Adventure with profoundness

If the armadillo appears on my screen, I really get into the mood. Then I lock the door, put some junk food supplies beside the keyboard and light the candles: A new adventure by lnfogrames! From Alone in the Dark up to Timegate,  the adventure games of the label with this blazonry all together managed to bring me a bit nearer to social pauperization. The 3-D-polygon characters simply seized me too much. Well, one can see, where this leads...

Not just rush-hour in Toulouse

This homelike library is where our adventure starts

But this time no track of fighting polygon heroes. Pilgrim is no action-adventure from the 3-D-camera-panning-department, but more like the adventures Shannara or Death Gate, at least what concerns the handling. With the help of the mouse you move stepwise within the of many single screens consisting locations. In order to contact other characters or interact with the environment, you have three menus at your disposal: First of all a "classic" inventory for keeping all found objects. Secondly a "collection of portraits" which holds all persons, you so far became acquainted with, and thirdly a type of "virtual memory" gives you the possibility of recalling observations from preceding scenes.

This unfriendly guy doesn't let us pass, therefore ...

... we have to pull strings, ...

... so the beauty distracts him, and we are proud owner of a sword!

For example you see a rope in a car, but actually can't take it. When you click on it you will find a rope symbol in your virtual memory right away. If you now advance further and "coincidentally" urgently need a rope, you can hand down the information with a click on the rope symbol in the virtual memory to another character - to perhaps find help   to terminate the ropeless times. Through this "topics menue" the interface became more comfortable and above all more flexible than those in comparable games. So there are more combination options or faster accesses to things out of reach or observations from preceding scenes.

Historically correct

Occasionally you encounter historical names or events during one of the frequent conversations, which make a connection to an impressing an extensive encyclopedia, which attends to this topics with exhaustive detailedness. Thus you get historical facts in the game itself about those occurrences, you are undergoing in the digital skin of your character.

Pilgrim transfers you historically absolutely correct into rather dark 13th century. Whether you want to know, which  intrigant skilly Pope Innocence III brought to simmering, how it was all about with lnquisition or how humans mastered their everyday life at that time: Pilgrim will tell, if you like. These deepening information is provided by mouse-click, when desired. Pilgrim primarily is a game and not edutainmentsoftware, but can be used in such a way. For this reason the interested gamer get a rather unique opportunity to gain a deeper understanding for the connections within the game's universe.

This gentleman urgently needs a used sword,  where do we get that now?

What awaits you in this world, can be briefly outlined as follows: You take over the role of Simon, son of  Adalard de Lancrois. Dad is leader of a secret society called "The Tradition" and acquired the possession of a secret writing through a renegade temple knight. Since this manuscript is concerned as the Lost Gospels, several parties are after it, just like the devil after the poor soul. When Adalard fell ill he assigns you - in shape of his son Simon - to bring the mysterious pergament to a friend named Petrus in Toulouse. At the same time the Inquisitor Diego D'Osma starts out to recover the document from the "heretics" on behalf of the Pope...

The name Paulo Coelho vouches for the fact that this story wasn't just cobbled together with a hot needle, to keep a  graphic engine grounded and then call the whole thing "game". He is responsible for the plot whereby he should rather be known to most readers by his best-seller "The Alchimist". Also with the optical presentation, lnfogrames shows generousity. The French comic illustrator Moebius created the beautiful backgrounds. More frequently than in past representatives of this kind, motion comes into the otherwise still pictures. These animations are a true eye candy and created with much love for the detail.

This is the caravan of a middle-old Dutch ...

This buddy is the local money changer

One by one

When there is bright light, there will be also shadow. Unfortunately the developers have lost the chance of a platinum Award by some inconsistencies in handling and gameplay. In priciple the handling of the game has become more flexible by this thought out menue construction, than in comparable games. But this advantage becomes reversed in some scenes by insufficient co-ordination. Thus items do not always function from the memory menu. 

The game can be adjusted to your personal needs only in a limited way. If you want to switch off  the medieval  music, your only possibility is, to switch off everything including German speech output and noises. Full screen can only be used with   640 X 480 resolution, optional higher resolutions run only in smaller windows. Summa summarum  Pilgrim is an adventure game with great puzzles and and unique historical profoundness. The mentioned lacks in handling and design however produce point deductions.

Alternatives:
Death Gate, Legend PC-Classic 14,80 DM
Shannara, Legend.  As full version on cover CD of PC-Power 8/9 97 12,50 DM
Zork - Grand Inquisitor, Activision ca. 90 DM

Developer: Infogrames

Price: ca. 90 Mark

Minimum: Pentium 75, 16MB RAM, SVGA, Windows 3.1 or 95

Pro
Amazing animations
Well established background informationen

Contra
Some unlogical puzzles
Constructed too linear

Fun: 39 of 50
Handling: 7 of 10
Graphics: 17 of 20
Sound: 14 of 20

Total: 77

PC Power Januar 1998

Screenshots