Amazon - Final Rating

Written by TBD

It's time to see how Amazon: Guardians of Eden fares in our PISSED rating. In my rating I'll be specifically comparing it to the developer's predecessor, Martian Memorandum.

Do I feel like I was treated to an incredible journey of adventure? Let's find out.

Amazon – WON!

Written by TBD.

Jason Roberts Journal Entry #5: I'd guessed I needed an arrow to enter the secret door – but for some reason two perfectly obvious arrows that I saw in a treehouse weren't the ones I needed – I needed one that was hiding behind a bush – Bravo, Amazon jungle – you outsmarted my logic and observation with your unnecessarily specific arrow requirements.

Chapter 12 cont'd

Okay, let's get this confession out of the way early.

After trying everything I could possibly think of behind the waterfall (and reloading my saved game multiple times because I can only try a few things before dying) I was totally out of ideas.

Rather than request assistance without having made any progress, I decided it was time to test out the game's hint system. I turned hints on and question marked some of the items in the area.

Amazon - Treehouse of Horror

Written by TBD.

Jason Roberts Journal Entry 4: Determined to get inside a treehouse, Maya and I decide to attempt some acrobatics. Will we find the Swiss Family Robinson inside? I can only hope...

When we last left our heroes, they had just followed Professor Stroheim's directions and found a treehouse in the jungle. We'd made a see-saw, but the game didn't let me do anything with it (or so I thought).

I'd tried walking up it, but it merely seemed like I was walking behind it (perhaps another example of my poor skill at navigating in a 2d perspective.)

I couldn't climb any of the trees, including the stump. I'd tried everything with both characters, including using all my items on all the items on the screen. Eventually I accidentally found the answer.

This worked only because I coincidentally had Maya near the end of the see-saw

Amazon – That's a Paddlin'

Written by TBD.

Jason Roberts Journal Entry #3: Well, I finally found out what the Captain of The Amazon Queen wants from me apart from cigarettes. Now I'm settled in for a nice relaxing trip to our destination. I'm sure nothing can go wrong here – Maya and I feel completely confident in trusting this man with our lives...

Flashback: Chapter 6

Once again I start a post with a flashback due to the game hitting me with another dead-end. Is this going to happen for the rest of the game? Most likely.

Anyway, not knowing what to offer the captain in order to get him to give us a boat ride, I asked for help, and Alex Romanov was kind enough to give it.

I checked his first two clues.

1. What you are missing is in chapter six
2. Someone needs your help.

I felt confident that I knew who Alex was talking about. I felt a little guilty about the serving boy being beaten up by my actions, but didn't know what to do. Now that I knew I needed to help someone, I thought about it more thoroughly. The answer came quickly – the ladder I'd picked up at the same time the boy started being assaulted. Now, I didn't have the ladder when I originally found the boy being beaten, but if I'd thought saving the boy was an option, I'd have almost certainly noticed it immediately. I use the ladder on the hotel wall.

Now I get a much better view of the fight. I should sell tickets and call this the balcony section.

Amazon - The Bridge of Reloading (Request for Assistance)

Written by TBD

Jason Roberts Journal Entry #2: I've made it to Rio Blanco – it's taken a bit of effort – getting past one homicidal pilot and more than one deadly piranha. But for some reason I feel I need some cigarettes - and I don't even smoke! (Boy those things must really be addictive.) I have $1000 in my wallet - should I go to a shop and buy them like a normal person... nah, I have a better idea...


Flashback: Chapter 4

Well, after my last gameplay post, I was politely informed in encoded comments that I had dead-ended myself. Thanks to Voltgloss (and some confirmation from Alex Romanov) I was informed that I'd missed something important in Chapter 4. So I reloaded back to that chapter and tried to find what I'd missed.

First I tried other dialogue items with the ticket seller and barman and see if there was anything I could do with Alberto the Rayon salesman, but had no luck.

Then I furiously looked at every section of every item outside, and I found that the TRUCK and TRUCK DOOR were two separate items – it's a good time to note that this game has no mouseover tooltips or any way to differentiate which parts of items are separate without actually LOOKing at all parts.

Now that I knew the truck had a door, I opened the door, but there was nothing inside. Fortunately I was paying particular attention as I knew I'd missed something, and I noticed a white pixel that was somewhat out of place.

That while pixel below my feet wasn't there until I moved (opened) the truck door.

The white pixel turned out to be a pack of cigarettes. I've never been a fan of puzzles that make me take things that any normal person would buy at a store, and it's not like Jason had no money at this point, so I'm not a fan of this puzzle at all.

Anyway, that's it for our flashback. Let's get on with the next Chapter.

Amazon - Fight or Flight

Written by TBD

Jason Roberts Journal Entry 1: My brother is missing so I've decided to trick my workmates in order to get what I need to follow him to the jungle. I've already deceived Darlene Fitch and Male Guard, and tricked Female Guard by proxy. Now I need to try to deceive the librarian - but first, I have to deal with a heavy metal monster.

Chapter 3

Despite Chapter 2's cliffhanger of the robot telling me I'll be terminated, at the start of this chapter the robot simply paces back and forth, not bothering Jason at all. Looking at B.O.B. Tells me that he's waiting for his replacement to arrive so he can finish his shift!

Amazon – Deceiving My Workmates

Written by TBD


CHAPTER 1: TERROR IN THE JUNGLE (continued)

After the opening cutscene we went through in the introduction post, we start the game with Jason Roberts arriving at work. As always when starting a new game, I look at everything I can see.

Just what I wanted – a mundane description of each individual part of an everyday item.

Looking at the green (sorry, olive drab) car's trunk tells me it's locked. I make a mental note to try to steal the key from the owner (Darlene) at some point, as leaving anything locked just isn't done when playing an adventure game.

Game 100: Amazon: Guardians of Eden (1992) - Introduction

Written by TBD

If not for the title, I wouldn't be sure if it was a jungle adventure game or a pirate game?

Continuing my self-appointed position as official “Access Software” player, despite the previous three Access Software games all being played by different reviewers, I’m playing through a game I hadn’t heard of until it came up in our Year Ahead post - Amazon: Guardians of Eden.