Sentient

"Strange, unique, ambitious, but not much fun."

Sentient is a weird, weird piece of gaming. Created specifically to revolve around the most ham-fisted conversation system in history, the game promises an unprecedented level of communication with NPC characters, then fails to deliver.

The game is viewed in first person, and includes no action elements, being based around conversation and puzzle. The plot is rather fun. Trapped on a space station orbiting the sun (mining the sun's energy), the player character has to investigate the rag-tag station crew, separate truth from lie, and save themselves from a fiery fate. Object oriented puzzles also appear, involving the fixing of broken machinery, and a great deal of fetching and carrying.

Sentient's gimmick, as noted, is its conversation system. The player is allowed to construct phrases and questions from a set of pre-defined sentence-builders, and so characters can be asked questions about objects or other characters, can be ordered to fetch items, can be given items, and so forth. In addition, holding shoulder buttons allows the player to bias their delivery, to come across as happy, mellow or angry. In theory, this system would lead to a fascinating game in which the NPC's feelings as are important to the player as game objects in conventional adventures - but in practice it fails to deliver.

The biggest problem the game suffers is that, in attempting complexity in communication between player and NPC the success rate of communication has become so low that the player quickly begins to distrust the conversation system full-stop. This problem is compounded by the fact that all actions are up against a set of really rather harsh time limits, giving the player precious little time to experiment - or account for mistakes. Finding characters is hit and miss, and failing to find a certain character at a certain point is almost certainly fatal. This is a great shame - without the time limits, patient players might have enjoyed bumbling around the action-free environment, talking to people, and uncovering the game's secrets.

Aesthetically, the game is basic. it moves smoothly, but there's little detail in the graphics, and the sound is unassuming. The odd CGI movie is nicely done, but in most cases a waste of effort. Strange mini-games such as a dream maze and a 'tumble-maze' are interesting from an atmospheric point of view, but have little gameplay value. The space station is bland in construction, but is easy to find one's way around - one of the game's pleasant innovations is the method by which the player navigates the space station by use of navigation codes written on corridor walls.

The story is the only real reason to play this game, and then because it seems to be one of the strangest game stories ever concocted rather than for its quality. Multiple endings are available, but the game is such a chore that reaching any one of them must be considered a success. It's a very difficult game to complete without a faq of some description, but is very easy to beat with such a walkthrough.

In summary, Sentient is a slow, frustrating game, which would have suited old-style adventure players were it not for the constant race-against-time factor. As such, the game can only recommended to lovers of weird gaming experiments - for it is truly unique (no other game contains a character who wanted to show me his rabbit drawing for no conceivable reason). I imagine that the project was up against a heavy deadline by its completion - and sadly it is very, very unlikely to have been successful enough for the team to learn from their mistakes and create a sequel. Which is a shame, as I for one would love to see the ambition that gave birth to the glorious oddity that is Sentient come to full fruition.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 09/30/01, Updated 09/30/01