STAR SAGA: ONE

 Initially, this is a daunting prospect. STAR SAGA: ONE looms before you like
the monoliths in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. The great big box. The great big price.
And when you open it, you are overwhelmed by the sheer weight of it all:
thirteen game text books, six character booklets, big maps. This game is not for
the casual observer, you think. It is, however, very simple to play. That
happens to be both the game's strength and its weakness. (This review is based
on the IBM-PC version, which requires 256K minimum.)

 First, you must understand what STAR SAGA is not. It is not really a computer
game at all. Furthermore, in spite of having a "board" and player markers, it's
not a board game either. Although you play a role, it bears little resemblance
to most role-playing games. What it approximates most nearly is the Young Adult
type of book in which you read a section, and then select the character's next
move from a range of options; after making the choice, you're referred to
another page. That is the essence of STAR SAGA: It's a huge
make-your-own-adventure book, with a computerized bookmark and a score pad.

 In STAR SAGA, you and up to five friends can decide to be one of six
characters, each with his or her own peculiar quest. You can be a professor
gathering alien knowledge, an engineer seeking the perfect spaceship, a
religious devotee after a lost holy text file, a yuppie looking for a way to
return to his family's good graces, a starfleet officer on a secret mission, or
a civilization's last hope for the recovery of its sacred artifact. On the other
hand, you can play the game solo, running one or more characters yourself.

 No matter how many play, the game walks you through your first five turns,
after which you're on your own. You plot your course on the galactic map
(color-coded, and a snap to use). You visit known and unfamiliar planets and
land, then are given a list of optional actions. You can trade, learn planetary
history, study strange disciplines, explore wrecked spacecraft or swim in a big
pink lake. Depending on your choices, you are referred to one of 880 sections of
text. All the computer does is keep track of what you've bought, what you've
studied, and where you've been. It does this with no muss, no fuss, no pictures,
no graphics, no nothing.

 After a while, it becomes tiresome to leaf through thirteen different booklets,
reading a page and returning to the screen. Somewhere along the line, a decision
was made to limit this game to a single disk in size, and put the rest of the
game in booklet form. I think this may have been a mistake, at least from the
point of view of a solo player. Between the text booklets and my voluminous
notes (and believe me, you _must_ keep notes), I was totally surrounded by
paper. Because the galactic economy is based solely on barter, you have to keep
track of where to get the best deals, and where certain goods can be found in
ready and unlimited supply.

 Therefore, anyone looking for dazzling depictions of strange aliens and sleek
space ships, hoping to test his or her manual dexterity against horribly
beweaponed battlecruisers, must look elsewhere. Still, despite its limitations,
there is something oddly compelling about the game. Perhaps it's the desire to
seek out one more strange new world, one more alien civilization, and to boldly
go where no gamer has gone before. Many is the time I found myself in a quandary
-- do I quit now, or just try one more planet? What lies beyond the horizon is
peculiarly attractive and this simple truth is STAR SAGA: ONE's strongest
selling point.

 Second, and even more important, is that the authors have accomplished what
they set out to do: create "an Interstellar, Interactive, Role-Playing Space
Opera." This is an interactive novel filled with fascinating worlds, like
Ouabain where everything is a game, or Feldo (pop. 1), or Tretiak which is kind
of like an acid flashback. And the further you get into it, the more disturbed
you become about what seems to be an unseen hand at work, subtly yet horribly
altering the futures of billions of creatures. Even after your character
achieves his or her own goal, you must keep exploring to learn more about this
ominous manipulative force, to gain the knowledge and the rare substances and
the machinery that will allow you to run the Space Patrol blockade and travel to
the far reaches of our galaxy. In short, it's a crackerjack good story.

 Solo, this is a very challenging and time-consuming game. I started with a
single player and eventually reached the end, panting and weary. However, with
more bodies in the game, different portions of the map can be assigned so as to
maximize the ground covered in the minimum time. Commodities can be exchanged
and confidences shared. While I have not played this game in a group, I imagine
that it could take weeks to finish, with all six roles being taken by different
people. Playing solo, I completed the game in just over 300 rounds. Since only
one person can use the computer at a time, even if a turn takes only five
minutes, that gives you almost half an hour before it's your chance to play
again. For what its worth, I would recommend that three people play the game,
each taking two roles, and that they all plan to do little else for an entire
weekend. Have refreshments available.

 If science fiction is your cup of literature, if you want more out of a game
than ceaseless monster-bashing and the collection of gold or points, if you need
a break from tough puzzles and map making, give STAR SAGA: ONE a try. And may
the Force be with you.

 STAR SAGA: ONE is published by MasterPlay Publishing Corporation.

*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253