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	Title: (Adventure) Suspect
	Source: Zzap!64, #9
	Date: January 1986
	Transcription by Steve Derby
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*Infocom/Softsel, £19.95 disk*

I have to confess to a secret passion for this game. Ever since
I got hold of an early copy (running on the Apple IIe) I've been
a devoted fan, and am astonished at the lack of coverage this
excellent game has been given. Now at last a Commodore version has
been dropped into my lap, and I feel fully justified in blowing the gaff on
what must be one of the best adventures available on the 64.

It's by Infocom, and was released at about the same time as
*Hitch Hikers*, which may explain why people didn't take much
notice. *Hitch Hikers* might have a high market profile, but ol'
Whitey reckons that *Suspect* is a better game.

The plot is ingeniously simple. As a young reporter you attend a
flash society ball given at the Ashcroft mansion. It's a fancy
dress party so you turn up dressed as a cowboy. When the game
starts you're standing in the ball room having left your lariat in the
hall cupboard.

The first few times you play all you do is want to hang around in
that ball room and marvel at the way the program copes with your
inputs. There are a number of guests milling about, all in fancy
dress, and you'll have your time cut out finding out who they are.
You do this, of course, by talking to them, using such phrases as
'Werewolf, tell me about yourself' or 'Batman, who is the Fairy
Queen'. Many of the responses you get are quite extraordinarily
apt, and for the first time in my life I actually felt, when playing an
adventure, that I was partaking in a real conversation.

As time goes by, however, news reaches the ballroom of a hideous
murder in the study. Veronica Ashcroft has been strangled with --
ooops! -- YOUR lariat! The aim of the game is to find the real
culprit and prove your innocence before the law arrives and clamps
you in irons.

It's a testimony to the sheer inventiveness and complexity of
the program that I have no hesitation whatsoever in printing a
map of it here for fellow Wizards to peruse. Even if you play the
game, which you must, you'll find that the map can only help you
enjoy it more. As in real life, the thrill of the event comes from the
people involved, not the whereabouts of various rooms.

The map is significant however, because it's small! There aren't
that many locations, but there are a dozen major characters in the
game and many minor ones besides. Some of the larger locations --
the ball room, for example, -- are split up into sections, so
that you can be in the ballroom near the bar, or in the ballroom
near the band. When you're at one end of a location you can look
across the room and see what's happening and who's talking to
who. The degree of realism is really quite remarkable.

I shan't spoil *Suspect* for you by giving too much away, except to
say that during the game you will find yourself indulging in all sorts
of tricks and treats -- from hiding behind curtains and in garages, to
chatting up your host on the subject of race-horsing. This is a
tremendous game, and I seriously warn you not to go anywhere near
it unless you want to spend Christmas at the keyboard.

<p class="larger" style="font-weight: bold;">Atmosphere 85%<br>
Interactions 96%<br>
Lasting Interest 92%<br>
Value For Money 72%<br>
Overall 89%</p>

<img style="max-width: 90%; display: block; margin: auto;" src="/public/img/articles/zzap64-suspect-review/suspect-map.jpg" alt="A hand-drawn map of the mansion in Suspect">