Universe - Final Rating

Written by MenhirMike

To quote Frodo Baggins: It’s done.

The Universe Wikipedia article has this to say about the development:

Responding to some of the criticism directed at Curse of Enchantia, Core Design described Universe as being "a lot" more logical and less linear than their first adventure game. They also described the text-based system as an improvement over the use of only icons, the benefits being that it allowed conversations between characters and simply "it works". They also acknowledged that Curse of Enchantia had "suffered considerably" due to inclusion of action sequences, something that "adventure gamers don't want in their games”, so the ones in Universe were made "short and simple" enough.

Did Universe deliver on those promises? 

But First: A look at the Amiga CD32 and MS-DOS Ports

Universe had ports to the Amiga CD32 and MS-DOS that were released roughly at the same time as the original Amiga 500 version.

Neither the MS-DOS nor the Amiga CD32 version change the graphics, despite being 256-color machines. They also don’t add scrolling backgrounds or any other graphical flourishes over the Amiga 500 original. However, both ports have a different soundtrack. The CD32 comes with Red Book audio that sounds like you expect 90s synthesizer music to sound, and I really like it. The MS-DOS has the unmistakable SoundBlaster sound of the era. I like all three versions of the music, but the CD32 is my favorite.

I will also praise the Amiga CD32 version for being not just another lazy port consisting of the floppy disks being on a CD, which was very common for the platform. Instead we got a different control scheme that allows controlling Boris directly with the gamepad.

This immediately solves most of the pathfinding issues even though there is still a problem executing certain actions if I’m not positioned correctly. Jumping into the car for example (they also moved the jump verb to be earlier in the Options list, so they were aware how often it is used). The menu bar can be brought up with the blue button, at which point the directional pad controls like a cursor. It snaps to actions at the bottom and then turns into free form once I need to select something on the game screen.

I was worried at first that this feels clunky (especially during timed segments), but it actually worked very well. I’ve only encountered one screen that had issues, which is the spaceport after jumping from the monorail. Getting from the bottom track to the doorway required navigating blindly and it took a minute to get Boris to emerge from the doorway. But everything else - Haldebar, the Tunnels, jumping onto the spinning asteroid - went really well!

Unfortunately, there is only a single save slot due to the tiny amount of NVRAM in the CD32, and no password system. 

As for the MS-DOS version, this is in some ways the best version to play. It comes on CD-ROM or hard drive installable floppies and thus doesn’t need disk swapping, offers multiple save slots, and has mouse control (along with the pathfinding issues).

Bizarrely, the PC port wasn’t credited all that well. The credit sequence credits “the lads at East Point Software for their endurance and stamina (and stupidity) for converting Universe to the P.C.” but then only gives the first names of Neil, Mark, Paul, and Martin. There is a hidden message in the game files that reads a bit like a rant. Is this just some young British lads ribbing each other in a friendly way, or is there some animosity? No idea. It is a perfectly fine port and a great way to play the game, so the lads did great!

Which of the three versions you choose makes no big difference overall. The CD32 is the most unique because of the control scheme and all three have different soundtracks, but they are all competent and uncompromised versions with no real improvements that would give one version the edge.

Since the Game was also localized into German (my native language), I decided to give that version a quick playthrough. The quality of the translation is overall good and fully playable. It does have to make a compromise on having awkward grammar on the command line because of how the templating works, and it uses the formal “Sie” instead of colloquial “Du” most of the time, which feels out of place in this setting. It’s nowhere near as well translated as Lucasfilm Games adventures, but very little was at the time.

I cannot comment on the French and Italian translations, feel free to leave a comment if you have thoughts on them.

Alrighty, time to get out the grading sheet and see how pissed we’ll be at Universe!

Puzzles and Solvability

Starting with the part of the game that’s the second most frustrating to grade. It starts out pretty well on the Pfallenop asteroid cluster where the puzzles do a good job at explaining the interface and how the game ticks, all in a safe environment where even death is telegraphed well enough to make me aware of the possibility.

It all falls apart very quickly. The game doesn’t do a good job explaining why we are doing certain puzzles or give us any guidance on how to solve them. Sometimes it does give us a goal (like when Snorglak tells us he wants something to trade) but no guidance (we’re searching three planets for something). Other times, we are just stuck trying out everything (like when we arrive at Wheelworld and have no direction to find Malinaa) or having arbitrary results (how exactly is Tharon’s security badge related to Healer Yura’s hand being stolen?).

Putting aside the lack of sign posting and the need to trial and error, puzzles never evolve or get harder. The interface makes promises that the puzzles don’t deliver on. So many verbs and inventory items that are unused or underused. There aren’t any puzzle chains either, every puzzle is immediately resolved. There are no alternative solutions to puzzles that clearly should have some either; Silphinaa’s door code, the aliens stealing the PTV, or finding Healer Myrell should have an actual solution other than brute force.

The biggest insult is the endgame. Calling it a dialogue puzzle would be a huge exaggeration. We don’t even get to actually use the “throw” verb or use/combine Man-Brute’s glove to defeat Neiamises - we just select the one dialogue option available and win the game.

The Haldebar section was promising with a sign that spoke about Power, Wisdom, and Time and then turns out to be just a matter of running around on a single screen and throwing the rock that’s right there on this very screen.

So much promise here.

The hardest puzzles are the timed ones which are mostly hard because of the broken pathfinding.  On the CD32, the direct control of Boris really helps with the pathfinding issues.

A game can have easy puzzles and still be good as long as those puzzles are well designed. Universe’s puzzles are mostly not well designed and aren’t even really easy, just lacking in complexity and turning into trial and error with a side of pixel hunting at times.

There is promise in them as evidenced by many interesting inventory items that end up being unused. Having the occasional misdirection or red herring is perfectly fine, but two thirds of the items in my inventory went unused. I do wonder if large parts of the game (especially on Wheelworld) were cut because items like the unused high security ID card have so much potential.

The dialogue system is also not used much or well. There are a few scenarios where the wrong response gets you killed and some dialogue trees offer more information than others. I think that the only dialogue puzzle that somewhat deserves that name is the one where we get the ornamental droid destroyed by the sentries. And even there, I would’ve loved to actually expand it and learn (for example from Doshiv) that “Fish” is an actual secret override code to get the sentries to fire.

Lastly, there are arcade sequences here, which are inoffensive. They exist, they are over quick, they don’t get in the way.

In summary: The puzzles are mostly arbitrary, sometimes rely too much on trial and error, often don’t explain why you’d be doing them until you solved them and see what happens, never evolve beyond what would be an Act 1 puzzle in a good adventure, and are always frustrating because there’s a hint of potential that’s underutilized.

I’m giving it a 2.

Interface and Inventory

The interface is promising at first. It’s a point and click interface with a dismissable action bar. Splitting the verbs into the main and sub-menu is an interesting idea to declutter it. So this should warrant a good rating, right?

It’s a shame we never got a LucasArts Star Wars point and click adventure. Though Dark Forces is a fantastic game of pointing at stuff and clicking.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t even come anywhere close to living up to its potential. I’ve already mentioned the pathfinding issues in the puzzle section and that verbs are underutilized. But what’s specifically bad about the interface is the positioning of the verbs relative to their use.

The developers have chosen to put “Attack” and “Talk” on the main bar which makes it seem that these verbs are used a lot. “Attack” is used exactly once in the game.

The verb that gets used the most is under the Options sub-screen and thus needs an extra click every time: Jump. Mostly to get back into the car, but also for some puzzles like Haldebar or the spinning asteroid. I think that Jump is used more often than Pick Up even and should’ve been on the main bar instead of Attack.

Having a lot of verbs only makes sense if they actually get used. “Wear” and “Open/Close” get used exactly once while “Eat/Drink” is not used at all.

Picking up items is annoying because quite a few are blending into the background and need pixel hunting, which is amplified by the lack of descriptive text even when picking them up. I need to go into the inventory to see what I just picked up and read the (actually well written) description. Early Lucasfilm games had a “What Is” verb to scan the screen for hotspots, while Universe does require clicking on everything and hoping to not miss anything.

This gets really bad with room exits that are sometimes outright hidden. Combined with the bad pathfinding I find myself wondering if there is no exit in a certain spot or if I just need to click about twenty additional times for Boris to wiggle himself free and leave the screen. I found some exits by accident and spent a lot of time stuck until I found another hidden exit. (I do own up for missing the brightly lit doorway to the arcade on Wheelworld)

The inventory grows large enough to need a second page of items towards the middle of the game. But because the game never clears out superfluous items, every inventory interaction towards the end of the game requires an extra click to go to the second page. I could give the game credit for not having missable items that are important - if I leave a place that I cannot return to without an item that I need, that item is useless. But that’s really only useful knowledge when replaying the game, for which there is little reason.

I’m giving the interface a 3. This seems harsh for an interface that should’ve been given a 5 or 6 if it was utilized for a better game that makes better use of the verbs for puzzles, if they fix the pathfinding issues, and add some overlay text. It’s not a terrible interface, but I felt annoyed with it a lot and had to fight it at times - it just doesn’t work as well as it should’ve. The CD32 version improves on the pathfinding which makes it much more pleasant, but not enough for an extra point.

Story and Setting

Easily the most disappointing category. It was never going to get top marks for originality, but the manual, intro, and Pfallenop promised a lot. The manual sets the stage for an epic (if predictable) space opera, featuring Neiamises rise to become Emperor King of the Virgan Empire following a civil war and building himself a robotic body to ascend to godhood, leading to a war against the Mekalien empire.

Then we have Boris and a machine that can cross into a parallel dimension and through time, which is a good inciting incident. The manual talks about his future involvement with Healer Yura, so we had that to look forward to as we played the game.

Once we’re on the Pfallenop asteroid, Boris just wants to go back. We know that he’ll get thrown into the mess with Neiamises, we just wonder how it will happen. The terminal on Pfallenop paints a clear picture of an authoritarian empire that treats its citizens HARSHLY. We eventually meet Silphinaa, which is the turning point of the story because now, Boris is on the Empire’s list of enemies after escaping in a PTV from the pursuing imperial droids.

And then it falls apart.

We see a vision of Baron Kaleev being sent after us, followed by just leisurely exploring some desolate planets to find trade goods for Snorglak to get to Wheelworld. There, we wander around aimlessly instead of having some direction towards Malinaa and really just do stuff because there’s nothing else to do. The game lacks drive once we leave Pfallenop. The visions we get feel tacked on and poorly paced. Baron Kaleev is supposed to be a big deal, but shows up pretty randomly. And also underequipped given his supposed authority as Neiamises right-hand man.

Universe does not violate the “Show, don’t tell” principle, because even though it does a lot more “show” than “tell”, it still doesn’t show enough to form a cohesive story. One could try to make a good faith argument that the war between the two empires isn’t really a part of the story because we’re focusing on Boris' personal story (who just wants to go home), but there’s not much to it either. We’re working throughout the game to fight this war that we’re not really part of even though we’re supposed to be the saviour of ancient legend. And in the end, we got back home thanks to our uncle just showing up.

Speaking of our uncle, another annoyance is the “Memoirs of Professor George Verne” section in the manual. It is part of the manual, so one would be incentivized to read it before playing the game, and yet it does spoil the ending somewhat. There is really no good time to read the story bits in the manual, they give away too much and yet are also required to understand the universe that Universe is set in. It’s not even done in some meta-sense, like naming your movie John Dies at the End. The game forgets that Boris is the saviour of ancient legend most of the time and only brings it up occasionally whenever they need to change to another scene.

The Wizard of Oz actually delivered on its plot setup. This blurb was written by Rick Polito in 1998.

Universe is an example of clumsy storytelling. This game needed so much more exposition and reasons to push Boris along. Certain things that were in the manual needed to be in the game. So many things needed to be expanded upon. Sure, the story is derivative and wouldn’t score super high even if it was competently told, but there was something entertaining at its core that never got developed.

I’m giving it a 3 here. I can’t rate it for the potential of what it could have been (which should’ve been an easy 5 at least), but for what it actually is.

Sounds and Graphics

Unsurprisingly Universe’s strongest category by far. From a technical standpoint, this game is impressive given that it is targeting a machine from 1987 that can do 32 colors at a time. It did require a RAM upgrade, but so many Amiga 500 games needed 1 MB RAM that it was practically standard.

Universe does really well with its art direction. There are a lot of “space colors” like dark blues, greys, and purples, but there are a variety of environments on the planets. The opening asteroid sets the mood perfectly, Haldebar’s landing spot nails the “lost SciFi planet ruins” vibe, Neiamises looks imposing, Boris animations (of which there are many) are fluid, and there’s some neat scaling going on.

Two caveats are that there are no scrolling backgrounds - this feels a bit archaic in 1994, and makes some scenes that span two screens - like the impressive looking crawler on Ankalon 5 - feel a little bit less epic than it should be. The second caveat is that interactable elements (items, exits, buttons, etc.) often blend too much in the background.

Even if the story never delivered, the game had the look of an epic space opera.

A third caveat is that the CD32 and MS-DOS versions don’t improve the visuals despite them having better graphics hardware.

Moving on to the sound, the musical compositions really work with the game. The intro has the mysterious vibe that makes me feel that I’m about to enter a fairy tale story - especially on the CD32. In-Game, there are a variety of compositions from relaxed ambient space tunes to intense ones for action sequences or important story moments. I don’t think that any of the compositions are memorable by themselves (I’ve finished a playthrough half an hour before writing this part and already forgot the music), but it worked great while playing the game.

Unfortunately, there are no environmental/ambient sound effects. In space, no one can hear birds chirp.

Overall, this is a solid 7. I can’t give it more because the lack of scrolling backgrounds and ambient effects don’t make it feel like a 1994 game should be, and the musical compositions lack at least one really memorable melody. Games scoring an 8 or higher also have better art direction.

Environment and Atmosphere

Of the three narrative-related categories, this is the strongest. The opening story book that is accompanied by fitting music really sets the stage for a Made-for-TV SciFi story, and the game brings in good backgrounds and fitting music throughout. There are many expected locales delivering on the expectations, without feeling samey. Whether it’s the colony on Pfallenop, the ominous post-nuclear feeling landscape on Daarlor-Korv, the artificial space base that is the Wheelworld, or the surreal Coros that looks like SciFi Wizard of Oz, Universe does have good environments.

Whenever we’re being pursued by the droids, we do feel the pressure thanks to the music and time limit. Whether the environment is supposed to feel oppressive, desolate, or lively, it usually manages to convey that feeling competently. Auxiliary screens like the PTV’s navigation computer or terminals (while a bit tedious to use at times) help with the immersion. And seeing artwork of giant ships or Neiameses really hit the spot as well.

The opening section did a fantastic job teasing.

Universe really suffers from not delivering on the scale that it teases at. Most locations only have a few screens and puzzles each before we move on and never come back. Planets have either one or at most two quadrants we can actually reach. The Wheelworld is the biggest tease in the game, the navigation map shows so much potential and the actual locations don’t deliver on the desired feeling of a Mos Eisley-like space station.

I give it a 5 here. That seems low given my praise, but it’s not just the small scope that holds it back. It’s also that the highs just aren’t that high either - what’s here is good and did leave an impression on me back then. But there’s arguably nothing that stands out that hasn’t been done better elsewhere.

Dialogue and Acting

Let me start with the good here: The room descriptions are great, and so are the inventory item blurbs. A lot of Boris’ dialogue is spot on. But the game not only fails to deliver on its potential, it sometimes squanders it.

Characters like Silphinaa are severely underdeveloped and might as well wear a T-Shirt that says “I’m the token ‘turning point in the story’ character”. But her exposition dump is well enough written and adds to the characterization of the Virgan empire. It’s not so much the text that’s the issue but the lack of it. Boris is the only real character in the game, everyone else (including Baron Kaleev and Neiamises) are disposable plot objects. Shoutout to the huge amount of custom one-off animations for Boris that add quite a lot to him even if there’s nothing special in terms of characterization in them (they are not exaggerated or stylized in any way).

The game also doesn’t know what tone it wants. In its setup and showing of the oppressive Virgan Empire, it’s somewhat serious. But then it throws in silliness in a way that breaks the immersion, like wondering if the hermit Jor-Slev 4 was in Star Wars. That does somewhat make sense given that Boris is a teenager from Earth and would have seen Star Wars, but in the context of the game, it feels cheap. If you’re in the middle of making Empire Strikes Back and randomly throw in lines from Spaceballs, you’re not going to end up with Return of the Jedi but with a bad version of Empire Strikes Back.

I don’t mind gags, easter eggs, and in-jokes in games. In my introductory post, I said that I actually like that juvenile humor. But anytime it does pop up in-game, it stands out too much. Probably because there’s so relatively little writing that matters for the plot. This might have worked better if they went even further and leaned into the fact that Boris is a teenager with a flippant attitude.

Outside of the narrative, there’s a lack of item responses when trying to talk to someone, attack something, or use items. That is par for the course for the genre as a whole unfortunately, but I hoped that a game with many different verbs would also have more than just a generic response for them.

The Last Jedi had better Dialogue and Acting than Universe.

I am giving it a 3. The stuff that is written is competently written, and just because I dislike the occasional joke that doesn’t land doesn’t mean it’s bad. I can’t ignore the fact that there’s not enough written and that all NPCs are one-note cardboard cutouts.

Final Rating

Totaling the scores, we get (2+3+3+7+5+3)/0.6 = 38.333… points, rounded down to 38.

This puts it one point above Hook and Blue Force, and a few points over Cruise for a Corpse and Shadowgate. This feels right to me.

Re-Reading the review of Curse of Enchantia shows that Universe is a big step forward with quite a few things to like. I don’t think Universe is a terrible game but a very disappointing one. Interesting locales and some good world building, wasted on a game that comes up short in every aspect. There’s not enough to do in each locale. There aren’t enough NPCs to talk to, and there’s not enough interesting dialogue with the ones you can. There’s not enough usage of the interface to justify most of the buttons, and there are too many wasted inventory items. The puzzles never become really interesting, and the story is both very simple and incomprehensible.

I do not foresee opening this book ever again.

In the introductory post, I mentioned that Mobygames has reviews ranking from 21% to 90%. Unsurprisingly, the highest reviews are for the Amiga platform, including a 90% from French magazine Génération 4 that says it stands with greats like Indy 3 and 4. CU Amiga’s 87% review calls out a lot of issues - the amount of junk in the inventory, that Jump should be on the main menu bar, and the pathfinding issues. And yet, they somehow found “plenty of characters [...] to interact with” and that “the story twists and turns quite tantalisingly”. In general, the reviews praise the graphics and the story, while acknowledging that the puzzles exist. Amiga magazines often ranked games highly solely on the strength of their graphics; and with Commodore’s financial struggles and the competition from game consoles and ever-cheaper PCs, it felt especially so that Amiga magazines were cheerleaders for their platform. Add to that the issue of game reviewers not always being experts on the genre they’re reviewing, and you end up with inflated scores. Reviews for the MS-DOS version were around 50%-70%, which I consider fair - the game plays well enough, after all.

Core Design’s game output for 1994 did also include Heimdall 2, which might be featured on the blog in the future. But the real significant event that year was the beginning of development on Tomb Raider. It was released in 1996 to critical and commercial acclaim, and Boris Verne would’ve absolutely had a Lara Croft wallpaper on his 35-Bit Excellence Engine computer.

Can Tomb Raider be called an adventure game?

Commenters were not only relatively optimistic (given Enchantia’s 22), but also spot on: The average guess was 38.57. Busca got it perfectly right with 38, so enjoy your Rose-Tinted Guess Award!

CAP Distribution

100 CAPs to MenhirMike

• 10,000 Leagues Above the Sea Award - 100 CAPs - for choosing to play & blog his first game for TAG, Universe, for our enjoyment

30 CAPs to Busca

• Rose-Tinted Guess Award - 20 CAPs - for guessing the final score Universe would earn in the final rating
• 1970s Toaster Award - 10 CAPs - for bringing up some awesome trivia about one of the best Sci -Fi shows of the 70s

20 CAPs to Ross

• Wells-Spotted Award - 10 CAPs - for pointing out an H.G. Wells reference the author missed
• Dick's Arm Gadget Award - 10 CAPs - for arming the conversation with comments about arm computers

10 CAPs to Roman

• Dick's Arm Gadget Award - 10 CAPs - for arming the conversation with comments about arm computers

10 CAPs to Leo Vellés

• Golden Mecha Award - 10 CAPs - for pointing out a likely influence for Neiamises design and about the lasting influence of Mazinger Z in Spanish-speaking countries