Genre: AdventureDeveloper: LucasArtsYear: 1988
Rating: 0.00 / 10.00
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Back in the 80ies, while Sierra innovated adventure gaming with the excellent engine and fun dialogs used in the "Quest" games (Space quest, King's quest, Quest for glory, etc.), LucasArts broke grounds with a non-linear adventure of multiple possible combinations.
The story was probably conceived having b-movies in mind. Years ago, a meteorite crash-landed near the Edison mansion, changing the lives of the family within. The "meteor", as it seems to call itself, was actually a sensient alien mastermind that gained control over the family, specially Dr. Fred, a prolific scientist that now runs experiments for the meteor, aiming for... yeah, you guessed it, taking over the world. This evening, for a special experiment, Dr. Fred abducted the young Sandy -- and Dave, her boyfriend, now has the dangerous mission of entering the Edison mansion and rescuing the fair maiden.
Maniac mansion was cleverly designed to have multiple solutions (as you can see in Christophe's walkthrough included in this package), and that's the best feature of the game. You start out choosing two from a total of six friends to help you rescue Sandy. Each kid has unique talents and personalities, and thus has different uses. There's a great amount of useable items scattered over the mansion, but only musicians can use the piano, only the geek can mess with electronics, only the photographer can work with a photolab, and so on. So many combinations possible, this is the kind of game you'll easily want to replay.
Sounds are extremely primitive, and the graphics are passable in comparison with the also great Sierra adventure games from those days. On the other hand, Maniac mansion's engine offers a new level of interactivity, as the antagonists go about their own business, creating some unique twists. At times you can find characters out of their rooms, talking to the other members of the family, getting food or checking the front door. And if one of them catches you, they lock you in the dungeon and the other characters have to get you out. Sounds simple, but it was greatly innovative (even complex) for its time. Even today you don't see much realistic interactivity in most games. Non-player characters tend to stand frozen in the same places all the time.
What else? I think it's enough. Get this classic right away, not only for history sake: it is still fun, and should keep you busy for long hours.
