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Tygon Site Owner
Joined: 03 Apr 2001 Posts: 2497 Location: Isernhagen, Lowersaxony, Germany
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Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2003 8:12 pm Post subject: Inherit the Earth |
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A few of you might have heard that I was about to get my paws on a copy of the adventure game "Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb".
For those who don't know it, Inherit the Earth is an adventure game like Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis, Loom the Monkey Island series and the other games Lucasarts used to be REALLY good as. Anyway, what is so special about this game is that it is decidedly furry. It's set on Earth in a far future. Humankind has vanished but they left behind heirs in form of walking, talking, intelligent animals. Divided into tribes by their races and guided by strange machines left behind by the humans called Orbs these animals, calling themselves Morphs, are trying to live now as best as they can.
The game starts at a big faire where Rif of the Fox tribe and his girlfriend Rhene want to enjoy themselves and honor their races cleverness by winning the puzzle contest. Unfortunately Rif is beaten by the rat Scurry in the final round and to make matter worse, just as the two foxes want to rejoin the faire they have to learn that the Orb of Storms had been stolen. This miraculous machine has the power to predict the weather and the seasons and therefore tell the animals when to plant and when to harvest. Devoid of an alibi Rif and Rhene are accused of having stolen the Orb of Storms. Trying to free himself and Rhene Rif offers to solve this puzzle and bring the stolen Orb back. Unfortunately the Boars, not trusting the fox, take Rhene and if Rif won’t bring the Orb of Storms back by the next full moon the vixen will die.
You take control of Rif of the Fox tribe and have to guide him through his quest to find the Orb of Storms and prove that he and his girlfriend Rhene are innocent. At your side are Okk of the Boar tribe and Eeah of the Elk tribe. They accompany you under order from their respective kinds to both, aid you and make sure you will return.
Inherit the Earth is an adventure game on the graphic level of Monkey Island or Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and just like those it features a list of verbs, eight to be exact. With these verbs you can interact with your surroundings and the many other Morphs you meet on your quest. You move Rif over the screen by clicking where you want him to go (Eeah and Okk will follow him automatically). You move from location to location by a map where Rif and companions are replaced by a small star. Here too you can click wherever you want and if it is a reachable place the party will go there. Only special locations (whose name will show up if you move the course over them so you don’t need to click randomly over the map) will bring up a new screen though.
After having played through the game within two days I have to say that it’s a lot less complex than other highlights of the genre. On the other paw, I was highly motivated and almost constantly played it in the last two days
The graphics are in no way up to today’s standard, but this game is about 10 years old and it has a nostalgic charm about it. Otherwise they backgrounds and characters are beautifully drawn and animated. In a furry side note, the Morphs have digitigrade feet (they are walking on the toes and balls of their feet) and if they derived from hoofed animals they have hooves, but only on their feet. All Morphs have arms with four-fingered hands. Their heads are less ‘humanized’ than most furry artists draw and basically look like the un-morphed animal’s heads. That also means no Morph has headfur, unless the animal already had it. The basic shape of the body is also based on the animal. Boars and short and well build (to avoid the term ‘fat’ ) were the Elk and tall with slim but powerful limps. Foxes are of middle size, like the cats and ferrets. The last are a lot sleeker than the former two though.
The Morph’s lifestyles are also based on their race. The Elks live in the forest and while they are strong warriors, they prefur peace over fighting. The ferrets are a curious tribe and love to take things apart to find out how they work so they can rebuild them. The Boars love nothing more than a nice mudbath and don’t at all like to be told what to do. The wolves are fierce warriors, just like the wildcats. The former however live mostly nomadic while the wildcats have settled down in villages (and they have the most interesting tents I have ever seen).
The sound is, just as well as the graphics, not up to today’s standard, but they are well done, the music fits to the surroundings and occasions and the voices (yes, if you have the CD version the game has full speech) are clear and the voice acting and at least good enough, if you very good. I’m not really qualified to judge that but I’ve heard much worse. Also, the individual voices fit to the respective animal, especially the fortune teller at the faire. She is a cat (beautiful one too) and has a rather husky voice that’s underlined with a purr. Great effect
As I said, the game isn’t overly complex, what can be seen by the fact that I was able to finish it (the first time for me to finish and adventure game without a walkthrough). Also, it is not possible to lose Inherit the Earth. You cannot die or get permanently imprisoned or run out of time or maneuver yourself into a dead-end, like it always used to happen with Maniac Mansion.
It is an easy game? No, by far not. I had to think pretty hard a few times and thought I was stuck. There are a few occasions were it was just a matter of finding and talking to the right person, but it is that way with many adventure games. Also, a few times trying to do the same thing again and again actually does help.
But is it a difficult game? No, not difficult either. It has its difficult parts (including some rather mean mazes) but also some easy parts. And, most important, it has many very funny parts. Talk to the bear on the faire at the beginning. The conversation is hilarious, just as the visit to the Boar King.
I don’t want to give away any story spoilers so I won’t say anymore about the plot, but I have to say that I personally love it. A part I liked especially is later in the game when Rif and friends are wandering though some ruins and Rif is trying to figure out what all the stuff is they find. The player of course knows but Rif doesn't and its amusing and not only a bit fascinating. The developers did a great job there, just as well as with the rest of the game.
In the end I have to say that if it weren’t for the furry aspect I most likely wouldn’t like Inherit the Earth that much, but the developers did such a great job with the setting and the background and the story is lovely as well as interesting and does well in wanting to keep playing so you see what will happen next.
For those who got interested in Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb, go to www.wyrmkeep.com. There you can purchase a copy of a redone version of Inherit the Earth that will run under Windows without problems. For those who want an original copy, I guess your best try would be eBay. Oh, and you need to know how to twiddle with your computer’s setting until you can play it or you need an older computer to play it on. This game is from 1993, meaning it was DOS based. For those of your who liked the classic adveture games, this is a great opportunity to have some nostalgic gaming
As a final comment, I feel in love with the setting and Inherit the Earth I want to write a story in it. _________________ Tygon Panthera - name and species
www.planetfurry.com/~tygon/
Last edited by Tygon on Tue Sep 30, 2003 2:57 am; edited 1 time in total |
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BLITZ Guest
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Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2003 10:13 pm Post subject: |
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wow thats a ton to read.
sounds like a pretty cool game I'm trying to save for a new comp but I might just have to buy it. |
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Tygon Site Owner
Joined: 03 Apr 2001 Posts: 2497 Location: Isernhagen, Lowersaxony, Germany
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Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2003 10:23 pm Post subject: |
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BLITZ wrote: | wow thats a ton to read. |
I wanted to see if I could write a detailed review without giving anything away
BLITZ wrote: | sounds like a pretty cool game |
Well, I enjoyed it greatly. However, it is OLD. Plus, it is a genere that doesn't exist nowaday anymore.
On the upside, it is furry. More furry that most games the are considered to be furry
BLITZ wrote: | I'm trying to save for a new comp but I might just have to buy it. |
C'mon! You'll be able to affords 25 bucks for a game _________________ Tygon Panthera - name and species
www.planetfurry.com/~tygon/ |
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Solis Moderator
Joined: 03 Feb 2003 Posts: 530 Location: Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
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Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2003 5:13 pm Post subject: |
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Does the game have full sound? Because I know all the online copies (the OLD ones) don't . _________________ Planetfurry moderator
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Tygon Site Owner
Joined: 03 Apr 2001 Posts: 2497 Location: Isernhagen, Lowersaxony, Germany
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Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2003 6:09 pm Post subject: |
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Solis wrote: | Does the game have full sound? Because I know all the online copies (the OLD ones) don't . |
It does. The copies you can get online are the diskette version, which only had full sound in the intro. This is a full CD version with speech during the entire game. _________________ Tygon Panthera - name and species
www.planetfurry.com/~tygon/ |
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Jbird Forum Hatchetman
Joined: 12 Aug 2002 Posts: 554 Location: Reloading.
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Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2003 2:48 am Post subject: |
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Minor correction, Tygon: it's http://www.wyrmkeep.com.
Looks good, by the way. _________________ (00:40:05) nbz: you win at the motherf***ing internet O_O |
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Tygon Site Owner
Joined: 03 Apr 2001 Posts: 2497 Location: Isernhagen, Lowersaxony, Germany
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Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2003 2:58 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for pointing that out, Jbird. I've corrected it. _________________ Tygon Panthera - name and species
www.planetfurry.com/~tygon/ |
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Tenshi Registered User
Joined: 01 Jul 2004 Posts: 79
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Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 5:44 am Post subject: |
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oooh yeay, i have a ibm thinkpad that still runs 6.22 and 3.1, will this game work on 16mb sysram 100 mhz processor? _________________ "Games are very educational. Scrabble teaches us vocabulary, Monopoly teaches us cash-flow management, and D&D teaches us to loot the bodies." -- Steve Jackson |
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Tygon Site Owner
Joined: 03 Apr 2001 Posts: 2497 Location: Isernhagen, Lowersaxony, Germany
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Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 8:09 am Post subject: |
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I don't know about the version Wyrmkeep is making... that one might require Windows95 or later. But if you can get a hold of the original version, that one should run just fine. _________________ Tygon Panthera - name and species
www.planetfurry.com/~tygon/ |
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Lone Wolf Registered User
Joined: 10 Nov 2003 Posts: 52 Location: Newport, Rhode Island
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Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 1:58 pm Post subject: |
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According to there website the new version needs at least Win98 with diretx6, but the old version works fine on my old Win95 486sx @ 25 mhz with 32mb ram. _________________ Mark Lonewolf
I really should post more often.
Lonewolf Blackcinder on SecondLife |
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Tenshi Registered User
Joined: 01 Jul 2004 Posts: 79
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Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 3:16 am Post subject: |
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thankies _________________ "Games are very educational. Scrabble teaches us vocabulary, Monopoly teaches us cash-flow management, and D&D teaches us to loot the bodies." -- Steve Jackson |
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