Amstrad Action


Bugsy
By CRL
Amstrad CPC464

 
Published in Amstrad Action #16

Bugsy

I'm not sure about these ladies up at St Brides. First they start off with a mystery adventure, then they try to produce a fairy tale followed by a parody of Colossal Cave. Now they've come up with a story about a blue rabbit that attempts to take over the Chicago Mobs and become Public Enemy Number 1.

You start off penniless and must work your way up by enlisting other hoods who will support you in your bid for power. This, and most other developments in the game, depends on your TALKing to them in the right way. Here St Brides has used a clever menu system that is booted up each time you enter TALK TO (someone) and gives you various options including Threaten, Bribe, Sweet-Talk, Greet and so on. Choosing the wrong option can often lead to rabbit stew, so a good deal of experimenting needs to be done.

This part of the game is really very good. A sweet-talking blue rabbit can, in conversation with a lady Italian gunsmith, come up with some quite cute lines. The girls at St Brides obviously have a refined sense of humour.

Bugsy

Some of the puzzles in the game are very tricky indeed. In fact that's a feature that seems to belong to all St Brides games their first game The Secret Of St Brides was - in my opinion - extremely tough. Robbing banks, catching trains, and evading the law are all part of the daily life of a rabbit in Bugsy, but I found getting the cash for a train ticket difficult enough and I certainly never made it to Al Capone status.

All in all, this is a refreshingly amusing little game. Like most adventures these days, I think it's a bit over-priced, but it will definitely raise a few laughs and shows that The Quill can still provide a vehicle for enterprising adventure writers.

On the other hand, it also makes me wonder what St Brides molls could do if they employed a proper programmer to produce their own adventure system. Then, I suspect, we'd see something really special. They obviously have talent for writing and for devising puzzles, so it's a pity that that talent doesn't have a better framework through which to express itself.

The Pilgrim

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