Within the heyday of Sierra’s journey recreation years, there was a sequence known as House Quest that featured an intergalactic janitor named Roger Wilco. The sequence was extra satirical than King’s Quest, much less preachy than Police Quest, and never fairly as grownup as Leisure Swimsuit Larry. Spearheaded by Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe – a pair of devs who known as themselves “Two Guys from Andromeda” – House Quest was famend for its humour, and there was a pleasant sense of development all through a lot of the sequence, with Roger Wilco leveling up from working class spaceman to the pinnacle of his personal Star Trek ship.
Tachyon Desires Anthology, a group of three brief video games beforehand launched on Itch.io, is clearly channeling House Quest. Made by indie dev Cosmic Void, AKA Aviv Salinas, every episode of Tachyon Desires places you within the sneakers of an intergalactic dishwasher named Dodger, who’s nearly like an alternate Roger Wilco for those who squint. Dodger’s simply chilling on a spaceship clearing plates when the entire workers round him disappear, which is principally what occurred to Roger at first of House Quest I. Guided by a sentient laptop, Dodge has to journey via time and house, and his quest finally leads him on the path of the Margdonians, a mysterious race that after cultivated the galaxy.
The plot, which begins with time journey and ends with Dodger actually considering his previous whereas sitting on the porcelain throne, would not fairly hit the mark set by any of the House Quests. However the recreation’s visuals are 100% harking back to a misplaced Sierra journey from 1987 made with the corporate’s then-famous AGI (Journey Sport Interpreter) engine. Even Dodger’s stroll cycle channels Roger Wilco’s, although Dodger is a number of pixels bigger than Roger ever was. I am undecided if Tachyon Desires Anthology was made in AGI Studio, gamemaking software program that is been broadly used amongst Sierra followers, however it actually appears to be like it. Cosmic Void’s skilled use of AGI’s 16 colors is particularly spectacular, and I actually recognize the pixelated depictions of the galactic sky, swathed in pretty shades of blue and magenta. (Anybody who needs to see comparable visuals in one thing that resembles a ’90s recreation fairly than an ’80s one ought to try Twilight Oracle, one among Cosmic Void’s different tasks. Alice B (RPS perpetually in peace) preferred the demo!)
Visuals apart, this can be a parser recreation the place you management Dodger with the arrow keys and sort in instructions to get him to do stuff. It takes a sure sort of journey gamer to understand this management scheme, however as somebody who spent numerous hours as a child attempting to determine which Sierra video games recognised what soiled phrases, I dig it. “Choose up berries.” “Use laptop.” “Take off pants.” (The final one would not work.) Tachyon Desires Anthology recognises a good variety of verbs, although on some events you will run into an infernal puzzle that requires a really particular mixture of instructions. However getting caught is par the course for a Sierra-inspired journey recreation, and on the one event once I could not work out the way to progress, Cosmic Void was type sufficient to reply my question by way of Twitter/X.
There are two minigames which break up the exploration and verb-typing. One in every of them’s a compulsory “transfer the colored thingies round till they match” train, which I may have performed with out, as a result of I hate it when an journey recreation forces you to take a seat down and resolve a Rubik’s Dice earlier than progressing. At the least there’s nothing as annoying as House Quest III’s necessary Astro Hen recreation to take care of right here, thank goodness.
There’s additionally no deaths or lifeless ends in Tachyon Desires Anthology, which is a web page taken from the LucasArts playbook fairly than the Sierra one. I am of two minds in the case of no deaths in journey video games – I recognize the shortage of hazard, however again once I was enjoying the House Quests, a perverse a part of my soul delighted in seeing Roger Wilco perish in all method of hilarious methods. I kinda needed Dodger to undergo ridiculous demises as effectively, particularly when progressing via that aforementioned end-of-game stretch that includes a visit to the john.
Apart from missing goofy deaths, Tachyon Desires Anthology additionally lacks a really cohesive story, which I hinted at earlier than. The sport’s authentic episodes – Tachyon Desires I: The Radiant Fish of the Apocalypse, Tachyon Desires II: The Bloated Can of House Root Beer, and Tachyon Desires III: The Rancid Buttermilk – have been bundled with a smattering of additional screens, puzzles, and textual content descriptions that try to string them collectively. However the ensuing product feels disjointed, such as you’re clearly hopping from what was supposed to be a standalone bite-sized recreation to a different standalone bite-sized recreation that misremembered the plot of the primary. The snappy laptop that Dodger speaks with in Half I sadly disappears in Half II, as an example, and a sudden deep dive into Dodger’s historical past along with his ex in Half III comes out of nowhere. It was in all probability simpler to excuse these holes when the episodes had been launched individually on Itch, however when melded collectively, the framework feels flimsy.
Humour is at the least interspersed among the many flimsy, though it is not as humorous because it initially lets on. Tachyon Desires Anthology could be very amusing, straddling the road between rest room humor and referring to Canada as a mysterious international nation that makes arthouse movies, however massive parts of the sport are literally fairly somber. In actual fact, a lot of Tachyon Desires has a lonely, introspective really feel, with Dodger exploring mostly-empty locales and reflecting on the character of being a solo particular person caught within the void of house, following the pale footsteps of long-departed aliens. The House Quests additionally had their surprisingly critical moments, particularly in House Quest IV: The Time Rippers, my private favorite which noticed Roger Wilco travelling via previous, current, and future. However House Quest IV nonetheless supplied levity via vibrant merchandise descriptions and kooky narration courtesy of the late, nice Gary Owens. Tachyon Desires Anthology would not have this, which is not a nasty factor, however ends in a recreation that’s way more philosophical and quieter than its promotional supplies – which promise a rollicking ’80s-style comedy – would recommend.
In the end, Tachyon Desires Anthology jogs my memory of one other undertaking I’ve performed by Cosmic Void, a first-person journey recreation dubbed Blood Nova that was stunning, however featured a number of hints at grand house opera ideas that had been by no means explored in a tangible method. Tachyon Desires Anthology has an identical quirk, flirting with a constant story and a way of humour, however not offering precisely what I might hoped for in both area.
That stated, this recreation remains to be price enjoying for traditional journey followers, if solely to see an indie dev passionately channel the spirit of Sierra’s yesteryear in a method that ideas a hat to House Quest whereas not fairly being a House Quest fangame. In a world the place SpaceVenture, the non secular successor to House Quest crafted by the unique Two Guys from Andromeda, crashed and burned in actually epic vogue, we may use extra video games like Tachyon Desires Anthology. I would not thoughts seeing extra of Dodger – maybe in a centered sequel that sees him abandoning his dishwashing roots and embracing his future as an unassuming guardian of the galaxy, similar to his grandpa Roger Wilco did earlier than him.
This evaluate is predicated on a evaluate construct of the sport offered by the developer.
