I have seen this game so roundly panned in some reviews that I nearly gave it a pass. But I'm glad I didn't because I ended up enjoying it pretty thoroughly and I really think it makes up in creative content for a some of its obvious and admittedly annoying technical shortcomings. Kronolog revolves around a story with enough twists and turns that it arguably earns all three of its titles. The story is set in a world where the USSR developed the atomic bomb early in WWII, well before the USA.
With it they, defeated Germany and then went on to attain near-global domination. The sole hold-out in the world of Kronolog seems to be a Japanese-dominated confederation in Eastern Asia, and their days may be numbered. Pollution and climate change are rampant and fast approaching catastrophic, planet-killing proportions.
As the story begins, you assume the role of Dr. Mark Constantine, head honcho of Envirotek, a major biotech firm specializing in production of genetically engineered, toxic-waste-eating bugs. You have been summoned to a meeting with 1st Secretary Loginov at the headquarters of NADA, the soviet controlled state that encompasses all of North America and Greenland. Upon your arrival, a message from Loginov's secretary informs you that he has been called away unexpectedly but left
something for you to pick up. You go to Loginov's office to find his secretary away from her desk and stumble across an extremely upsetting piece of information. From there, you're off and running in a race against time that involves intrigue, espionage, infiltration of secret government installations, atomic weapons research, time travel, native American mysticism and mutant cockroaches!
So what's not to like? Well OK, there's the user interface. Frankly, on a scale of 1 to 10, it basically blows. At first glance it is a pretty conventional, actually pretty well laid-out adventure game setup. There's a scene window where the action takes place above a dashboard with the usual tools for looking at stuff, talking to people, taking/using things and a utility button for loading/saving games etc. Pretty standard stuff. The “Where am I?” button is a thoughtful if perhaps superfluous touch. The Personal Information Manager (PIM) contains a wealth of factoids that add depth and color to the story, along with a few helpful hints. Graphics are a little cartoonish in general but the video clips used for conversations are well done and sound effects are adequate. There isn't much music but I can't say I missed it much.
Navigating through this game can be exasperating at times. You actually have to select a tool to move the main character -- yup, that boot is made for walkin'. And I'm afraid Constantine isn't smart enough to move himself from one side of a scene to the other if there are obstacles in between. He must be guided turn by turn. You almost have to trick him into going some places and you may occasionally miss an entire area if you didn't find the right point to click to make him go there. You also have to walk right up to characters and objects (with the challenges that entails) to inspect, take, use or interact with them and all this adds up to a lot of extra clicking. I learned fairly late in the game that the right mouse button cycles through the four main tools from anywhere on the screen, which did help a little.
Most of the other petty annoyances of this game are pretty common to other games of the genre though. Small items are often hard to spot in low-res video games and Kronolog has a few of those. The clunkiness of the UI may make the inevitable, too-clever-by-half “MacGyver” moments more difficult than necessary, but the sequences themselves are no more counterintuitive than many I could name. The maze (Now how did you know?) is all straight lines and square corners and relatively easy to map.
The main thing to remember about Kronolog is that you burn all your bridges behind you. It is impossible to get back to most locations once you leave them and there are a few things you encounter early in the game that you may not realize you need until near the end. So be sure to inspect every area carefully, try to take everything you find, keep everything you take until you've used it and save every scene before you leave it -- good advice for any adventure game, really. You might also want to dig up a walk-through and use it to double-check scenes as you finish them.
