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The fact that in Plundered Hearts the player
is a female is by no means the disadvantage it might
seem (given the era in which it is set); the idea works
very well, as it requires the heroine to use her brain
rather than brawn. It also adds more danger and intrigue
to the story, taking into account how women were looked
upon and treated in sixteen hundred and whatever, especially
by those with less than honourable intent.
The
packaging contains the usual Infocom extras which relate
to the story; this one has a 50 guinea note and a letter
from Jean Lafond explaining why the adventure opens
on the schooner Lafond Deux bound for the West Indies.
It appears that your father is very ill and needs you
by his side to aid his recovery. Of course you do not
hesitate in setting off immediately. Unfortunately,
before the ship can reach its destination, it's attacked
by pirates captained by none other than the dreaded
Falcon, and you are kidnapped and taken aboard his vessel.
However
it turns out that Captain Nick Jamison (The Falcon)
is not the evil man rumour would have one believe. Indeed,
it transpires that this tall, lean, handsome buccaneer
(with azure eyes!), has actually saved you from the
apparently nefarious plans of Lafond. It seems the letter
was a ploy to get you within the slimy grasp of this
mad Frenchman who, The Falcon reveals, has captured
your father and is holding him prisoner within his mansion
on the island of Sinistra. Nick hands you a missive,
signed by your father, which confirms this story and
even begs your help in rescuing both him and his lover
Lucy. The task becomes clear, you must reach Sinistra,
save your father and Lucy and thwart the devilish plans
of Lafond.
Nick
leaves the ship supposedly safely anchored off the shores
of Sinistra and sets off to deal with Lafond. However
if your place in the plot was to let him do all the
work it wouldn't be much of an adventure. Your first
task is to save the ship from the dastardly sabotage
efforts of one of The Falcon's crew, who is a spy in
the employ of Lafond, a particularly nasty piece of
work -- even by piratical standards -- using the name
of Crulley. He has raised the anchor in an effort to
have the tide dash the ship against a reef, and lit
a fire in the ammunition hold just to make sure. A cool
head and logical thought is required to get past the
pirates on deck (who are not gentlemen by any stretch
of imagination and would do disgusting pirate-type things
to you should they see you) and save the ship. Once
accomplished, the way to shore is a barrel of laughs.
Plundered
Hearts is a wonderful adventure, bursting at the
seams with atmosphere, interesting puzzles and tense
situations. I sometimes found it hard to remember that
I wasn't playing in real-time and was typing furiously
to try my ideas out before coming a cropper. Full of
those little 17th Century quirks such as squeezing laudanum
into the evil Count's drink, swinging on chandeliers,
finding secret passages and buckling your swash at every
one wearing a patch, Plundered Hearts is a masterpiece
of ambience and action.
There
are a couple of irritations in the game, for example
typing SEARCH CABIN creates the response: 'You can't
search a quarters' and inputting LOOK THROUGH THE CURTAINS
awards the player with the reply 'You can only tell
the drapes is closed . . .' (period inflection maybe?).
And the reticule that you carry around with you does
seem to he very large indeed, able to carry slabs of
pork, clothes, powder horns and large keys with no trouble
at all. However these idiosyncrasies do not detract
from the excellent gameplay, and, since I think I have
mentioned the problem with the slow disk accessing before,
the drawbacks of Plundered Hearts are miniscule
indeed.
Author
Amy Briggs recreated this period in our history by reading
romance novels and researching 17th Century costumes
and ships. Hence the believability of the game, its
accuracy and its attention to detail. This is Amy's
first adventure for Infocom, let us hope there are many
more to follow.
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