ST Format


Fascination
By Tomahawk
Atari ST

 
Published in ST Format #39

Interactive ST games - what turns you on about them? Is it in the way they play? Their incredible sense of humour? Or perhaps you prefer glossy graphics, and a spot of sleaze? Andy Lowe switches into soft focus and reviews that which is the essence of Fascination.

Fascination

Doralice is, apparently, the sexiest captain on the Paris-Miami flight. Of course, the fact that the assistant captain just happens to be a rather wizened 56-year old man with gigantic warts and saliva constantly trickling from the side of his mouth is irrelevant.

For what it's worth, the plot involves Jeffrey Miller, the Chairman and General Manager of the Quantum Unlimited Laboratory - he's a Florida billionare who made his money from pharmaceutical research. He discovers a cerebral chemical which looks set to cause a bit of a stir in the scientific community. However, there's a crew of ruthless nutters led by disgraced plastic surgeon, Peter Hillgate, who fancy using the chemical for their own, warped ends and who are on the trail of Miller and his employees. One of these people of is Fayard Nichols, and he happens to be on board the flight FAS 458 to Miami.

This is the plane of which you, as Doralice, are captain. Unfortunately, Mr Nichols inconveniences you by keeling over and dying on your plane at the same time as giving you his briefcase and groaning: "Here, take this - be sure it doesn't fall into the wrong... into the wrong... ugh!" The briefcase contains a vial of the chemical and it's your task to get it to safety, being careful to avoid the not-very-friendly attentions of Hillgate's heavy boys.

Harold Robbins, Eldorado

Fascination

The game operates from a mouse point-and-click interface with a fast and simple control system - point to the object, click with the left button to use or manipulate it, click with the right button to place the object in inventory. Objects in inventory can be produced and used on other objects or people in the scene - you often have to experiment and offer unlikely and uninteresting objects to your somewhat shallow game colleagues if you want to get anything out of them at all.

Verdict

So is Fascination just a load of old lip gloss? The problems switch from the obvious and ridiculously easy to the downright obscure and irritating. It has a relentless linear structure which doesn't let you leave a particular room until you've done everything.

At times, the dialogue seems to be taken straight from a Harold Robbins pulp novel and the sleazy, Bond-film mood it tries to evoke is prone to straying into wobbly Eldorado territory, providing plenty of unintentional smirks and guffaws. But, like some tacky continental movie - it's slick, rather predictable and at the same time strangely enjoyable. There are one or two more "adult" elements and it's too easy to recommend to old hands, but there's some great music and the graphics are terrific - actually adding to the experience instead of merely providing cover for the blemishes on the gameplay. So, put the kiddies to bed, turn off Prisoner Cell Block H and indulge in an hour or two of Fascination.

Strange Info

Try fiddling with the following for some pretty weird effects:

  1. The aerial on the car in the car park.
  2. The, ahem, nipple on the statue in Miller's office.
  3. The posters in the secret room in the lingerie shop.
  4. The - er, "thingy" on the skeleton in the lavatory.

Andy Lowe

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