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Review by aschultz
August 05, 2009
And friends don't let friends carry contraband. Or travel into unauthorized zones, or do anything to disrupt the computer system responsible for the newly stable and productive Metropolis. Since the Tzorg takeover of your moon-city home, you even get synthetic potato rations, too! Only one subversive at a time is on display in the outdoor prison. See, life's not so bad! Just trust those public service announcements. It worked for the last place the Tzorgs improved!
Metropolis hasn't LEARNED yet, though. Natives lie around or look at their watches, subdued despite their garish two-tone triangular-torso outfits. They may prank the robots, whine or even know a thing or two, but assembling's out; the robots the Tzorgs left are, apparently, jealous about OTHER friends.
You're looking to erase that jealousy by knocking out the central computer in the Tzorg Authority complex. You'll start in the Public Tracking Office, where not checking in every two thousand moves gains a social demerit. Outside is a sentry robot, eyeing an energy node that could recharge your dinky hand phaser. Little vacuum cleaners with crackling antennae frisk you for contraband. Walking televisions in the outer sectors chase anyone without a Zone Access Card.
"DO NOT TRAVEL WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION!"
Another demerit. Persist, and you're offered a cell in the Rehabilitation Center. Decline, and robots stun-gun you and send you there anyway. This early, you probably haven't found the way up inside the Center from the rebellious Underground--there's a hidden wall panel behind your bed--or the box in Rehab where they toss your contraband.
So you'd best improve attributes by talking to people, climbing stairs, running (twice walking's speed,) or using or fixing electronics. Finding a quiet place for this, as well as reliably breakable items, is part of gaming your own computer and not the Tzorgs'. Then, comb office buildings or Mitch's Mashed Bugs for information. Motorized walkways make travel easy. Some of the more sprawling complexes, like the four-level hospital connected to Registration via walkway, contain several people who know someone who knows a fellow who knows about contraband. Folks who seem coy need to be asked the right questions. Many hide behind locked doors. Businesses sell hidden items or services, too, of course.
Some just rip you off. Robots pursue you for defaulting on a juice loan at Brehm's bank, and the hospital overcharges you for healing if you pass out after running or climbing too long. Energy cells, which recharge items legally, sell for staggering markups in safe areas.
It's no surprise, then, that there's a black market. Even with cheap cells, you need to buy something worth putting them in. Sucker a robot into an alley and gun it down, use an anonymous bystander as a shield--especially from diagonal attacks you can't return--or run to the Underground, almost as tangled as the city, to recoup. Once you're better equipped, the tougher roving robots' tenacity becomes a convenience--that's more credits saved for the unbreakable Plasma Rifle and Field Disperser armor. With no separate screen to slow it down, all this combat's an amusing whirl of bleeps and clinks and splats when you use or break an item, or thuds when someone gets hit.
And several exotic dead robots on one screen pile up to make such a wonderfully individualized hunting trophy! A mechanical arm is credit fodder, while an eyeball or a truck, or an inverted cuckoo clock, may ambush you outdoors. You can reload your gun from an energy node while taking four hits, laughing at the damage you didn't take. Rotate through Metropolis a few times as robots recharge elsewhere to get rich. Then go back and shoot Brehm a few times, if you want. He regains consciousness once you leave the bank!
With the security breach siren rendered as adorably irrelevant as the random propaganda announcements, you'll soon hunker down to searching or climbing colorful junk piles. An important secluded room is in a subway tunnel, but watch out for trains. Another is behind a maze of leaky pipes. Forging the right passcards means one less reenforced orange door to break down. Your quest leads to computers giving Random Annoying Errors and then the huge guarded maze of the City Dump. There, after many fights, a long passage leads beneath the core of the Tzorg Authority Center.
Unless you figure how to blast down the front door and use a jetpack inside--a more direct approach, though you'll still face the usual tanks and pods with rotating guns every ruthless robocracy's power center needs. This is 2400's final misdirection. Undergrounders tell you one way to pass an obstacle and claim the easier way is impossible. You may find a breech on your own, though. This happens too often to be accident. Even the Undergrounders have bought into the intimidation they're fighting against! Parsing their advice provides an engagingly violent alternative to the pleasant busy-work of conveyor belt mazes or box pushing. 2400, then, opens up new possibilities as it gets shorter, beyond those weapons you missed the first time. You don't just get to break stupid laws. You'll break them better the second time, disappointed there aren't more ways to gain demerits.
All this makes the sci-fi dystopia of 2400 a satisfying, quick jaunt where you rebelling against silly doublespeak and computerized hostility. The alarming Apple colors make the repression easier to laugh at, and 2400 avoids melodrama or awkward social messages by pitting very confused people against the robots. I've played a lot of epic RPGs before, including Origin's other titles Ultima IV and V, but even these fabulous morality-based tales never quite covered sticking up for yourself, or learning silly tricks to frustrate authorities who deserve it.
Rating: 9/10
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Most recent video game reviews written by aschultz
Dragon Wars (Apple II) [February 06, 2012]
Eternal Dagger (Apple II) [January 21, 2012]
Othello (NES) [January 09, 2012]
Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (Apple II) [November 15, 2010]
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (Apple II) [November 14, 2010]
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