Guilty

Innocfnt Until Caught was one of the better point-and-click adventure games around when it was originally released. Based around the zany exploits of Jack T. Ladd, it had fiendishly difficult puzzles and a unique inventory system that allowed you to combine objects in a way never seen before to produce some truly wacky items. The sequel will soon be upon us and it has an improved control system, all-new graphics and. amazingly, a built-in soap opera. As the game progresses, you will be kept completely up to date on the romance blossoming between our hero Jack T. Ladd and the lovely Ysanne Andropath. 'Who the bloody hell is she?" you may well ask. Well. Ysanne is the new co-star in the Innocent adventure series. Jack no longer gets to hog the limelight all on his own with the arrival of the Luscious Pouting One. Unfortunately for Jack, luscious and pouting as Ysanne is. she's also a policewoman who watches his every move. Even more unfortunately for Jack, she hates men! This is where the "Guilty" in the title comes. Jack appears to have finally got his come-uppance and the law has finally caught up with him. At the start of the game, you have to choose which of the characters you will play. Jack or his new female friend. Which one you choose directly affects how the game develops, and so you could say that you're really getting two games for rhe price of one. Both characters have different capabilities; have access to different locations, and get different responses from the in-game characters. This effectively means that you could complete the game playing Jack, start all over again playing Ysanne. and see different places, solve new puzzles and have different conversations with the characters in the game. And as if all this "brand-new" stuff wasn't enough, they've even given the sequel a completely different plot as well. Here's the gist of it.

Incredibly short plot scandal

Using his amazing Houdini-type skills, our Jack escapes from his prison cell aboard the prison ship Relentless, only to leave the craft stranded with a merciless alien invason fleet heading its way.

Indy returns

The graphics have changed. The Jack sprite is much more detailed and the locations are better drawn. ITiere is another, more important reason however, for getting excited about the prospect of an Innocent Until Caught sequel. The cd version will feature full digital speech for the characters. Add this to the fact that there will be a male and female character interacting with each other (er, you know what I mean) and another well-known cd adventure talkie springs immediately to mind, namely Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Now normally, this sort of "similarity" in games would be universally frowned upon, but the Indy game was such a classic that if Psygnosis get the right actors to do the voice overs for Guilty, they could well be on to a real winner.

Psygnosis are giving nothing away about how the plot develops, but my money's on Jack and Ysanne, who initially won't give each other the time of day coming over all mushy with each other and falling in love and girly stuff like that.