Whale's Voyage logo

...Thrilling long space journeys on metal cetaceans, or is it just a run-of-the-mill role playing game?

Ladies and gentlemen, take your seats for the trip of a lifetime. Four misfits have inherited a spaceship that is orbiting around the planet Castra. SS Whale is the total of their material wealth - they have no money, and no fuel. So, these weirdos have to beam down on to the planet and make their fortune while traveling around a bit.

Whale's Voyage is a futuristic (RPG) role-playing game that will really stretch your wits. It's controlled entirely with a joystick or keyboard. It's got trading bits, combat, exploration, and lovely, lovely graphics. Unfortunately, it's also suffered a bit in the translation from the German original, but this just adds a touch of flavour to the game.

At the start, you can either pre-load a set of included characters, or you can generate your own personal ones. To be honest, you are probably better off using the preset ones, but it's worth generating your own just to appreciate the originality of the system. You don't roll a set of statistics (strength, intelligence and so on) like you do in games like Dungeons & Dragons.

With Whale's Voyage you first, you select a father and mother for the character, then you select a childhood option and an advanced education option. If a character is blighted in one area, then certain options are not available - for instance, a particularly dumb character cannot get into medical school. The whole system is very neat.

After that, you start on the Whale's flight deck. From there, you can buy and sell cargo, equip the Whale with optional extras, beam down to the planet that you are currently orbiting, travel to a different planet or phone someone you have already met.
To perform ay of these tasks you just move along the panels of icons and press the fire button.

On another planet
You start off the game with no money for fuel or cargo, and so you have to beam down to the planet. At first, when you're on a planet, naturally you don't know your way around. Now most roleplayers would reach for the squared paper at this point - but you don't need to!
Whale's Voyage has a built-in automapper, so all you have to do is run around and the map is drawn for you. This map is permanent, so long as you save the game (more on that later).

On your stroll you will probably encounter one or two mobile people doing the same thing. Most new players attempt to talk with mobile NPCs (non-player characters) - this is usually a waste of time. All useful encounters (at least the ones I've seen) are preset - you just have to be in the right place at the right time.

The planet where you start is a lawless place, and pretty soon you will either get mugged or find someone else getting mugged. If you help out victims in trouble,you will be rewarded. This seems to be the main theme of the game. You can either trade in your rewards for straight cash at a shop, or use them to help you later in the game.

Because Whale's Voyage is set in the future, there's a while range of technological gadgets to help you out. Needless to say, they are all rather expensive. It does seem to have quite a long playing span before you finish it, but then it does come on seven floppy disks, one of which is the game-save disk.

For adults only!
This is an unusual game in many ways, but the major one is that it doesn't respond to a mouse. This is usually just a learning tool on RPGs, as the keyboard is quicker, but the lack of such an option does make it much harder to play. So don't buy this game if you want one that is easy-to-get-into - it's a real challenge. And don't buy it for your kids - it's got an adult flavour and the odd obscene mark.

I still haven't found out how to save the game (the manual says it's 'On the Trading Menu' - I see, you have to press Esc). You can only do one save game per floppy disk. If you have a very fast Amiga (25Mhz 030 or faster) then the game is more difficult, because it responds too fast to the controls. It's very infuriating to set off in a direction, only to realise you are going the wrong way!

Playing it on a one floppy drive system is very tedious - I really have to say that if you haven't got a hard drive, then bother with Whale's Voyage. But if you can crack the hard shell, you will find a wealth of enjoyment on the inside, just waiting to be explored.


VOYAGING CONTROLS FOR ADVENTUROUS PARTIES
Whale's Voyage
  1. Everywhere you go, the automapper records your expedition.
  2. Beam us up icon for quick, trouble free getaways.
  3. Red crosses indicate a medical centre. You can pay for treatment here.
  4. These are the local action icons for looking, selecting or talking.
  5. This is a Psi's skill list. MOre experience, and the choice grows.
  6. This game uses combat experience points to gain levels.
  7. You always get a small view to remind you what planet you are on.
  8. Green bars are physical health, the blue is mental state. Thick PCs have no Psi.


Whale's Voyage logo

Dieser Tage feiert Neo Software Design den Einzug ins gelobte Amiga-Land - und damit gleichzeitig ein zünftiges SF-Rollenspiel seine kosmische Premiere. Doch keine Feier ohne Meier, und ohne Joker schon gar nicht...

Also warfen wir unsere Zeitmaschine an und düsen ins 24 Jahrhundert, um den Abenteuern eines futuristischen Raumfrachters (nämlich der "Whale") und seiner vierköpfigen Besatzung beizuwohnen. Das Spediteurs-Quartett hat sich nämlich gerade mit letzter finanzieller Kraft den betagten Transporter zugelegt und möchte nun möglichst schnell reich und berühmt werden!

Aber wir greifen vor, weil das erste Problem darin besteht, die vier Helden durch Kombination von fünf potentiellen Vätern mit fünf potentiellen Müttern überhaupt ins Leben zu rufen. Daß dabei auch zwei Alien-Eltern mit von der Partie sind, kann den echten Kloner kaum stören, daß das Geschlecht zufällig ermittelt wird, ist im wirklichen Leben auch nicht viel anders.

Und daß das Produkt der Mühen durch den Besuch von diversen Grundschulen und Unis je nach seinen Fähigkeiten auf den Ernst des Lebens vorbereitet wird (etwa als Arzt, Kämpfer oder Mönch), ist wirklich ein netter Einfall.

Reich und berühmt werden die Jungs und Mädels trotzdem nicht so schnell, geht es doch zunächst darum, auf dem Startplaneten ein bißchen Kohle zu machen, um danach zwischen den acht Welten eines abseits gelegenen Sonnensystem zu pendeln und das verdiente Geld in die Ausrüstung den Wals zu investieren.

Mit "Elite" hat die Sache dennoch nur am Rande zu tun, weil zum einen die Space-Fights bloß auf einem strategischen Kästchen-Screen ausgefochten werden, und zum andren der Hauptteil des Games ganz rollimäßig aus 3D-Dungeons, verwinkelten Städten, Multiple Choice-Gesprächen mit über 80 NPCs, Echtzeit-Kämpfen, vielen Mini-Quests, Wilderness-Erforschungen per Gleiter sowie sonstigen Problemen und Rätseln besteht.

Der Schwerpunkt liegt also nicht unbedingt bei den Auseinandersetzungen, wofür auch spricht, daß man den Hauptdarstellern auf den Planeten diverse Aufgaben fix zuweisen kann (etwas Fallen finden, Handel treiben etc.), die natürlich möglichst geschickt der jeweiligen Situation angepaßt werden sollten.

Nicht ganz so geschickt ist leider die Steuerung ausgefallen, denn mit Blick auf den Konsolenmarkt gaben die Neos dem Stick den Vorzug. Maus-Dompteure müssen im Umgang mit dem Knüppel ein erhebliches Maß an Einfühlungsvermögen aufbringen aufbringen, oder sie weichen gleich auf das ohnehin besser funktionierende Keyboard aus.

Zum Trost sei eine abwechslungsreiche Optik vermeldet, das qualitative Spektrum reicht dabei von "Na ja" bis "Klasse". Und die vielfältigen, stilistisch unterschiedlichen Soundtracks gefallen neben den netten FX sogar ausgesprochen gut! Noch schnell ein abschließender Blick auf das Joker-Testometer: "Gelungener Erstling". Na, wer sagt es denn - herzliche Glückwünsche nach österreich... (jn)



Whale's Voyage logo

It's not a whale, it's a spaceship. And it has adventures.

Where did this one spring from? Can you imagine the shock of turning up to the Amiga Format Live show to find that there's a demo of THIS game on OUR games arcade, and none of us had ever heard about it before? What embarrassment in admitting that, even though we're the most concentrated pool of Amiga games knowledge ever to be collected in one reinforced concrete bunker in Bath, this German game just seemed to have slipped by us.

Even as we sleep, Shaolin assassins disguised as office cleaners infiltrate software firms that haven't fallen into our twilight world of deceit and deception to rummage through bins and discarded floppies in the hope of gleaning some previously-unheard facts.

We do all this ALL FOR YOU, OUR READERS, but still this one crept on up. Heads will roll for this, and that's for sure. Even as I write, black Mercedes are transporting wide-eyed captives to flooded gravel pits all over England. "What have I done?" they'll ask, as they're thrown into the dark, icy waters.

But our staff of disgraced Sumo wrestlers are under strict orders not to explain to these minions why they'll be spending an eternity embedded in muddy silt. They failed the magazine. It's as simple as that.


The key's hidden annoyingly well

So what's Whale's Voyage all about then, and was it worth the huge loss of personal liberties that we've inflicted upon our sources? Answering these questions in order, it's a role playing/space trading game, and probably not.

It comes on seven disks so it's absolutely huge, but it's also massively inaccessible The game starts with a unique character generation system that involves picking the character's parents, school and further education (I kid you not) as well as dubiously dabbling with mutagens to alter their DNA and produce extra strength or ESP powers.

Fine and slick so far, but once you've entered the game, you find the ship orbiting a planet with no fuel, no money to buy fuel, and nothing to sell to make a bit of dosh. All you can do is beam down to the planet and once you're down in this seedy city, the game kicks into a 3D run-around Eye of the Beholder-type affair, and in a fast-updating sort of way, you're ready to begin your adventure. But why? The manual's no help, and the key to the game's hidden annoyingly well.

My first game consisted of bumping into people who told me to "Shut up!" and finding empty shops. Eventually, in an alley that I'd passed several times before, a man was being mugged, and once I'd killed the attackers, he rewarded the team with money and gave them a quest. Bingo! Into the game at last, and only an hour of fruitless wanderings preceding it.

Things get little better after this. The game's based more on adventuring than trading, which seems a pretty hit-or-miss affair, and although there 's a 2D space battle bit as well, it just seems to have been thrown in there to try and provide a little (let's face it, much-needed) variation.

This is a huge RPG, and if you're into Dungeon Master-type games, then you'll probably enjoy sinking your teeth into it, as it's all highly polished. It's also completely soulless, and never once did I feel at all involved with any of the on-screen activity.

When an adventure game seems as mundane and normal as everyday life, then frankly it's time to start wondering why it was written in the first place.



Whale's Voyage logo

Paul Presley spent his childhood summers in places like Liandudno, Towyn and Rhyl, so he seemed the perfect person to mis-read the title of Flair's latest.

Let's see, how do you best describe Whale's Voyage? Hmm, take Elite. Now take all the bits that made Elite good (the three-dimensional space flights and the nail-biting combat) and throw them out. Next reduce the hundreds of visitable planets to a total of six and add a substandard Eye of the Beholder routine to simulate planet exploring. Hey presto, Whale's Voyage. And boy does it flounder.

Games like this really irritate me and I'll tell you why. You can just picture the design meetings - four or five guys and gals sat around a pub table (or Biergarten since this was made in Austria) discussing their next project. 'Hey', says one, 'let's do an Elite. You know space travel, trading, combat.

It'll be great (or zoo-per, as I believe is a popular phrase in fashionable quarters of Vienna)'. Unfortunately no one has the heart to tell these people that you can't do an Elite as Elite was the quintessential space game and the only way you can cover it is if your name is David Braben since then people won't think you're just ripping it off.

The other thing is that if you are going to go ahead and do a cover version anyway, you have to make sure that what you produce is not only bigger, but better than the original in the first place. Whale's Voyage fails on both counts so it's right up a certain creek without a certain instrument before it starts.

GOING DOWNTOWN
It has a brave stab at being innovative, but sadly its blade of choice is as sharp as wet celery. You don't just control one character at a time but four, treating you to a more typical role-playing game environment when you venture down to a planet's surface. You know the form (or at least you should by now), first-person flick screening around the local town, bumping into wandering locals and exploring the various shops (none of which sell anything except trading goods).

Now this might have been quite good, after all Elite never went near the surface did it? Unfortunately in the same way that the space bit of it failed to capture any of Elite's good points, the role-playing element fails to deliver. The control system is one of the most unwieldy I've ever encountered.

For example, to hit someone you first have to access the relevant character's icon menu, then you choose the Select Person icon, then you select which computer controlled person to hit, then you re-access the character's icon menu and select the attack icon. And just because you selected the opponent with one character, don't think you've done it for everyone. Each time a different member of your party wants to hit someone they have to go through the whole process of 'selecting' all over again. If nothing else it encourages peaceful contact with whoever you meet.

IS IT ANY GOOD?
But surely, you ask, there must be something good to say about Whale's Voyage. No game is 100 percent drop dead awful, is it? Well, the graphics are pretty good (especially involving your ship) and the character creation technique is, well, different (see Parenthood panel).

Perhaps the most positive things about Whale's Voyage is the way each character has a unique set of icons in any given situation. What the character can do changes depending on his profession, his skills and the situation in hand. It's a feature that's only marred by the awkwardness of the control system itself.

Apart from that, no. I can find precious little else to recommend about Whale's Voyage. There's hardly anything in the way you would call addictiveness and it certainly doesn't inspire confidence in the Austrian games market. What it does do is present a damn strong argument in favour of waiting for Elite 2 to come along.

TRULY INDIFFERENT
It is hard, truly hard to convey how much indifference Whale's Voyage invokes in me. I have not the inclination to persevere with it nor the desire to see what lies ahead.

I have no real reason to loathe the thing, but there is nothing about it worth praising. It's like a big league football manager seeing a young lad kicking a ball around in the park and thinking 'That kid reminds me a bit of a young George Best. Maybe he's got talent', only to sign him up for the clash against Big Town United and watch him stand around at the back doing nothing.

It's really got nothing going for it and I can't help but feel sorry for it. Or at least I would if it could make me bothered about it, which it can't.


FLY ME TO THE MOON(S)

Have you ever seen the cockpit of a space shuttle? There are buttons, switches, lights and dials everywhere. On the walls, on the floor, on the ceiling, there's probably some in the toilet compartments too (but that's just an excuse for a cheap laugh so I won't mention it). Oh how I bet those brave pioneers of the final frontier long for the kind of control system seen in the Whale. You just pick your planet and press a single button to go there. No controls, no joysticks, no messing around with altitude adjustments and speed corrections. Just a single, solitary button.

Actually the Planet Selection screens do contain some of the finest graphics in the game, even if they're just life-sustaining, solar orbiting spheroids (planets to you and me, bub). Pick a planet and you also get a handy little description of what life is like there. It's all rather jolly, but with only six planets, sadly short-lived.

A TRADE-OFF

The buying and selling of goods (what we professionals call 'trading') plays a major part in the game (more major than you hopefully will). As with Elite you can buy and sell your wares while in orbit of the planet, but for the best prices it's usually better to trek down to the planet and talk to the dealers here.

PARENTHOOD

While not the most comprehensive of character generation systems ever seen, the development section of Whale's Voyage is certainly... unique. After all, what other RPGs let you pick the parents of the child, mutate him after birth, then send him through school and college?

[1] First choose the parents. All you actually get to do is select what the father and mother look like from the five choices at the top of the screen. As to their personalities and skills, it's all up to fate. It'll be interesting trying to get that nice young blonde to mate with that slime creature from the planet Ooze though.
[2] Next, with the potential sprog's mom and pop sorted out, you get to mess around with its genes. Add a bit to its physical prowess, just a touch more intelligence and maybe a dash more social awareness. Well, it's better than leaving it all to fate and ending up with a young conservative on your hands.
[3] Ah, school. The best days of your life (except the bits when you're being beaten up, robbed of dinner money and being rejected by girls). As far as the game is concerned (and leaving my private life out of it), the type of school you choose determines your eventual skills.
[4] After school comes college and all the excitement of stimulating intellectual challenges, long-term career plans and your first 'serious' relationships with the opposite sex (i.e. kissing with tongues). This is also where you determine your character's profession.



Whale's Voyage AGA logo AGA

You have been left stranded and penniless in an ill-equipped spaceship above one of the most lawless planets in the solar system. You only have one choice - beam down to Castra or die.

Whale's Voyage is a space role playing game (RPG) which places you in command of four adventurers and their quest for wealth, fame and happiness. The action takes place in both 2D and 3D modes and bears more than a passing resemblance to more traditional RPG epics like Dungeon Master or Eye of the Beholder 2.

The original Amiga version of Whale's Voyage looked great, but suffered from cumbersome joystick and keyboard controls - all too often you would find yourself getting blasted to death by a gang of thugs while you were still trying to access the Combat menu. Unfortunately, the enhanced A1200 version does nothing to rectify this and you are left with a few graphical enhancements and some atmospheric sound effects to spice up the gameplay.

Even if you do overlook the game's shortcomings you are still likely to be disappointed - there are only six planets for you to explore and Whale's Voyage lacks the depth and sense of involvement found in other space adventures like BAT 2.



Der Turbo-Wal

Whale's Voyage AGA logo AGA

Unverhofft kommt tatsächlich oft - zumindest fanden wir diese alte Weisheit wieder eindeutig bestätigt, als uns die Überraschung kürzlich in Form eines Briefleins aus dem lieblichen Österreich ereilte...

Von gierigen Tentakeln aufgerissen, enthüllte der Umschlag nämlich eine spezielle 1200er-Version des Weltraum-Handels-Rollenspiels von Neo Software Design - und das, obwohl der Test der Regular-Fassung erst zwei Ausgaben zurückliegt! Jetzt wollt Ihr sicher wissen, was sich geändert hat, stimmt's? Schön, aber dazu mussen wir Euch erst nochmal kurz erklären, um was es hier geht und ging:

Nachdem man die vier Besitzer des älternden Raumfrächters "Whale" im komplexen Party-Bastelset zusammengeklont hat, geht's daran, den Kontostand des Eigner-Quartetts durch Erledigung von kleinen Gefälligkeiten oder Transport von lohnenden Gutern aufzubessern. Ist erstmal genugend Kohle beisammen, darf man seine Vakuum-Rost laube besser ausrusten, was auch für die taktischen 2D- Kampfe mit Piraten von Nützen ist.

Vor allem aber geht es darum, im 3D-Part ein abseits gelegenes Sonnensystem mit acht Planeten systematisch zu erforschen, in Rolli-Manier durch Städte-Dungeons zu schleichen, Items einzusacken, über 80 eigenstandige NPCs auszuhörchen, Klein-Aufträge von ihnen anzunehmen und mit ihnen zu kämpfen.

Bei alldem fallt sofort das gesteigerte Tempo im Gameplay sowie beim Nachladen und Saven auf, während die Änderungen in der Optik sich auf einige zusätzliche Zwischenscreens beschränken.

Die Musik klingt nach wie vor toll, die FX sogar etwas vollmundiger, und die unverändert umständliche Stick-Steuerung führt erneut zu Abzugen in der B-Note. Fazit: Es lebe der kleine Unterschied! (jn)



Whale's Voyage CD32 logo CD32

Flair Software * £29.99 * Out now

All aboard the SS Whale for a 24th Century adventure in space. You are in charge of a crew orbiting around the planet Castra who have not got a red cent to oil their gizzard (never mind the cost of a can of GTX). So with no money or fuel, you have to beam down on to the planet to seek some readies.

Whale's Voyage is a futuristic RPG with elements of exploration, trading and combat. You can either load preset characters or make up the personalities yourself, though the former is the easier option. Once you arrive on Castra, you find your way around the planet by using a built-in automap which comes in very handy. The planet is not the friendliest place and muggings and other inconveniences are quite common. But if you help someone in trouble, you get a reward which can be saved in case you need a favour later on in the game, or you can swap it for cash.

Whale's Voyage is a huge game and although initially it seems rather complicated and daunting, it is original and playable.



Whale's Voyage CD32 logo CD32

Bei Neo hat man das SF-Rollenspiel für die Silberscheibe gehörig aufgemotzt: Das Intro klotzt jetzt mit phantastischen Bildern, im Spiel gibt es CD-Musik und massig deutsche Sprachausgabe, aber kaum grafische Verbesserungen. Dafür geht die Pad-Steuerung in Ordnung, der Umgang mit Speicherständen wurde sogar genial gelöst. Für 79,- DM also eine feine sache - 78 Prozent. (rl)



Whale's Voyage CD32 logo CD32

Flair £25.99

Full marks to Flair - they are certainly making the effort to get the CD32 off to a good start, software support wise. Sadly, though, this kind of thing is not going to get the punters flocking to their local Dixons by the thousand - it is a pretty uninspired Dungeon Master-ish RPG type of thing, with a forbiddingly tedious start that demands huge willpower exertions at the beginning if you are ever going to get into the game properly, and which are not really worth it.

It is a very sophisticated and complex game, but there is nothing in it that has not been done better before elsewhere, and the addition of all the CD music and impressive voice soundtracks in the world won't change that.