<!--
	Title: (REVIEW) Bureaucracy
	Author: Andy Eddy
	Source: ST Log, #21
	Date: July 1988
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

<img class="float-right-half" src="/public/img/articles/st-log-bureaucracy-review/bureaucracy-packaging.jpg" alt="Bureaucracy packaging">

**Bureaucracy**<br>
by Douglas Adams, et al<br>
INFOCOM<br>
125 Cambridge Park Drive<br>
Cambridge, MA 02140<br>
(617)0576-3190<br>
ST Disk $39.95

Everyone, at one point in their life or another, faces the "red tape shuffle,"
the hideous condition that comes from dealing with big companies and
their infernally inefficient ways of doing things. Proof of this malady shows
up regularly; blood-boiling examples include having a phone conversation
put on hold for a matter of weeks or getting the runaround while trying to
straighten out a $1 million computer error -- obviously not in your favor -- on
your bank account

Douglas Adams -- best known for bringing his twisted, yet realistic,
sense of humor to light on the radio, on television, and later via computer
disk in the *Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy* -- and Infocom have taken
true-to-life horrors like these and turned them into a warped adventure
that is called, fittingly enough, **Bureaucracy**.

The scene is set (based on an actual experience that Adams went
through): You have just moyed into a new house, as well as acquired a new
position in a new company. As if dealing with all that isn't enough, your local
bank has misplaced your change-of-address form. So what, you say?
Well, the bank has sent your newly renewed, *valid* credit card to your old
address and you're supposed to be on your way to a working vacation in
Paris. As you quickly find out, nothing seems to go your way ... NOTHING!
Needless to say, you're up against a wall -- a bare wall, as the
moving company has yet to deliver your furniture from your old residence.
See what I mean?

Bureaucracy is much like your standard text adventure; you have to
find items and their uses to help you in your quest, and certain goals have
point values. The difference here is that your progress isn't predominantly
monitored by the number of moves you make or your score -- after all,
how could you score in a life experience like this?

Realistically, you'll know how you're faring by way of an on-screen blood-pressure
reading. Everything that goes wrong causes your blood pressure to
rise: aggravating bank tellers sending you to closed windows, filling out form
after confusing form, phoning your girlfriend/boyfriend to find that
they're no longer interested in you, even by using words that the game's
parser doesn't understand (though the game sarcastically tells you that you
aren't licensed or authorized to use that word).

It gets you right in the mood from the start. The first thing you're told
when you boot up is that you aren't licensed to operate the software, but
through their kindness you can fill out an on-screen form to straighten
out the predicament. You're shown a form, and one by one you're prompted
to fill in the entries -- albeit in a random order that sets you off
balance -- and certain slots bring about a snide comment from the
game on your answer. Then it proceeds to mangle the information anyway;
getting your house number wrong, calling you Ms. instead of Mr.,
and on and on.

Bringing the chase into more realistic ambience, Bureaucracy takes the
initial form you filled out and tailors the rest of the contest so it closely
parallels your life, creating a type of Computer Mad-Libs, if you will. Your
entries become the focal point of the story -- the bank is located a couple of
doors from your house address, your present and past girll/boyfriend's
names are listed in your phone book and they later leave disheartening
mesages on your answering machine, someone will invariably walk by carrying
something shaded in your least favorite color.

Best of all is the whimsically sardonic feel to each and every situation
you're up against. Meandering through your neighborhood is like a
trip to the looney bin, as you meet the strangest group of people and animals
that you could possibly imagine. Doorfront intercoms spewing forth the
weirdest banter, a deaf matron with an elephant gun, a one-winged macaw
whose cage is lined with something you'd like to get your hands on. And
that's just for starters.

You'll laugh and chuckle with everything the game throws your way, but
frankly, it gets under your skin after a while because you can relate to what
is going on in real terms. This goes beyond the typically wonderful Infocom
style, because Bureaucracy uses your name, speaks to you directly and tells
you, point-blank, what a mess your life is becoming! Why shouldn't you feel
edgy and apprehensive laughing about your life going down the tubes -- even
if it is a game?

Bureaucracy is a wild romp through corporate affairs and its interaction
on the hapless, helpless "little guy." Send a copy of it to a bank manager
near you and then go hide your money in your mattress. Besides having
a lesson for big companies in there somewhere, it can be entertaining
to us peons as well.