D/Generation

When It First Appeared a couple of years ago D/Generation generated a sigh of relief from just about every game player who came across it. Why? Because it broke the increasing trend for new games to be spectacular in the audio-visual departments whilst somewhat lacking in qualities like fun, addictiveness, and accessibility. Instead D/Generation as good as ignored all the advanced sound and graphics capabilities of modern pcs and relied entirely for its appeal upon the fact that it was jolly easy to get into and good fun to play.

Blue genes

The plot stars you as a motorcycle courier of the future (well jet-pack courier to be precise). You have arrived at the huge headquarters of the Genoq corporation in Singapore with an urgent package for Professor Derrida, the head scientist of the corporation. When you arrive at the building you discover that the buildings security system has gone haywire and that the employees are being menaced by the bizarre genetic creations of Derrida and his team.

Apparently Derrida has been getting increasingly worked up about the package: your consignment must hold the answer to restoring order to Genoq.

You decide there and then that it is your duty to somehow get the mysterious package to Derrida. To do that you must work your way from floor to floor, securing all the rooms by killing the genetic monsters within them and blocking the vents that they are using to spread themselves throughout the building.

As you make your way through the building you discover survivors. Naturally, being an all round good guy, you feel compelled to help each of them escape, but some of them can be quizzed for useful information beforehand. And youll need as much information as you can get, because making your way through the building is not only extremely hazardous, its also mind-bendingly difficult. Certain doors can only be opened with security keys or by entering passwords at computer terminals. Even if you do manage to clear the genetic creatures in each room you still have to solve the fiendish puzzles to progress.

Through the square window...

So, why are we re-reviewing an ageing game? Because Mindscape has chosen to re-release it to run under Windows, thats why. The game opens into a fixed size window, but other than re-sizing you can do everything you can with any other Windows application. The only other change to this new version is that Mindscape has, rather bizarrely, chosen to remove the option for joystick control. I cant fathom that one at all. Even so, this is a great game, and worth having if you havent got around to discovering it yet.