Four Fat Chicks -- Geneforge Review

Geneforge

Review by Enigma
April 2002

These days, gorgeous graphics seem to be all important to many gamers, especially to us adventure gamers. Those who think that a strong storyline can overcome simple, cartoony artwork, however, may enjoy Geneforge, the newest shareware game from Spiderweb Software. Made almost entirely by Jeff Vogel, the "Grumpy Gamer" columnist, it's billed as an "Adventure/RPG." If you think that shareware means short, easy gaming, think again. Geneforge is huge and far from easy. It can provide weeks and even months of immersive gameplay for those who like a good challenge.

You're supposed to be able to play Geneforge without doing battle with anything, if that's your choice. Geneforge is all about choice, with multiple endings and plenty of different paths everywhere. Winning the game through stealth alone, however, will be difficult enough that only the most resolutely peaceful adventure gamers will want to try that route. Hey, it's an RPG, so why not let your prehistoric urges loose and kill something?

Yet, even with all the bloody battles you can have if you choose, Geneforge tackles some ideas that you normally don't find in computer games. Although it won't make you think at the elevated levels of Pilgrim or Obsidian, it may pique your thoughts about the ethics of power, freedom, and especially genetic engineering. That's the premise behind the game.

An Abandoned Island, Run Amok

You are Andras, an apprentice "Shaper," if that's whom you choose to play. The Shapers are presumably human scientists who have learned how to create and shape life into forms that will serve their needs. On your way to begin your higher education, your sailing craft, a living being, is slain and sunk by an attacking ship.

Cast adrift on Sucia Island, you soon learn that the island has been banned by the Shapers for about 200 years. There you find three different sects of "Serviles," human creations intended to serve the Shapers. Left to their own devices, the Serviles have developed philosophies. The first sect you meet, the "Awakened," only wants to live in freedom. The "Obeyers" worship Shapers as their godlike creators, and the "Takers" actively plan violent revolution against all Shapers.

You'll also find increasingly dangerous creations that the Shapers abandoned. Most of these will attack you. You'll meet various characters along the way who will talk with you and give you quests. And you'll eventually meet the "Sholai," the outsiders who killed your boat creature. Even they are divided, and you'll have to decide which side to support.

Your main target, or ally, is Trajkov, whom you'll eventually meet after a long and dangerous journey. Trajkov has captured the Geneforge, an incredible, dangerous invention that can give you extraordinary powers but that also might warp your mind.

Oh Brave New World, That Has Such People In't

Perhaps the most unique aspect of Geneforge is your character's ability to conjure up creatures to fight for you. I started out with a nice little red "Fyora," a Tyrannosaurus-like creature, whom I kept with me for the whole game. I named her "Nancy." You can make a herd of pets if you want, but I found that with Nancy and one other creation that I made much later in the game, I was able to get through almost every challenge. It's possible to be much more creative than I was, of course. That's one of the many choices Geneforge offers the player.

I mentioned that Geneforge is huge. You'll find 77 separate areas to explore, conquer, ignore, or sneak through. Each one has its own challenge. Some are heavy on combat, some require "leadership" skills, which you can buy with skill points, and some require high skills in mechanics for disarming traps. Only the most determined gamer will be able to conquer, or "clear," all areas, but if you can't get where you need to go one way, you'll always find an alternate route. If you want to be peaceful you won't be able to clear every area, but you can go anywhere and grab any object by hasting yourself and running like the dickens.

You'll visit towns where you can talk to the natives. You'll find ancient tombs full of ghosts, abandoned laboratories, fortified bridges, winding caverns full of hostile, rogue creations, and "servile minds," which are large brains resting in trays. You'll be exploring everywhere, and you'll have interesting conversations with a collection of odd characters, all of which you must read. This is shareware, remember.

Death and Salvation

Oh, incidentally, you will be dying in Geneforge, hundreds of times. Fortunately you can save games anytime, and you can use a nifty "Quicksave" feature except during combat. Reloading takes just a second. Additionally, there's an "Autosave" feature that kicks in every time you cross an area boundary, so if you forget to quicksave you won't have lost hours of gameplay.

Grabbing Loot and Power

As you wander around you'll find useful and powerful weapons, make or steal lots of money, and sneak or fight your way through abundant obstacles. You'll also find lots of chests and dragon nests and other containers to open, and you'll find hundreds of valuable or useful objects, far too many, in fact, for you ever to use or carry. If you find valuable stuff that you can't carry around all the time, it won't go away if you drop it. I chose one of the towns and stored my stuff in a big, messy pile.

You'll also find canisters that will give you powers you never imagined, constantly increasing your strength and giving you some very special abilities. You start off weak, and you earn points that you can spend on increased strength or skills as you murder foul beasts or complete quests.

You can choose to play on "easy," "normal," or "difficult" settings. I had to start on "easy" because I kept getting killed, but I started over on "normal" once I'd learned a bit about how to fight.

The major choice you'll have to make in the game is which group of Serviles you want to join, if any. Your choice has major consequences. If you join the Obeyers, the group loyal to your people, then your task will be to destroy the Geneforge, although you may change your mind about that at the end. If you join the Takers, you'll be allied with the invading Sholai, trying to grab power for yourself. You'll be fighting different battles in the game areas, depending on which you choose, and you can replay with different choices and results.

So It Isn't Gorgeous ...

Geneforge comes as a large download from Spiderweb's site, so you won't find intricate 3D graphics or lovely sunsets in the game. Instead, Jeff Vogel fired all his bullets into extensive and highly imaginative gameplay. Yet the artwork effectively conveys peaceful valleys, dry wastelands, and interiors, so you'll always have a good sense of where you are.

You will hear music each time you load the game, along with one nicely colored screen. Ambient sounds are everywhere, from twittering birds to howling winds, along with sounds of combat and special musical trills when you reach another level with your character.

Other than that, you'll be doing lots of reading, harkening back to the old text adventures.

Bugs

For its size and the fact that it's shareware, Geneforge is surprisingly free of bugs. My most annoying problem was feeding one of the servile minds, "Control Four." It was a distinct quest, but I'd met the beast before I got the quest or the "mind nutrients." The option to feed it just didn't appear later. I spent lots of time on that and finally used my brain goo for another servile mind. It didn't seem to affect the subsequent gameplay, but it was frustrating.

Every time you load or come back from the dead, you'll see game playing tips on the screen, but the areas load so quickly there often isn't enough time to read them through. A collection of these tips in the instructions would have been a nice feature.

For some odd reason I wasn't able to take any screenshots of Geneforge at all. We lifted most of the screenshots you see here from Spiderweb's site, and a few are from the PC demo.

A few times when I let the game sit until my computer went to sleep, my characters turned into little shadows when moving. Quitting and reloading the game solved that problem each time.

About three times toward the end of the game, the screen froze, causing a few more reloads. Other than that the game ran perfectly.

You Can Have Fun Without Gorgeous Graphics

Hey, folks, forget the graphics. People loved Zork and other text adventures, they loved Gabriel Knight 1 and other cartoon adventures, and still do, because of great stories and immersive gameplay. That's what Geneforge offers and delivers. After playing Spiderweb's other games, Nethergate and the Avernum series, I missed Jeff Vogel's unique brand of humor, which was mostly absent in Geneforge. The game delivers many hours of fun and excitement, though. Best of all, you can download about the first fifth of the game for free, play awhile and see if you like it. It's much more difficult than Nethergate or the Avernum series, so veteran RPGers won't feel insulted.

Go ahead, try Geneforge for free. If you like a challenge, you'll have fun.