It should be no secret by now that I’m a huge Gary Bedrosian fan. His prior offerings: Lords of Karma & Empire of the Over-Mind were both bestowed awards for Game of the Year for their category in 1978 and 1979 respectively.
It stands to reason then that I was eagerly anticipating playing this 1981 offering.
Documentation packaged with the game included a short story as well as a Galactic Federation Naval Officer’s Manual.
The short story is well written and serves as a prelude to the beginning of the game. Speaking of beginnings, G.F.S. Sorceress sports one of the more original starts to date. You begin the game in a space suit, stranded, and floating in space!
The Officer’s Naval Manual which also comes included in the documentation is very well done. The manual contains information on the stardrive as well as a planetary guide. The manual also contains eight supplemental writings that you are not supposed to read until you encounter them in the game. This takes a page from Dunjonquest: Temple of Apshai and it would be something that you see in the SSI Gold Box games that come much later. The information contained within the documentation is an integral part of the player’s experience. Familiarizing yourself with the stardrive fundamentals will help you with one of the early puzzles in the game.
Soon you’ll find yourself on the G.F.S. Sorceress and not much later in command of it. What then ensues is a planet hopping quest in an attempt to uncover the conspiracy against you and absolve yourself of all criminal charges.
I was surprised, that unlike his previous two offerings, this game seemed a much more linear experience. The puzzles in Bedrosian’s newest offering were fairly straight forward as well and thus it took me less time to finish.
Once you engage the hyperdrive there are five different planets that you can visit. Because we’re talking interstellar travel, the distance between planets is great enough that you’re going to have to constantly place yourself in cryogenic sleep to slow your aging process. One of the larger puzzles in the game is learning the proper order with which you should visit the planets. It’s possible to create a softlock if you choose incorrectly. A softlock is an instance where the game remains in a playable state but progressing further becomes impossible.
Each planet presents a particular puzzle to work though. On Tau Ceti you have to deal with quicksand and a spider. Examining your surroundings carefully will help you with these particular puzzles.
On Epsilon Enidani V you have to deal with a large sand worm which channels imagery from Dune.
On Rigel X you have to explore frozen ruins found within a glacier and solve the mystery of the robot insurrection which seems to channel Asimov’s I, Robot.
Altair IV is the most difficult of the locations and will involve you having to discover not one but several hidden rooms to obtain your objective.
When you’re completely finished with your planetary adventures you should have enough evidence to attend your own proceedings and attempt to exonerate yourself.
I was surprised in that I did not find it necessary to map G.F.S. Sorceress by hand. The ship’s layout was very straightforward and each of the planet adventures had small and virtually linear areas to explore. The puzzles took longer than mastering your surroundings but all of them were pretty straight forward and very fair. If I had not recently just played Zork II and dealt with the red sphere puzzle I would have had a much harder time with Altair IV. It is all I’ll say on the matter.
Once again the author’s creativity stands out here. This stands out as the first true interplanetary space adventure and the introduction of hibernation or cryogenic sleep in the game was highly original. The writing and documentation that came with the game were of high quality and well done and is a precursor to many of the later Infocom games that would hit the store shelves.
The story may have been a bit more linear and the puzzles a little easier than Bedrosian’s previous two games but the creativity and originality are standouts here. If there is any kind of negative here at all, subjectively, I felt the relationship with Selena seemed a bit forced. It appears that the plan was that this would the first in a series of adventures but it must not have done well enough commercially because, alas, there were no sequels released. This would actually be the last big game product produced by Gary Bedrosian. I wish that Mr. Bedrosian would not have given up creating games but other work beckoned him. Gary Bedrosian has a Ph.D. from CalTech and does research in aerospace systems and electromagnetic pulses. I knew Gary was a very smart guy.
I enjoyed my experience with this one and have loved this author’s art and labor.
Next up on the docket is Ultima III: Exodus
Until next time…