Amazon: Guardians of Eden. (computer game) (Software Review) (Evaluation)
by Beth C. Fishkind

Rising from his desk, your boss, Wilbur Thornick, turns his back to you as he gives you the bad news. The expedition to the Amazon has been attacked, he tells you, his hands clasped behind his back, fingers twitching restlessly. Your brother is missing.

So begins Jason's (and your) adventure to find his missing brother, Allen, in Amazon: Guardians of Eden. What separates this from other adventure games is that the scene with Thornick is a minimovie. Amazon has traditional adventure-type screens in which you direct your adventurer to Look, Open, Get, etc., combined with full-motion video sequences and synchronized speech that's anything but typical. As one of my friends put it, "Cool!"

Naturally, there's a price to pay for such coolness. Eight megabytes of hard disk space is just the beginning. You can play Amazon with the minimum of hardware recommended, but to really get all that this program offers, you'll need a 386/33 computer, a sound card, and an SVGA monitor supporting 640 x 400 or 640 x 480 in 256 colors, with VESA compatibility.

Amazon's story is patterned after the campy old serials from the 1940s and 1950s, such as Flash Gordon, The Lost City, and Rocketman. Our story takes place in 1957, and you'll find vintage cars and TVs--as well as a vintage plot. The adventure is broken down into chapters, each with its own cliffhanger ending. To assist you on your quest to find your brother in the depths of the jungle, there's a player's guidebook and a pop-up online help window.

The online help consists of three levels of clues, so you can make the adventure as challenging as you can handle. Begin with an intriguing, obscure hint. If that's not enough, there are two more levels of progressively easier hints. But beware: The easier the hint, the more points docked from your overall game score. Access software (800) 800-4880 $69.95 Circle Reader Service number 442