Arcade Adventures #6

It Came from the Desert (1989)
By: Cinemaware Genre: Adventure Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Amiga
Also Available For: PC, PC Engine

I mention the old games magazines I used to read in my younger years quite often here at Red Parsley, and indeed they continue to provide me with many warm memories. One game I always remember seeing was the scarily-titled It Came From the Desert - scary, perhaps, more due of the giant ants that featured in screenshots of the game and adorned promotional material than the name itself. I remember seeing reviews in several magazines such as C&VG and Ace and I wanted to play it despite not owning anything that could play it, and not even really knowing what kind of game it was since neither system I owned (Spectrum and Master System) featured anything like it to my knowledge. By the time I actually had an Amiga, I guess I had forgotten about this distinctive game, and it has remained unplayed by me for all these long years since. That is... until now!

I had actually assumed for all these years that it was a point 'n' click game and my decision to review it was partly motivated by my desire to feature more games of this type. Only after playing it did I realise that it, in fact, is not a point 'n' click game at all. In my (admittedly peculiar) mind, calling it an RPG kind of makes sense but I suppose a vague 'adventure' tag is the most appropriate one. It's a game that is very blatantly inspired by the 50s B-movies that often featured terrifying monsters of some description (particularly 'Them!' from 1954), from the game cover and promo artwork to story, content and style of the game itself which casts you as a geologist called Dr. Greg Bradley who arrives at a remote Californian town called Lizard Breath to investigate a meteor impact site just outside the dusty little town.

I guess it's not much of a spoiler to reveal that the meteor turned out to be radioactive, and it also landed near an ant colony. I don't think you need me to detail the results of this combination, even if you know nothing of the game, but suffice to say - eeek! Your job as 'Doc' (as most townsfolk call him) is to study the incident and gather sufficient evidence of the resultant giant ant mutations to convince the locals and authorities of the threat before the pesky insects multiply to such an extent that the world is doomed. Oh nooo! Do we leave Earth to its fate? Do we let them stand alone? This means that there's a time limit to finish the game too, as indicated by an in-game calendar/clock that starts on 1st June 1951 and runs in accelerated form as you play. If the ants remain at large on 15th June, it's game over (man).

Much of this time is spent moving between locations on the town map and talking to people. There are lots of places to go sniffing around too, including a police station, bar, farm, hospital (complete with the inappropriately-dressed Nurse Judy, above), university lab, mines, quarry and many others. Most are only accessible at certain times of day but they will all, at some time or another, feature either a person with whom you can talk, find clues or listen to rumours, or terrifying ants which you must battle. These are one of a handful of different 'action' sequences in which you can (and in some cases must) partake. The ant battles take the form of a single-screen FPS where you have to shoot the ridiculous creepy-crawly in vulnerable spots in order to kill it, but some of the others are a bit stranger.

One of them involves driving a car head-on at another for no obvious reason, another tasks you with spraying water to put out a fire, and there's even one that sees you trying to escape from the hospital, assuming you end up there for one reason or another. Some are a bit weird/pointless but they do break up the map-based tomfoolery a bit which can seem... directionless at times. At first, anyway, but it's your job to work out what to do and where to go and all that. It's the kind of game that someone could do a speedrun through in less than 30 minutes, but for first-timers like me, there's hours of investigating and actioning to keep you occupied. It's obviously a game that has aged somewhat now - the lack of FMV and voice-acting, for example (although the PC Engine CD version rectified that a couple of years later) - but it still has a fantastic atmosphere indicative of the movies and era that inspired it.

It's probably the best thing about the game, actually. There isn't too much in the way of movement or animation but the locations and characters are nicely drawn and their dialogue is pretty decent too. Even better is the excellent audio which includes a little speech, good effects, and superb music which sets a suitably spooky, mysterious atmosphere throughout. Some locations are spookier at certain times of day too, thanks to the day/night cycle. It's certainly a unique game in most ways and is unlike any I've played before (including point 'n' clickers - chortle!). It even has some replay value which I hadn't expected, thanks to a few subplots here and there. There have been more immersive adventures in the years since but this one is engaging and stylish enough that it's still well worth some time.

RKS Score: 8/10

Gameplay Video: here's a video of the whole game being played by one of the talented fellows at World of Longplays (check out their great channel here). Oh, and don't watch if you want to avoid spoilers!