What is Rama?

In Arthur C. Clarke's novel Rendezvous With Rama, a huge cylinder (which turns out to be an artificial world) arrives in the solar system. A team of scientists sets out to investigate it and, if the behemoth is a threat, destroy it. Much of the novel is about how we humans would react to such an intrusion into our space: Would we try to welcome the aliens, or destroy them out of hand. What would you do?

In Sierra On-Line’s new adventure, you’re an astronaut dropped into Rama to replace a dead team member. Your job is to explore the cylinder At some point, Rama directs itself toward Earth, precipitating a paranoid response among some team members. Your mission then becomes to prevent the detonation of the nuclear devices armed in various places in the cylinder.

Rama’s point-and-click interface is easy to learn, although we were annoyed at some delays on our Performa 6400 — it shouldn’t take upwards of a minute for a click to register. At times it seemed as if we were staring at the black transition screen longer than at the game screens. Fortunately, this problem did not affect the entire game. The inventory mechanism is useful: You can see what’s in it and discern details in each item. This is important, because in the first section of the game, you have to pick up a bunch of similarly shaped plaques to use as keys. The inventory facilitates solving this kind of puzzle, rather than being obstructive as in other point-and-clicks.

Another interface innovation is the holographic tour guide, Puck. Although he/she/it doesn’t wear an H on its forehead, à la Rimmer in the Red Dwarf TV show, you can tell Puck’s not human, because it’s only one foot tall. Puck puckishly comments on the surroundings, essentially providing the “look at” command of old text adventures.

Most of the game involves picking up things, recognizing patterns, and solving number theory problems. Be sure to pick up everything and anything, even though there are plenty of red herrings strewn throughout the cylinder. The puzzles are tough enough to satisfy the most jaded gamer. If you’re not a left-brain type, skip Rama; you won’t be happy.

The rest of the game is full-motion videos providing backstory. Although the videos display essential plot points and directives, they are the only part of the game that doesn’t ring true. The problem with videos of actual humans interacting with the game player is that natural conversation is a two-way street; canned videos can never react or change. This short-fall is not helped by the acting, which isn’t too bad in this title (Clarke performed the best in front of the blue screen).

Because the videos take up so much space on the CD, the rest of the game is limited. What if you’re not a goody-two-shoes and want to help the paranoids set off bombs? No can do. The game ushers you down a set path, and you have no choice but to connect the dots in order to win. This is true of many adventure games, but this adventure game is based on a rich universe. By limiting plot points, the richness of the original is simply not conveyed.

So you are left exploring. And exploring Rama is an excellent adventure. If you are an analytical, patient person and have a fairly hefty Mac, we have no reservations about recommending Rama.

Tafel, Kathy. (May 1997). Rama. MacAddict. (pgs. 70-71).

Download Rama for Mac

Architecture

68K + PPC (FAT)

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: SheepShaver