TERRAN ENVOY

 It's rare to find a game these days that presents an entirely original 
concept in a simple, enjoyable, playable form.  TERRAN ENVOY, created by the 
designers of FIRE BRIGADE, Tony Oliver and Ben Freasier, is that kind of game. 
Who would have thought an Outer Space Gossip Simulator could be so much fun?! 
(This review is based on the Amiga version).

 The goal is, ultimately, to prove to the Ubbermenscha that you (and your 
human species) are indeed fit to become part of the Galactic Community. 
They've set you the task of finding out who the Usurper is; your mission is to 
eliminate him (it?) with the Ray of Justice once enough evidence is available 
to make a convincing case.

 The way you gather evidence is to flit around the galaxy, chatting with 
various amusing species of beings (19 in all). These species will each be glad 
to offer you one piece of information for free, but they need to be bartered 
with for more.

 To that end, you must also visit various planets and collect different kinds 
of crystals, some of which appeal to each of the species. The ship you travel 
in has only so much cargo room, cleverly limiting you from spending one half 
of the game just loading up on crystals, the other half on trading rumours and 
hearsay. Some planets are abundant in certain crystals, some have a little of 
a number of different kinds, and some are barren altogether.

 Planets also host the alien species, so some planning must take place in 
order to remember who's living where. Time can be wasted running back and 
forth aimlessly without an adequate map of crystal and species locations.

 With a proper supply of crystals, you then "gift" a particular species with 
the proper crystal, and they tell you nasty things (or nice things) about some 
other species. The reliability of their information depends, of course, on 
their own relationship with other species. Creatures who are friends are more 
likely to be telling the truth about each other than creatures expressing 
hostility towards each other. Your task is to sort out hearsay and innuendo 
from valuable information, to get to the point where you can ascertain a 
likely suspect with some reliability.

 To this end, your ship is fitted out with ARAC, a Xenology study computer and 
database. This unit gathers the information you collect as you go along, and 
offers likely profiles for each species (clearly, the success of the computer 
depends on the extent of your gathered info). Each species for which a profile 
is requested will be worked up in terms of likely friends, enemies, and 
favorite crystal type. Whether the species is friendly, honest or disloyal is 
also indicated by the system.  All these inferences are generated out of the 
log of contacts, successes and failures you've made while attempting to get 
some straight talk.

 Once you think you've cornered the potential culprit, you must put together 
the right combination of crystals in order to fire up the Ray of Justice; 
firing the Ray essentially leads to the program's conclusion, where it 
indicates whether your identification of the Culprit has proven to be correct 
or not. Beware the Ubbermenscha: They are not pleasant when disappointed.

 TERRAN ENVOY is very much a static, window-oriented design. On the Amiga, the 
right mouse button calls up a menu bar at the top for entering commands, and 
various windows can be controlled by clicking on the appropriate places. 
Animations are limited to planet pictures and images of aliens, the latter 
especially well done. The engrossing qualities of the game come from the 
process of trying to figure out "whodunit" (or who's going to do it) rather 
than from the graphics or sound design (there is no sound).

 One of the more interesting aspects of the game design is that the location 
of species, crystals, and the nature of the relationships between creatures 
are ever-changing; no two games seem to come out exactly the same. This makes 
for good replayability, and sustains the mystery from session to session.

 TERRAN ENVOY comes on one copyable floppy for the Amiga, and requires only 
512K of RAM to play. It will run on the A1000, A2000, and A500 machines. The 
game is easy to install on a hard drive, and will make use of an external 
floppy for saved-game purposes, if desired. Either mouse or keyboard can be 
used for input.

 Comparable in some ways to MPS Labs' LIGHTSPEED, but without the potentially 
annoying flight sequences, TERRAN ENVOY can prove to be a fascinating little 
puzzler. Expect nothing here but plenty of fun.

 TERRAN ENVOY is published and distributed by Stratagem Games.