Inca II – Tickle my fancy

By Ilmari

Last time, I failed to pass the space battle initiation test and was forced to choose the other one involving wisdom instead of action.

I probably had received some instructions about what I was supposed to do here, but I accidentally pressed some button during the introductory phase and a big chunk of text just flew by me. Oh well, I guessed I was meant to get rid of the bars, so how hard could it be?

Checking my surroundings, I found a stone on the floor and a feather on top of the guard’s head. Neither of them did anything with the bars, but I could place the stone in a hole at the gutter, and that made the water flow on one of the statues, as if it was crying.

Now, using the feather on the same statue - to tickle it, I guess - made it smile and descend, lifting away one set of bars.

After that, it was pretty simple to just repeat the same process with the other statue, releasing me from the test.

Outside, I met my father, El Dorado, who told me that having passed the initiation test, I was now worthy of attending the council of wisemen.

Yep, it’s men alright – no woman around this table

I wonder if he flies an open cockpit spaceship? Because he does have the space goggles to shield his eyes from space debris

Kelt Cartier… actually, what is this WWI fighter pilot doing on a ruling council of Incan space empire? Your guess is as good as mine. Anyways, he told the others that the forces of the Ancient Lands (the space conquistadores) had taken armed control of the asteroid causing all the problems, and the mastermind of the operation was none other than Lord AGUIRRE – the bad guy from the previous game. Aguirre’s plan was apparently to scramble all communications between the territories of the Empire and then to enslave it entirely. Cartier was also afraid that the asteroid was more powerful than anything the Incas could send against it.

Atahualpa (that's the guy I am playing) protested and called Cartier a coward. Eldorado promptly discarded his son from the meeting for being so rude. Outside, I was stopped by Doña Angelina, a half-caste of Native American and European descent, who convinced Atahualpa to go and kick some Spanish butt.

You are easily convinced

Before I could do that, I had to steal a spaceship called Tumi.

If he's base, I'll use acid

Let’s see, what could I pick up? Stones, coca leaves, a pole with a rope. I tried to throw the stones at the guard, but he was merely alerted of my presence. I could hide behind some bushes, so that he couldn’t see who was the thrower, but that didn’t get me any further.

Checking further, I found that I could move to a new room where I could place the pole on top of a doorway that the guard would go to after I had thrown the stone. Pulling the rope at the end of the pole did the trick.

That didn't take long - was is just around the next planet?

This was the moment I had been afraid of: my first space battle. I will not attempt to explain the controls, since frankly I don’t understand how to use over half of them (have I ever told you that I hate simulators?). I will go through the different kinds of weapons, since that’s something I tried to learn from the manual:

• The atomic disintegration gun: this is the easiest weapon to handle – just press firing button and it will shoot like a machine gun, as long as it is not heated too much – but it doesn’t do too much of damage
• The IA missile: this is a bit stronger, but you first have to get a lock on the target, if you want to hit them. And there’s only five of them
• The clean nuclear torpedo: just like missile, but it has more firepower and it’s more difficult to lock on target with it
• The atomic disintegration bomb: I guess this is good for big ships or a group of ships, but for small fighters this is pretty much useless, since I can never hit them with it
• The grapnel: not really a weapon, but I guess it will be used for some puzzle.

I (almost) hit something

Surprisingly, I wasn’t blown to smithereens during the first minute, because I was saved by a cut scene, where Atahualpa’s mommy and daddy were speaking about their son.

And they were not very happy…

…especially daddy!

I was then back with the flight simulator, but again, I was not tormented long, because daddy Eldorado came to the rescue and took charge of my ship.

It didn’t take long for him to get here - really, is the Incan empire headquarters just by the border of a hostile civilisation?

...you will be grounded to your room for six weeks!

My attack was taken as an act of war by the space conquistadores.

Me and Eldorado were thus under attack by a swarm of enemies, and I could do nothing about it…

Session time: 45 minutes
Total time: 1 h