<!--
	Title: (PRODUCT REVIEWS) Cutthroats
	Authors: Michael Ciraolo and Jack Powell
	Source: Antic, v3(11)
	Date: March 1985
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

Infocom<br>
55 Wheeler Street<br>
Cambridge, MA 02138<br>
(617) 492-1031<br>
$34.95, 48K -- disk

You're about to get yourself into very deep trouble, says the **Cutthroats**
packaging. It's true! The latest in Infocom's True Tales of Adventure series
will trouble serious fans, due to several seemingly illogical and arbitrary
key puzzles.

Set on Hardscrabble Island, Cutthroats makes you the murky port's
top diver and local shipwreck expert.

A note offering adventure is slipped under your door. And as you are
drawn into the adventure, you meet some real charmers -- Pet the Rat,
Weasel, Johnny Red. You'll need to learn how to deal with these locals.
Some will kill you, some hold the key to sunken treasure and winning the
game with 250 points.

There are four shipwrecks offshore and you must decide which to
salvage. The game has more than one major branch and solution.

Cutthroats comes with Infocom's usual excellent packaging, including
a hilarious "True Tales of Adventure Magazine", a tide chart, the "Hardscrabble
Island Historical Society's Book of Shipwrecks" and so on.

The trouble is that Cutthroats is very time dependent and does not
allow extensive exploring. You must be at certain places at exact times or
you will forever wander the island. You must waste time waiting for
meetings and discover secret meetings.

The rigid story-development made us feel as though we were being overly
manipulated. There was little illusion of spontaneity.

There are plenty of puzzles, but only some are clever and appropriate
to the story. Unfortunately, other puzzles are obscure, illogical and nearly
clueless. Be prepared to mail away for the official invisible ink cluebook
to this game.

Even when not up to the company's highest standard, Infocom text
adventures are way ahead of the competition. Still, we frankly expected
better from Michael Berlyn, author of the superb **Infidel**.
