<!--
	Title: Suspended: Review
	Author: David P. Stone
	Source: Computer Gaming World, v3(4)
	Date: Jul-Aug 1983
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

<table style="font-weight: bold;"><tbody>
<tr><td colspan=2 style="text-align: center;">BASIC INFORMATION</td></tr>
<tr><td>NAME:</td><td>Suspended</td></tr>
<tr><td>TYPE:</td><td>Adventure</td></tr>
<tr><td>SYSTEM:</td><td>Many (Atari reviewed)</td></tr>
<tr><td>FORMAT:</td><td>Disk</td></tr>
<tr><td>PRICE:</td><td>$39.95</td></tr>
<tr><td>PUBLISHER:</td><td>Infocom<br>Cambridge, MA</td></tr>
</tbody></table>

*Suspended* is the latest in an unbroken chain of outstanding
adventures from Infocom. It's premise is ingenious and intriguing.

In a cryogenic state, deep within the bowels of the planet Contra,
your sleeping mind monitors the filtering computers that maintain a
balance of the planet's food, transportation, and weather
systems. Contra's population depends on these systems. Your
conscious mind is the failsafe system. You are to be awakened
only if there is an emergency. There is, of course, an emergency.

After awakening your task is to direct the actions of six robots to
repair and reset the filtering computers so you can get back to
sleep. Sound like fun? Get ready for some long and sleepless nights
because if you don't fix them in a hurry, humans from the surface
will show up with your replacement clone to pull your plug. The result:
high tech death.

Each robot has a name, a set of special skills, and its own personality.
The personalities seem to grow on you. As the game
progresses, the robots turn from talented pawns into trusty friends.
Each robot has a primary skill plus some degree of mobility and
grasping extensions. IRIS sees (when she's working). WALDO
manipulates objects and moves by sonar. SENSA senses. She can
detect vibrations, photon emissions, and ionic discharges.
AUDA hears. She's particularly good at eaves-dropping. WHIZ is
the brains of the outfit. He's your link to the complex's computer
memory banks. Finally, there's POET. He speaks in cryptic clauses
that accurately describe his environment — if you can just
figure out what he's referring to. Also, he has a special diagnostic
sensor that works when you direct him to touch something. All in all,
they are quite a crew (with only a hint of sexism in their roles).

Both cryogenics and robots are enjoying a certain popularity
nowadays, so the themes of Suspended are well timed. Of
course, the idea of robots has been around for a long time. Ones with
personalities were first rocketed to popularity in Isaac Asimov's
science fiction classic *I, Robot*. That work tapped, and perhaps exploited,
man's fear of technology and his ultimate inability to control
his destiny.

<img class="float-left" src="/public/img/articles/cgw-suspended-review/cgw-suspended-review.png" alt="Suspended Game Box and Contents">

The robots in Suspended are not from the same world as Asimov's,
but they are not from the other side of the universe either. They serve
you faithfully within their limitations and have no delusion of
power or superiority. However, throughout the adventure you are
very much aware that you have no hands but their hands ("extensions"),
no senses but their senses. You may find this frustrating when
you want a robot with "dainty extensions" to grasp, or a robot
with no visual scanner to see.

You can talk to the robots individually or as a group. You can
even have two of them team up to perform a single task that neither
could do alone. A few handy abbreviated commands are
available: ARL (all robots, report your locations) and ARR (all robots,
report). These two commands are especially useful when you are still
exploring and have temporarily lost track of which robot is where.
Another feature that makes this game a cut above other adventure
games is you don't have to type in every move. For example, you can
send a robot from one side of the complex to the other by simply
telling him to go there. Meanwhile, you can have other robots perform
other tasks. Another time/typing saver is the "FOLLOW" command;
just tell one robot to FOLLOW another one and he will do so as
long as it is physically possible. These two features help make the
game very playable.

There are several phases to learning and enjoying Suspended.
First, there's exploring and testing to discover all the individual
maneuvers necessary to fix the filtering computers and complete
the game. Next, there's putting all the pieces together to make sure
they fit. Then comes the honing process —- developing the critical
path that minimizes your total number of moves.

Having fixed the filtering computers in the least number of
moves that you believe to be possible, the adventure is still not
over. No need to file Suspended on the shelf with all those other dusty
adventures. You are now ready for the next phases: playing the
*advanced*, *harder*, and *expert* levels. Things happen quicker on these
levels, but the basic scenario is the same. One level beyond all these is
*impossible*. It is just that.

If you've experienced *Zork*, *Deadline*, or *Starcross*, you already
know about the quality of Infocom's parser (the part of the
game's program that interprets your input and responds
accordingly). It's the best on the market. The program accepts
complete, complex sentences, not just two-word input. As with earlier
Infocom adventures, Suspended recognizes over 600 words; and,
more importantly, it responds intelligently to most user input. So,
there is seldom a need to test combinations of verbs and subjects
to hit upon the exact words that the game designer had in mind.

As everyone who has read their ads knows, Infocom doesn't do
graphics. Instead, their parser and their prose tell the story. However,
the quality of the prose in Suspended is different than in other
Infocom games. The prose in Suspended is mostly reports and
replies from the robots. While there is little purple (in the prose), each
robot has a particular way of saying things that contributes to establishing
its character, revealing its personality, and developing an
enjoyable atmosphere for the game.

True to form, Infocom has maintained their tradition of
producing the high quality documentation. The game includes
a plastic molded mask of a cryogenic sleeper -— sure to spook
small children and entertain all others (and, by the way, of no use in
completing the game); a full-color, two-fold map board of the underground
complex with six vinyl markers — one for each robot; and,
a well written instruction booklet. Besides containing necessary
background information and procedures for playing the game,

the booklet is cleverly written, slightly wordy, and filled with wry
understatements about your cryogenic predicament. As a total
package, the documentation for Suspended leaves no gaps and does
more than enough to establish the mood for the game.

One task of the adventure writer is to provide just enough clues, in
the instruction booklet and in the game itself, for you to be able to
figure things out. Too many clues and the answers are given away.
"Hint" systems allow the writer to be skimpier with the clues since
they allow you to move forward even if you do get stuck. Suspended
incorporates one of the cleverest hint systems you are likely to see. It
is totally integrated into the story line.

Hints are dispensed via the underground complex's Central
Library Core (CLC). The CLC is a master computer that has three
areas from which WHIZ can access historical, technical, or advisory
information about objects that the robots find. A fourth area of the
CLC provides an index to the other three. So, for example, after telling
WHIZ to plug in at the Index, you can command him to ask about an
object (e.g., "WHIZ, ASK ABOUT PANEL.") If information on a
"panel" is available, the Index will list which of the other three areas
contain the information so you can send WHIZ there to access it.

Obviously, this information gathering process is time consuming,
and when you get to the stage of putting the pieces together
to complete the adventure, there will be no need to send WHIZ to the
CLC. Also, the game can be successfully completed without
accessing the CLC at all. So, if you are a die-hard adventurer who
thinks hints are for sissies, don't plug WHIZ into the CLC. But, be
prepared to see the shadow of your replacement clone more than just a
few times.

One can't help but wonder, "What if Infocom hadn't provided the map
of the complex? What if they hadn't provided an integrated hint system?
...would the game still be playable?" The answer is "yes" — however, it
would have been not only a different game, but a different type
of game, more like the early-style adventure where all you knew was
that you were to explore, collect treasure, and perhaps, escape.

If you are an adventurer who is looking for a treasure-based
adventure, and take special delight in exploring and mapping each
room for yourself, or discovering if there even is a next room, then that
aspect of Suspended will not excite you.

About strategies. You will want to develop your own strategy for
mastering the game; however, when you first get started, forget
about fixing the filtering computers, that'll come later. First, get
to know your robots. Explore each robot's capabilities and limitations.
Take them all to the same room and compare their reports. Like the
well-worn tale of the blind men and the elephant, the robots will each
give you their unique, but incomplete, perspective.

As the robots find objects, things that need to be done will become
apparent. Soon, you'll be on your way to putting together the pieces
to complete the adventure. You'll discover that there is more than
one way to complete the adventure. Without revealing what they are,
let's just say that your friend's lives are in your hands.

As you command one robot to go here, another to go there, the game
becomes like running a very, very complex football play. Each player
must be in a certain place at a certain time for the play to work.
Also similarly, there's more than one way to make a touchdown.

The same disasters strike at the same time every time the standard
game is played. Note when these occur, and consider strategies to
get certain things done before they occur. One thing that does change
is something called the "reset code". When you find out what it is, be
sure to write it down — it's different each game. You'll also discover
how each of the planet's systems can be monitored and manually
controlled from within the underground complex. Bringing the
systems under control is essential to minimize surface-side deaths
until you replace the proper cables and bring the filtering computers
back into balance.

Finally, fear and terror are underlying themes of the game.
However, don't let an unfounded fear that the game is too complex
keep you away from it. True, at first, Suspended may seem
unwieldy, perhaps overwhelming ...all that documentation, ...six
robots to control at once, ...what do *I* know about fixing computers,
anyway?

Let your fears be calmed, the game is very playable, even
replayable, once you understand the premise. The robots are easy to
control, once you get to know them. And, you don't have to know anything
about fixing real computers. So, get out the documentation, a
pencil and plenty of paper, and boot-up the disk — people are dying
and you're half asleep! — people are dying and you need to wake up!
