Ignorance is bliss. This is especially true for children whose unspoilt imagination lets them view many details about everyday life as the most miraculous wonders. Missing the bigger picture, not understanding why things are the way they are leads to viewing anything that is beyond their grasp to believe in magic. And what is the best thing about magic? The excitement, eagerly waiting for that surprising twist. Anything seems to be possible to them, because they simply have not seen everything yet. On the other hand being a grown up it is sometimes hard to recall those early days and feel that special kind of excitement again. That is until an unexpected surprise comes along and throws you off course into unfamiliar territory again. One of those might just be The Impossible Bottle.
Successful games like Zelda, Ultima, Baldur's Gate and others dazzle us with an atmospheric fantasy world, challenge by fighting against hostile forces and offer a lot of experience for further survival. The top-down perspective – i.e. moving on a kind of world map – is a striking common feature of the aforementioned classics. The player has a top-down view of the environment and his avatar, but without taking over the avatar's field of vision and thus his role – as is usual in 3D shooters. In this kind of flight over the actual scene, the player is a bit further away from the action and gets a more abstract picture of the game's progress. The mentioned game titles nevertheless manage to captivate the player without much effort and integrate him into the story. This is achieved by the perfection of the well-known technical elements like graphics, music, game mechanics and also the psychological incentives, which reward a fight with progress in the story and increase the experience points.
The first part of Eco Quest, which we will be discussing today, came out in the early 90s. Much later than the start of most of Sierra's 'endless' Adventure game series. Consequently, it did not turn into a long series anymore: Only two parts have ever been released. So, let's begin with the first one, subtitled 'The Search for Cetus'.
What is it about?
Here you will take the role of Adam, whose father is deeply involved in preserving natural life. Both kid and father have just moved, so Adam finds himself without friends, until he meets a dolphin rescued from a net.