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The Rats

Maroc's Astral ProjectionMaroc's Astral Projection
edited July 2011 in Games
I was reading a magazine review of another game in the WOS archive and came across The Rats, a graphic adventure based on the James Herbert novel.

I checked another couple of reviews and they seem favourable. It looks interesting with some nifty features such as random encounters (that make for unique adventures and variation in the gameplay) and choices to sacrifice friends in order to gain information. It's also got different failure/win conditions. One of the criticisms was that after playing you had to re-load it to allow it to set up the environment again. Obviously not a problem with emulators!

Anway, I'm going to give it a go. Anyone got opinions on it either from back in the day or more recently?
Post edited by Maroc's Astral Projection on

Comments

  • Battle BunnyBattle Bunny
    edited July 2011
    I thought it was an excellent game, although I never managed to finish it. The text adventure sections aren't too difficult to master, but the resource management is rather difficult, as the rats breed & spread so quickly that keeping them under control until the research boffins come up with adequate resources to defeat them is quite a challenge.
  • MattLambMattLamb
    edited July 2011
    Enjoyed the book, but never really played the game much as I'm not as much of an adventure gamer as I'd like to be. Maybe I should give it a proper go too.
  • RalfRalf
    edited July 2011
    If you are going to play it, maybe you could consider making a recording walkthrough.

    I tried this game once and my impression was "interesting game but I have no idea what to do". So I would really enjoy seeing someone playing it.
  • LucyLucy
    edited July 2011
    aww I cant get the game to work, i get the intro then it goes to a loading screen and nothing happens :(
  • Maroc's Astral ProjectionMaroc's Astral Projection
    edited July 2011
    Thanks for your replies. I've had an unexpectedly busy few days (ok, it's been sunny!) so I've not had a proper chance to have a go at this yet. Hopefully, I'll have a go later.
    Lucy wrote: »
    aww I cant get the game to work, i get the intro then it goes to a loading screen and nothing happens :(

    I used the WOS java emulator (tzx image) and it seems ok. It does have a quirky 'loading' system that doesn't always make it obvious when it has finished loading (this is outlined in some reviews and is part of the game creating the environment). I changed the speed to 'full' in the emulator and pressed a couple of keys to prompt it. It eventually went to the map screen for me.
  • joefishjoefish
    edited July 2011
    MattLamb wrote: »
    Enjoyed the book, but never really played the game much as I'm not as much of an adventure gamer as I'd like to be.
    I haven't read 'The Rats', but I remember as a kid finding a copy of 'Lair' (the sequel) that my grandad left in the holiday caravan we used. Scared the cr@p out of me and gave me nightmares until I finished it.
    Joefish
    - IONIAN-GAMES.com -
  • GrazGraz
    edited July 2011
    An absolutely wonderful game that scared the bejeezus outta me when I first played it. Very faithful to the book, both in situations and atmosphere.

    Love THE RATS!
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