry is an American astronaut who on a mission to the moon gets wrapped up in alien intrigue and eventually he and his crew mates for all intents become immortal. The series has been going on in some form or fashion since the 1960s. In this game, the time is 3000 years in the future.
Until this game I had never heard of Perry Rhoden. But a Google search will reveal tons on history on the Hero. While at it base it seems to be pulp mag sci fi action thriller stuff, I'm really sorry we on this end of the globe mostly missed out on all the fun.
This game centers on the kidnapping of Perry's girlfriend (Google revealed it was also his former wife) and some sort of alien conspiracy involving a race that has been dead for thousands of years. The story, graphics, voice acting and music are all top notch. Unfortunately the game play is just horrible. This point and click in this game is old school as in Sierra On Line when they were their own masters. The bulk of the "game" is spent moving your cursor all over the screen. Or flashing an inventory item on a on screen character/devise to get some type of reaction Or manipulating your inventory to form a new inventory item. And since the game is on a rail, whoa be to thee who tries to join an object before its time or read a piece of info on a structure before the story has advanced for that piece of information.
Still, with a walk through in hand I have to recommend this game. True nuff, the game play is horrible but just about every other element of the game is great. And the loving detail that went into the visuals impressed me: True alien worlds that I could believe in. A marvelous story that starts out small and gets bigger as you delve deeper into events. And surprising professionalism from the voice actors from this small game developer. And while frustration reigned supreme during the playing of this "game", I kept playing anyway, just to see where it was going to take me next.
I would place this sci fi adventure game in the same league as Mission Critical (top of the heap) and Moment of Silence. At the time Moment of Silence was the most clumsy adventure game I had ever played but it was still a worthwhile journey. Immortals of Terra is even more clumsy but still worth the journey.
Perhaps some might argue that if a game fails at it basic functionality ( gameplay) how could it be considered a worthwhile journey? Honestly, I can't say. Every poor game puzzle I had to resort to the walk through made me curse the developers. And yet one look at another jaw dropping visual or inspired story event and all was forgiven. The game succeeded in making me interested in a sci fi story line I had never heard of before and now I want more.
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