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Psycho is a graphic adventure game with a key-based verb interface. A set of
jewels has been stolen. At the time of the theft, a curator was with the jewels, so
he got stolen, too. And who's the suspect? Norman Bates, of course. The next night,
a daring detective drives out to the sinister Bates Motel. His plan: a) find the
jewels, b) free the curator and c) take a nice hot shower, should time suffice.
Psycho is entirely controlled with the keyboard: direction keys for moving your
character around, shortcut keys for performing actions. You need to stand close to
an interesting object in order to examine it. Adversaries such as a dog, a ghost,
and Norman's mother will appear at random
throughout the house, putting you to sleep (!) by touch and thus draining your precious
time -- you've only got four hours to solve the case. You may shoot the enemies as
soon as you find a weapon. As there is no other option for character interaction,
this is how you'll deal with the Bates family as well. It's one of the worst
adventure games ever made, and based on the classic horror film by Alfred Hitchcock.
By "based on" I mean that they both have the same title. It's all bad CGA graphics,
if that isn't redundant. Your character, a detective investigating a kidnapping at
the Bates motel, looks like a monkey when viewed from the front. He holds his
magnifying glass (or gun, once you find it) at arm's length constantly. The room
descriptions are... well, let me just direct-quote a couple: "I found this is a big
living room;" "I found this is the same big room." "Clues" you find along the way
offer such helpful tips as, "Skeleton keys open doors, not skeletons." Exits are laid
out so that at times it's practically impossible to tell which door leads where.
Trying a locked door simply doesn't work until you find the right key, and gives no
indication that it's locked. There are bugs all
over the game, the funniest being when you dig up a key in the coal bin. After you
pick it up, it still shows up in the room, and you can keep taking it over and over
and earning infinite points. And taking it repeatedly gives the message: "I found
more keys just like the one I found before." Yes, they chose that as the alternative
to adjusting the graphics so the key is no longer there. An absolute must-play for
all fans of truly terrible software. |
