Review of Rama by Doom

One of Sierra’s attempts to monetise on the success of Myst released same year as Shivers and Lighthouse, but also with Arthur C. Clarke’s name attached which was unusual for this company. Well, technically speaking it was made by Dynamix, but it has “Sierra” written all over it and owns a lot to their late SCI engine, pre-rendered graphics mixed with FMV and interface that takes half of the screen space. Similar to many renewed sci-fi authors of that time, Clarke didn’t hesitate to participate in development, and neither did his partner Gentry Lee who is even credited as a designer.

While I’m not their greatest fan, the Rama universe seemed to be really fitting the adventure format. The story might feel a bit confusing for those unfamiliar with the novels (like myself), but there are many clues left to figure it out. Basically there’s this huge spaceship turned into a planet, inhabited by three different races, and we are part of a space expedition sent to explore it. Everything else is up to us to discover. Clarke himself constantly appears as soon as we do something wrong and die horribly to lecture us on some important topics which is a nice touch.

Rama is a solid adventure, certainly inspired by Myst, but with a better presentation. First of all, the story is told not via countless notes and books, but through video messages, conversations with aliens and fellow researches who sneak around, and that’s definitely how I prefer it - I had nightmares about those volumes of handwritten texts from Cyan’s games! Here you never feel lonely, there’s even some serious drama awaiting near the end. Most actors try their best, and the way they are integrated into the gameworld is near-perfect: FMV figures interact with the CGI environment like they naturally would.

The planet is big enough, consisting of three smaller areas to explore (named after capitals of Earth despite having nothing in common with them or with each other), although I admit it doesn’t draw you in as much as Myst or Riven, it just misses something extra that made those games feel like living, breathing worlds, even without much interactivity.

In Rama all areas feel a lot less empty and rich in activities. A small avatar we carry in our pocket (based on William Shakespeare’s Puck) works as a substitute for a “look” cursor and sometimes gives hints. There are plenty of challenges, and from the beginning it is obvious that the game was made by someone with a good knowledge of science and math. A vast majority of puzzles are dedicated to learning alien cultures, alphabets, numeral systems, customs which is always fun. Inventory puzzles are also presented - in fact so much that very soon our inventory becomes crammed with both useful items and red herrings. And since we can’t get rid of them, by the end the search for a necessary item in our inventory turns into a challenge itself.

There are labyrinth-like corridors connecting some of the areas, but they are easy to navigate. The areas themselves - not so much, as with most other slideshow adventures. I constantly felt lost, spinning around and jumping from one corner of the map to another, trying to figure out the right path. I wish they just waited a year and ported Rama to the engine with 360º panning used in the more advanced Shivers II. This would’ve also allowed to polish the gameplay.

It is often described by some as ‘one of the hardest in its genre’. Personally I didn’t need a walkthrough, but had to replay a couple of levels a number of times because of some weird design choices. It’s like Sierra felt the game was on a short side, so the last part was artificially extended by a lengthy timed sequence. And it wouldn’t be all that bad if the timer functioned properly. Instead it followed it’s own logic, I barely had time to explore and solve everything, even when I knew what to do! And when I finally got to the last puzzle, the timer told me I… still had an hour and a half left to mess with it. Go figure.

But certainly a lot of effort went into making of Rama. It is beautiful, atmospheric, with varied gameplay and plenty of neat details often absent from similar games. Too bad we never saw a sequel which had been promised during the ending credits, but then we haven’t seen much of Sierra since 1999. Rama stands out as a monument to the epoch when true sci-fi still existed and the world-famous authors didn’t just sell their names, but were integral part of the adventure-making process. No other genre saw so many living legends working as game developers, nor ever will.

Read the review »

Time Played: 10-20 hours
Difficulty: Hard