Planetfall Solid Gold is an updated, re-released version of Infocom’s original Planetfall game. While game play in all of Infocom’s Solid Gold series was very much like the original game (Infocom released many Solid Gold games), there were a lot of additions that made the games differ from their respective inspirations. Most notably, the games contained a very cool in-game help feature that offered some subtle hints to help the users through the more difficult periods of their games. Another strong improvement was to their gaming engine, which mostly went into a more versatile parser.
These improvements alone definitely made Solid Gold the way to go for any of the Infocom gaming stable. It spawned one true sequel, which was not nearly so popular, Stationfall.
In Planetfall, the gamer will begin as a lowly starship janitor who is the sole survivor of the starship’s explosion. He lands in a deserted building complex on an alien planet that was drifting below the accident site. He has a robot companion named Floyd, and the janitor, upon landing embarks on a quest to determine exactly what happened to all the missing inhabitants of the city. As the user progresses through this single player game of interactive fiction, it will become clear that…while the game play is
fun and the puzzles are challenging…it is Floyd that truly makes this game. In all honesty, he is not an especially useful sidekick. However, his interesting trivia, banter and sarcastic quips are hilarious and do a great job of adding depth and amusement to Planetfall Solid Gold.
When it comes to the puzzles, Infocom again went outside the bounds by making the inventory items often good for more than one thing. This makes the game really interesting and somewhat more realistic, since your inventory does not just automatically disappear when you use it. On the flip side, there are some very interesting and clever seeming items that you will pick up that have no use at all. These red herrings are realistic and frustrating. Overall, however, the puzzles seem logical, and the gamer is not going to spend hours on the infamous and hated trial and error moments.
Overall, this is a gem of a game and it is much better done than many games like it, and also its own sequel. The addition of the Solid Gold element makes it even more entertaining and playable, and most gamers will find it a very enjoyable upgrade from the original.
