Corruption is a text adventure from Magnetic Scrolls that takes place not into a land of fairytale and magic but a modern world of corporate greed and betrayal. It was written by Rob Steggles with some assistance/input from Hugh Steers and released standalone in 1988 and as part of The Magnetic Scrolls Collection Vol 1 in 1991 (along with Guild Of Thieves and Fish!).
The premise is essentially a “countdown to doom” with you as a high-flying businessman working against the clock to stay alive and ahead of a corporate conspiracy over illegal business dealings that you find building around and against you.
Your path to escaping this closing net is through collection of physical evidence to help prove both your innocence and the guilt of others and by conversing and generally interacting with the various characters you encounter to pick up clues, some of whom will prove genuine and others of whom may be working from their own agendas and have less than your best interests at heart.
An event or location is often given colour through the appearance of a good quality static picture of the scene, which appears above the text interface and the interface itself is quite detailed with recognition of a good range of commands. The game world is quite independently alive with many events and encounters occurring at specific times in specific locations
regardless of your presence. This does mean that you may miss the chance to collect a particular item or overhear a conversation or suchlike if you are not in the correct area when the opportunity presents itself. There is therefore an element of trial and error as you get to know which places you need to be at around specific times in order to collect/see/hear something important and arguably this leads to a touch of linearity at times as you increasingly note the best places to be at particular times. Personally however I never found this a hindrance and since the setting is a “race against time” after all, it is realistically an inevitable “compromise of freedom”. The option to save as and when you wished to was a major blessing in this respect, giving you freedom to set any point as a “jump-off” from which to explore the many options and paths that might seem available, going off on any tangent of journey or experimenting with a variety of commands in particular situations all the time knowing you were safe from having to start the whole thing again.
I found Corruption to be an immersive and compelling game, in fact one of my favourite text adventures of all time. It is very much worth checking out if you are a fan of the genre and in particular if you fancy something a bit different (I personally know of no other text adventures with the same “modern corporate world” setting).
