Universe Download (1994 Adventure Game)

This is a sci-fi, futuristic adventure game made by Core Design in 1994. It is a LONG game that will require many hours, and a lot of patience to finish.

The story is as follows. You are Boris Verne and you are delivering mail to your uncle. After discovering that your uncle has invented a Virtual Dimension Inducer, you can't resist playing with it. Before you know it, you find yourself stranded on a strange new planet, forced to overthrow the evil Baron Kaleev, and bring peace to the universe. There are some Star Wars references in this game, so all you Star Wars fans should be happy. The lovely intro will showing you exactly what happens.

The graphics are very eye-catching. Backgrounds (buildings and vehicles) are stunning to look at, but it doesn't always work so well with people, as you can't always make out features (eyes, mouth etc) on the face.

There is some background music, but no proper sound effects. The music is nice, it kind of suits the game, but it is nothing special.

The controls can be a pain. Universe is icon-based, but often the controls won't respond, so you have to repeat your actions. Sometimes you must click on EXACTLY the right place on the screen in order for things to work. From time to time you will find yourself getting stuck because the controls won't let you move anywhere, so I recommend saving often.

The puzzles are very tricky at times, and you have to use your imagination and a lot of patience. There are also 2 arcade sequences which seem to be stuck in there for no reason. In the first one, you have to dock your car in an alien space ship. To move the car, left-click your mouse and use the cursor keys. To operate the grabber, right-click your mouse. The 2nd one is very long and tricky. You have to chase some jetpackers, and ram them against the wall. Move your mouse left and right to steer your and click to fire.

All in all, the storyline is very gripping, the graphics are lovely and the music is catchy, but the control system is the main downfall and brings the game down. The arcade sequences are also a waste of time.

I give this game 3 out of 5.

When using the car for the first time, you must need the code 87764 to make it start.

Universe is a decent sci-fi adventure that features some interesting gadget-oriented puzzles, although the banal plot and bad writing sink the game to obscurity. Nevertheless, Core Design's second effort in the adventure genre is a better game in every respect than the awful Curse of Enchantia. The interface is also rather awkward, so only those with a lot of patience will go through this long journey through different sparsely-populated planets. It is no wonder why Core never tried their hands at writing another adventure game. Given how popular Tomb Raider has become, they have certainly found their true calling .

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

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