Frederik Pohl's Gateway PC

Gateway is a powerful adventure game, representing a sub-genre called "interactive ficition". The plot of the programme is based on a novel published in 1977 by the famous science fiction writer Frederik Pohl.

The action of the programme takes place in the second half of the 21st century, when people were forced to look for a new place to live. Exploring the "nearest" surroundings, namely the planet Venus, the Earth's inhabitants discover the remains of a mysterious civilisation called Heechee. Using the orbital station left to the pasture, they begin a new era in the settlement of the Solar System. The Gateway Enterprises Corporation, which researches the technologies found, starts looking for daredevils who would be willing to bear the risk (for an appropriate amount of money, of course) and take on the role of the so-called "seekers". As you have just won a local lottery and received a one way ticket to an orbital station as part of the prize, you have decided to try your luck and take advantage of the Gateway offer....

At first glance, the program brings the right associations with other Legend Entertainment products, such as the Spellcasting series or Timequest game. The left part of the screen is filled with a huge number of verbs and nouns, allowing you to construct sentences to communicate with the program. Gateway is in fact a very complex text game, which is so user-friendly that it gives all possible orders on the tray and does not force you to laboriously search for the right word in your memory. In addition to a huge amount of text, the program also includes static images, allowing you to better understand where you are at the moment.

As with other Legend Entertainment products, Gateway is a proposition for more demanding users. The player must not only break through the maze of orders (knowledge of English at an advanced level is highly recommended), but also carefully analyze the current situation and remember about the details. In the program many meetings depend on the time - if we fail to put up at an agreed time in the bar, for example, we will not meet our friend, who, in turn, has tips that will allow us to move the action further.

A solid script very faithfully adheres to the story told in the book's prototype. The game is very long, which will surely delight hardcore fans of "interactive fiction" products. Fans of classic two-dimensional adventures have nothing to look for here.

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Last updated on 10 December 2007