"A valid attempt at a Dickian game."

''Slow.
Slow, slow, slow.
Slooooooooooooow.
Slowy slowy slow slow.
S - l - o - w.''

I composed the above (rather poignant) poem during one of the loading breaks during play of Ubik. I feel that it sums the game up. Though Ubik remains playable, everything about it is slow. Individual missions take up to forty seconds to load, screen changes take from five to fifteen seconds, character movement is sluggish, and control response time is less than stellar.

Nevertheless, after some play the dawdling pace of the game began to hypnotise me - I became accustomed to it and began to quite enjoy Ubik.

Ubik is based upon the novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick, a great sci-fi author who used futuristic trappings to explore the nature of reality and the attitude of humans toward it. I've not read Ubik itself, but it would seem to feature many of Dick's usual concerns (reality, death, chemicals) and the game does a pretty good job of echoing some of Dick's famous paranoia.

The story is based around Runciter Associates, a company which specialises in counter-psychic espionage. Joe Chip, the main character, leads field teams which aim to combat the actions of Hollis, a company which specialises in the psychic espionage itself, using cybernetically augmented psychic agents. The player can select psychic and combat-trained characters to form a four-strong team with which to attempt a linear assortment of missions. The plot warps considerably as missions are completed, with the squad generation aspect falling by the wayside later in the game, to make room for much strangeness.

A typical mission begins with squad selection (keeping within a set mission budget), using a functional choose / equip interface. After characters, weapons and armour have been selected (Joe may also use 'spell' like tech chips which give specific advantages), the mission is begun. Wrestling with the camera, the player attempts to achieve set mission goals while repelling attacks from enemy agents. Characters can be interrogated for information, and objects picked up. But there is very little actual interaction with the environments within the game, leaving a very simple move / shoot dynamic for core gameplay. The action menu, as well as featuring incomprehensible icons, need not be used at all throughout the entire game, and seems to be an artefact of some earlier, more ambitious design.

The game locations are presented as pre-rendered backdrops, upon which polygonal figures are overlaid. Unlike Resident Evil, say, Ubik allows control over the game camera. By moving the control pointer to the edges of the play screen, another view can be flicked into place. Characters are moved as in a RTS game, by using the pointer to indicate the desired position upon the game screen. The cursor indicates any portion of the screen which constitutes an exit to a different location, to distinguish such exits from on-screen movement options. This context sensitive cursor also indicates useable objects, people who can be talked to, and enemy agents - who can then be shot with a button press.

The graphics are poor. The polygonal characters are simply a mess, though individual characters are recognisable. The lack of definition in enemy graphics leads to a very cold feel - it's hard to attribute them personality (the poor 'stand and shoot' AI doesn't help in this) and so they simply become icons upon the screen which, when clicked upon, trigger gunfire and their own death. The background scenes are nicely realised, but aren't as detailed or attractive as pre-renders in other games which use such a system. The locations within the game are varied, however. Pre-rendered FMV crops up now and again and, as in most Cryo games, proves to be functional.

Sound deserves a mention. The score is creepy and tense, though the gameplay isn't, and so an atmosphere of sorts is generated. A special mention must go to the activation of tunes during screen-flick: this gives the audio of the game a bizarre dimension, as rapid movement between screens triggers the tune repeatedly. It really is very odd, as is the fact that load times are noticeably longer should screen-flick be activated before the background music has begun, when entering a new area. But oddness suits the game.

Control is simple, since only two buttons (action and camera) are regularly used. As usual with console games that use a pointer system, the feel is not as smooth if a mouse is not used. The game is mouse compatible, but is no reason to buy one, and the slow gameplay means that the joypad control, though imprecise, is not a severe handicap.

As you may have gathered, it is hard for me to recommend Ubik. The slow, slow nature of the game ensures that the majority of players, unforgiving to technical sloppiness, will give up very quickly. Even when the player adapts to the speed, they aren't ever called on to do anything tricky, challenging or even particularly interesting. In terms of presentation, the game is very ropy. The compromise between RTS and flick-screen adventure is an uneasy one.

But like so many games that Cryo creates, it is the quirkyness of the design and the game's negative points which actually drew me in. Throughout the game it was clear to me that the playstyle had not only never been seen before, but probably would never be seen again. The whole camera-wrangling element became bizarrely compelling, even though its execution is suspect. The simplicity of the game also helped it - the feeling is similar to playing minesweeper or patience. And, for the first half of the game at least, the story proved to be moderately entertaining. That the story fails to tell itself adequately (I still don't really know what Ubik is supposed to be) is made up for by the fact that it feels tremendously, weirdly unlike any other video game plot. More Dick-based games would be appreciated, I expect.

So. Ubik, then. Bizarre. Quite original, in both content and design. Compelling in a basic way. Enjoyable to the patient. But slow, slow, slow. And, sadly, ultimately a poor introduction to Phil Dick's writing.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 02/15/02, Updated 02/15/02