Odyssey logo

Steve McGill sets foot in a land where a bit of creative use of magic crystals will change you into various crawling, flying and bouncing creatures.

On last month’s issue, we had a demo of an exclusive level of Audiogenic’s forthcoming RPG, arcade, fantasy-romp Odyssey. The response to it was quite incredible. Both Audiogenic’s and our phone lines were jammed with people desperate to find out how to complete the fiendish level. Even those who had completed it phoned us to let us know of their triumph.

For all of you who’ve played the demo, let us point out here and now that that level was completely unique to Amiga Format. It is not included in the full game. For those of you wondering what’s going on, let us fill you in.

Odyssey is an arcade-adventure, set in a fantasy-land where success depends on the creative use of crystals to change an elfin hero into various crawling, creeping, flying, bouncing, insect-based and mammalian creatures.

Superficially resembling games like Fury of the Furries or Lost Vikings, Odyssey, is more fun because it exhibits the immediacy and playability of a platformer’s mechanics with an adventure-game’s structure and, therefore, doesn’t slow you down too much when engaged in puzzle-solving, fighting and fleeing.

The goals of the game are simple. You must systematically search and locate the metamorphing crystals from various islands scattered throughout the game’s fantasy land. You can choose from any of three islands at the start. Access to other islands is gained by collecting two or three crystals. What strategy you decide to use here is completely up to you.

And that’s one of the beauties of Odyssey: it doesn’t herd the gamer into pens, in the manner of many a linear adventure-game. Neither does it give too much scope, so that much fruitless time spent wandering around is the order of the day.

Sure, there are parts offering bog-standard, fetch-and-carry duty, such as finding keys to open doors to allow access to other areas. Expected and unavoidable RPG-fare. But they’re counteracted by the ability of the hero to turn into a bird, a spider, a grasshopper, a lion… and use those creatures’ abilities to work his way around seemingly insurmountable problems.

For example, a large, completely unscalable wall is facing you? No problem. Turn into a bird, fly to the top and see what’s on the other side. It’s this flexibility that makes Odyssey so endearing. The visuals complement the action brilliantly. Everyone we showed the game to commented on the excellence of the animation in the bird’s flight.

It resembles a slick cartoon – so much so that on various occasions the Format office reverberated with my voice shouting: "Size of a grasshopper. Size of a lion." and so on. It annoyed everyone anyway (lots of those menacing "don’t you realise we’re on a tortuous deadline" kind of look were in abundance).


The visuals complement the action brilliantly... It resembles a slick cartoon.

That the programmers are big fans of Exile is also evident (check out our CD32 review of Exile on page 66). Indeed, part of the programming-deal and commission struck up with Audiogenic and the programmers was that the programmers be sent the complete solution to said game.

While not as complex or obscure as Exile, Odyssey pays homage to the graphic style and pace of the experience, and also includes a few realistically physical elements, such as having to push heavy rocks on to trips so that previously closed doors remain ajar.

The plot is far simpler too. You have to rescue a wizard from an evil King. The King just happens to reside on the last of the seven islands and to truly stand a chance of completing the last level, you should have all the powers of creature metamorphosis behind you; that is, the previous six islands should be bereft of all crystals.

The inclusion of start-up points should the hero die is also one of those attentions to detail that make the game feel friendly, rather than hateful. Saving between islands is included too. A godsend!

Also pretty smart in this department is the ability of the hero to recover from wounds inflicted by the nasty creatures, his energy bar slowly creeps up towards full health. If you’re patient enough to find a safe place and wait, he’ll recover completely.

So, to recap and add some personal comment, Odyssey is a completely charming romp which is absorbing, enchanting and fairy tale like. For fans of Flashback, Exile, Lost Vikings and Fury of the Furries. Odyssey is definitely a compulsory purchase. Anyone else should just buy it.


A CHANGE IS BETTER THAN A REST

When the hero feels the need for a change, it's just a matter of hitting the requisite function key on the keyboard and then watching the unfolding metamorphosis in black and white. There's also time to shout: "Size of an (insert creature type here)."


Odyssey logo

Die phantastischen Abenteuer der alten Griechen gaben schon so manchen Filmstoff her, bloß am Computer hat bisland kaum jemand ihr Potential erkannt. Das ist nun auch den jungen Engländern von Audiogenic aufgefallen, wo man Odysseus flugs zum Helden des neuen Actionadventures gemacht hat.

Okay, eigentlich kommt der hiesige Protagonist ja ohne Namen aus (ob das Copyright für Odysseus wohl immer noch beim alten Homer liegt?), doch sind seine Abenteuer eng an die Erlebnisse des sagenumwobenen Vorbilds angelehnt: Per Ruderboot klappert der Weltenbummler die geheimnisvollen Inseln eines nicht näher bezeichneten Fantasyreiches ab, um sich vielfältigen Gefahren bis hin zum finalen Endkampf mit dem obligaten Oberbösewicht zu stellen. Und das bewaffnet nur mit seinem Schwert, seiner Hüpfkraft sowie einer weiteren, sehr ungewöhnlichen Fähigkeit!

Das Gameplay
Ehe sich dem Spieler das Geheimnis um seine heldischen Kräfte voll erschließt, wird erst mal auf der Weltkarte (wo im übrigen auch der Spielstand gespeichert werden kann) vor Anker gegangen und Kurs auf ein beliebiges der sieben hier verzeichneten Eilande genommen.

Auf den Inseln selbst hat man sich dann allerdings an einen relativ fest gesponnenen Handlungsfaden zu halten und muß die Reihenfolge der Arbeitsschritte selbst herausfinden. Daß dazu auch die Bekämpfung angriffslustiger Vögel, schwertschwingender Trolle, zielsicherer Bogenschützen oder hinterlistiger Giftspinnen zählt, liegt in der Natur des Genres.

Zusätzlich sind auch kleine Rätselnüsse der Marke "Schlüssel A öffnet Tor B" zu knacken und teils wahrlich ausgeknobelte Action-Puzzeleien zu bewältigen – etwa, wenn Kröten im Stil von "Lemmings" durch komplexe Felslabyrinthe gelöst werden, man Schalter-fallen betätigt oder Abstecher in die Behausungen von Zwergen unternimmt.

Klare Sache, da" zudem Geheimräume der Erkundung harren und Extraleben, Energieäpfel swie allerlei weitere Fundstücke dem Sucher die Beharrlichkeit lohnen. Doch obwohl sich Odyssey soweit akribisch an das zuletzt bei Neos "Cedric" erfolgreich wiederbelebte Strickmeister eines klassischen Actionadventures hält, hat das Spiel doch auch originelle Neuheiten in petto – z.B. waren die gelegentlich anzutreffenden Morph-Getränke in dieser Form am Amiga bisher allenfalls ansatzweise zu finden.

Während nämlich etwa der Gestaltenwandler in Core Designs betagtem Hüpfical "Wolfchild" eigentlich nur eine, noch dazu praktisch unvermeidliche, Verwandlungsstufe kannte, ist der taktisch kluge Einsatz verschiedenster Heldeninkarnationen hier spielentscheidend!

Das Morphing
Befindet sich einer von insgesamt zehn überall auf den Inseln verstreuten Verwandlungsdrinks erst im Marschgepäck, vermag unser Reserve-Odysseus zu jeder Zeit in die Haut der von der "Geschmacksrichtung" definierten Kreatur zu schlüpfen und deren besondere Vorteile für sich zu nutzen: In das Federkleid eines Adlers gehüllt werden selbst die weitesten Meeresflächen ganz locker überflügelt, als Spinne macht man sich noch die verwinkelsten und engsten Flure zugänglich. Und zwar ist so eine Wehrspinne völlig wehrlos, aber dafür kann sie Feindattacken eben entgehen, indem sie senkrecht an Wänden hoch bzw. an Decken entlang krabbelt.

Die Fledermaus wiederum bewährt sich wegen ihres natürlichen Radars insbesondere in stockfinsteren Höhlen – wo nämlich der Held in menschlicher Form oder anderer Tiergestalt nur blind durch die Gänge stolpern würde, hat der säugende Flattermann jedes Hindernis, jeden Hebel und damit alle Rätsel immer noch glasklar vor Augen.

Als besonders nützlich erwiesen sich zudem Mutationen in verschiedene Kreaturen, die nicht direkt der realexistierenden Fauna entnommen wurden. So mag die metallische "Helmkröte" zwar schwerfällig und nicht sprungfähig sein, verfügt aber über eine so dicke Haut, daß ihr die Pfeile feindlicher Bogenschützen wenig anhaben können. Andere, nicht minder kuriose Fabelwesen ermöglichen es, besonders weiten Anlauf zu nehmen, zu beschleunigen oder auch marodes Gestein beiseite zu rammen.

Der Schwachpunkt
Leider leidet das abwechslungsreiche Gameplay unter einigen wirklich extra-fiesen Stellen: Wenn etwa durch die Berührung eines Lichtschalters urplötzlich eine Felslawine über das nichtsahnende Spielersprite hereinbricht oder Selbstschußanlagen ein Dutzend Projektile starten, so ist das wohl kaum als sehr fair zu bezeichnen – zumal derlei unsportliche Attacken dann wieder eines der anfänglich nur vier Bildschirmleben in den Hades befordern.

Trotz des herben Schwierigkeitsgrades wird der Spieler aber durch strategisch wohldurchdacht installierte Rücksatzpunkte bei der Stange gehalten und erhält außerdem Unterstützung durch den selbst-regenerierenden Energiepegel seines Alter egos.

Man braucht nach einem harten Kampf also lediglich an einer gemütlichen Stelle ein wenig zu rasten, schon kann die Wanderschaft bei voller Leistungs-fähigkeit fortgesetzt werden.

Die Präsentation
Was nun die grafische Präsentation betrifft, so haben wir sie ja anläßlich eines Previews im letzten November als "verbesserungswürdig" bezeichnet. Da hat sich jedoch zwischenzeitlich nicht mehr allzuviel getan, denn insbesondere die etwas farblosen Szenen an den Insel-Oberflächen sehen allesamt recht flach und detailarm aus.

Auch die Optik in den Höhlen oder im Schloß des finalen Endgegners verdient sich eher das Prädikat "zweckmäßig", als daß sie wirklich gefallen könnte. In Bewegung ist der Eindruck dann aber doch nicht so schlecht: Die Umgebung scrollt flott in alle Richtungen, die einzelnen Figuren machen ihre Kleinwüchsigkeit durch realistische und sehr lebendige Animationen wett. Auch die Hintergründe sind stellenweise sehenswert bewegt, und jeder Morph bringt eine kleine Vektoranimation zum Vorschein.

Ein Ruckeln tritt dabei nur am unaufgerüsteten A500 auf und auch da nur selten – am 1200er fließt alles soft wie Butter in der Sonne.

Mitverantwortlich für die bemerkenswerte Atmosphäre ist außerdem die feine Akustik. Zum Titelbild ertönen da hörenswerte Paukenschläge, und im Spiel sorgen Background-Geräusche sowie individuell auf jede Aktion abgestimmte Sound-FX (inkl. Hall in den Höhlen) für das passende Ambiente.

Das Fazit
Wenn man wollte, könnte man zum guten bzw. schlechten Schluß natürlich darüber herziehen, daß eine Gestaltenwandlung nur via Tastatur auszulösen ist und dafür eigentlich auch der zweite Button jedes Pads hätte herhalten können. Doch am grundsätzlichen Urteil ändert dieses eigentlich kaum nennenswerte Manko schon wegen der ansonsten tadellosen Steuerung nichts: Odyssey ist eine leider etwas arg schmucklose Perle von einem Plattform-Actionadventure, die harte Arbeit mit viel Spielspaß belohnt.

Wer sich vor dem Kauf selbst davon überzeugen will, kann das mit der Demoversion tun – zu finden auf der Begleit-CD zur Märtz-Ausgabe des MULTIMEDIA JOKER! (rl)


HD Okay
Streng nach Anleitung ist eine Installation auf Festplatte ja nicht möglich, mit etwas Handarbeit geht es ab Kick 2.04 aber doch: Nachdem ein Zielverzeichnis namens "Odyssey" per "Neue Schublade" – Befehl beispielsweise auf der Partition "Work:" erstellt und der Inhalt beider Disketten komplett dorthin kopiert wurde, ist einmalig ein Startskript (etwas mit dem Systemeditor "ED") zu erstellen:
Assign Odyssey1: Work:Odyssey
Assign Odyssey 2: Work: Odyssey
Odyssey JunkIt
CJM1004

Nach dem anschließenden Reset dann zum Start beide Mausohren gedrückt halten, im Boot-menü das Laufwerk "DF0:" deaktivieren (sonst gibt‘s Software-Konflikte!), booten, die erste Disk einlegen (wegen Kopierschutzabfrage!), per Shell in das "Odyssey"-Verzeichnis der HD wechseln und schließlich mit "Execute" das eben entworfene Skript aufrufen – fertig!


Odyssey logo

Although it's nothing to do with that Greek twit. Not that we're in any way Homerphobic or anything.

There’s a shop just across from the AP office called Foam Plus, and yuou can look inside and see that it sells nothing but furniture foam. There are huge blocks of it, sheets of the gnobbly stuff, and even bags of thin strips, for you to stuff cushions or soft toys with. However, and this is the scary thing, IT IS NEVER OPEN, and the stock has never changed in nearly THREE YEARS. I firmly believe it’s a front for either the CIA, Mossad, or some local narco syndicate. But anyway...

Odyssey then. Our preview a few issues ago revealed that it was written by two Exile fans, who, being Exile fans, had sent the game to Audiogenic. A deal was signed and the agreement was that the moment they finished the game, Audiogenic would send them a complete solution to Exile, as even though it’s been around for years, no one but no one seems to have managed to get through to the very end of this fiendish, one level masterpiece. Such is the stuff of gaming legends.

Odd then that Odyssey contains little of the same stuff that made Exile great, taking an entirely different approach instead of coming up with a new map or something. Gone is the single level, replaced by islands that can be visited in any order, but not necessarily completed in such a random fashion.

Three islands are ringed in the map menu as jump-off points, and unless you complete at least one of these and grab a crystal, you won’t get very far on the other levels.

Reminiscent of the crap mid-’80s TV series Manimal (a fairly atrocious affair featuring high-budget Simon MacCorkindale-to-animal transformation effects for the pilot that were then simply reused for anything up to three subsequent series), the crystals in Odyssey let the man change into various animals, enabling him to run across ropes, climb up walls, fly across chasms and leap spiky pits.

By building up a magical Ark of crystals, you will be able to overcome all the puzzles, pits and monsters inhabiting the dungeons and platforms of all the islands, eventually battling your way through to some kind of exciting finale. This much insight you could have gleaned from the preview or the back of the box though...


An entirely different approach

ACHILLES
Because of its platform nature and the way many of the puzzles are set out, it’s fairly close at times to the dreadful and unplayable Shadow of the Beast series, but thankfully nit’s open-ended, and rarely leaves you completely stuck. Because of the regular hacking and slashing, it’s much like Arabian Nights, only at a less frantic and more realistic pace. Indeed, because of its relentlessly platform format, it’s easy to compare it to almost every platform game ever, but since this idea’s just too awful, I’ll press onwards.

The secret to solving adventure games it to work out where the heck the programmers are coming from. Valhalla and the Lord of Infinity, for example, had me completely slumped until someone pointed out that it was based on low-quality word games and puns, and only then was its sheer awfulness revealed to me. Flight of the Amazon Queen, however, is based on running errands and doing favours for people.


An entirely different approach

THESEUS
Odyssey’s formula seems solidly location based. If you find a locked door on a platform, look for a key in the dungeon. If you’re in a castle and a bloke demands cash, look for gold outside. Simply finding something and then heading to a new location use it worked most of the time for me. While in the grand scale of things, this level of puzzles isn’t very high, this is a game not a MENSA puzzle, and so fully acceptable.

Obviously, the game would be over too quickly if this is all you had to do, so your way’s blocked by what I’ll collectively call THINGS. There are little baddies which, like everything else in the game, are gorgeously drawn and animated, with pebbles turning into rockmen and fierce dwarves wobbling around with huge swords.

Most of the time they’re easy to either kill or avoid, but when they’re not, they’re just annoying rather than challenging. Hits knock you back into other baddies, or off ledges, and with some of the smaller critturs, the spiders and rockmen, it’s hard to hit them at all. And once you’ve met the baddies, many follow you or fall down onto a lower level, spreading their random arbitrary involvement throughout the level.

There’s also a brood of human-sized adversaries, with the archers being the meanest. They just stand on ledges and pur down withering barrages of deadly accurate arrows. Unerringly accurate I noticed, as they know where you’re going to be even before you do. Magic homing arrows? Still, they’re a fun way of stopping you progress as a human (you get offed before you get ten paces) whil allowing it as an animal – the grasshopper simply leaps past them.

There are also some bothersome eagles, who have to be fended off by sword swipes. Since they only ever appear in towers or lofty platforms, and since a knock will send you crashing downwards, forcing you to climb up again, I can only assume they were introduced by the programmers as some sort of sick joke.

The traps and puzzles are, like the monsters, a bizarre blend of the clever, the fun, and the downright antagonistic. There’s a great Indy Jones type section where, as I ran along a passage, I triggered a series of pads which dropped stones behind me. And then by activating a level to open a trapdoor into a shaft, I set a huge boulder rolling after me, and only by out-pacing this hunk of rolling doom, until it dropped down the next shaft, was disaster averted. It was tremendously exciting, but minutes later when I’d been killed just before the next restart point, I was left to kick and push my way through all the rocks from the first set of traps, which then turned out to be impish rockmen. It’s all so very nearly right.


An entirely different approach

ARIADNE
On another section, there are three floor switches which fire arrows. It’s possible to jump over them, but if you hit just one, you go down in a flurry of unavoidable sharp pointy things. Even more ridiculous than this (which does at least give you a chance) are trapdoor levers that trigger arrows into your back. Unbelievable, nearly as unbelievable as leaps of faith. Here. In a game. In the 1990s.

And annoyingly, it’s this sort of thing that hides the good stuff and the clever puzzles. Such as the one where you’ve got to collect wooden planks to make a bridge, and then turn across a rock and roll across it. Or the bits where you have to open pits to trap strangely prescient boulders that come lumbering towards you. Cheers guys.


You act as a glorified postman

Or, indeed, the animals themselves. I keep saying "animals" when clearly the rocks’a rock, the little green man’s a little green man and the grasshopper’s an insect, but you know what I mean. They’re essential to the game, give rise to some nice little transformation silhouettes, are suitably varied and interesting, and there’s not that much more to say about them. The small animals let you go through holes, the birds let you fly over obstacles, the spider lets you cling to surfaces and all the others let you get toa bit of the level that would be inaccessible by a human.

Enjoyment from Odyssey has built up slowsly and steadily from playing it loads. I initially despised it, learned to live with all the ‘problems’ and by the time I eventually got to grips with all the running around and picking things up, I’d actually learned to live it.

But a parting shot – why does this game have lives? It’s so difficult, ans so vast and it’s so hugely unlikely that you’ll complete it in one go, that adding the further hassle of starting again is completely stupid. If they’d only kept one feature from Exile, it should have been the one where you never died and merely got zapped back to your last position you’d activated your saved position beacon. Hey-ho.


ZOO TV - THE WORLD'S MOST OBVIOUS BOXOUT
Odyssey
The squirrel runs across ropes. And other animals do other stuff. Obviously.
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You can be a little bird.
Odyssey
The grasshopper jumps and crawls
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The horseshow crab crawls.
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Or a big bird. The differences escape me.

HERE'S HOW IT WORKS THEN
Odyssey
You can't get up the big wall. Bah, eh?
Odyssey
But you CAN turn into a grasshopper.
Odyssey
And leap up onto the ledge. But where next?
Odyssey
Jump as high as you can, then turn into...
Odyssey
...a rock, smashing the floor. Simple.


Odyssey logo

█ Price: £29.99 █ Publisher: Audiogenic 0181 424 2244

The world's first swash buckling elf (sort of) makes his debut in Audiogenic's new platform puzzler.

I remember seeing Odyssey in its very embryonic stages at Audiogenic’s offices to where it had been sent by two art students. I was very impressed by it then, and I’m glad to say after it has been some though tweaks and refinements at the hands of the Audiogens, I’m even more impressed.

Odyssey could best be described as a platform/RPG adventures which is set in a Narnia-type fantasy world comprising of seven islands all with odd sounding names (Leo and Castle are probably the most pronounceable). You are the swash buckling hero who has to defeat an evil wizard and rescue the king. The king is on the main central island in the castle but before you can even attempt to rescue him you’ve got to travel to each of the islands collecting vital spheres of influence crystals, which give you the power to metamorphose into various life forms, such as spiders, squirrel, birds, grasshoppers to mention a few.

For a change
Why the need to turn into a nasty creepy crawly? Well, I would if I was faced with an insurmountable wall. Eight legs are better then two in these situations. A large part of the game involves working out which animal is best to get through each level.

But Odyssey is about more than just leaping from platform to platform, changing into members of the animal kingdom whenever it takes your fancy. There are lots of puzzles to solve along the way and this element keeps you from getting bored.

You’ve got to figure out the best route to get to an object that you need to progress through the level. For example, to get to a key that you need later on in a level, you need to work your way through an underground maze, opening levers, and figuring out ways of keeping the path clear for your to get through, while all the time trying to avoid rocks that seem to enjoy bashing at your person, arrows that fly out of the walls, strange attackers and swordsmen who want to care their name out on your stomach.

The restart icons (see screen short) come in handy when you are trying to navigate through an underground maze and thankfully there is a save option after each island so all your hard work doesn’t go to waste.

Nice mover
Odyssey is a slick mover and the playability is pitched at just the right level, not too difficult, with the puzzle element to raise it above the standard platform gameplay. A great game.


Mr Ben wasn't a patch on this geezer

One of the game's finer points is the unusual benefit of being able to change form as you go through the game. From spider, to rock, to bird, to grasshopper, I won't spoil the surprise. Let's just say there are plenty of life forms to choose from. Press the requisite function keys and a screen will pop up like the one on the left, flashing up which animal you are about to change into. Press fire and next things you know you're in another life form. In this case it's a grasshopper, just right for reaching those otherwise inaccessible high areas.

Odyssey