''Symbiocom'' (also known as ''Syn-Factor'') is a

first person First person or first-person may refer to: * First person (ethnic), indigenous peoples, usually used in the plural * First person, a grammatical person * First person, a gender-neutral, marital-neutral term for titles such as first lady and first ...

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...

developed by

Istvan Pely Istvan Pely (born in 1974), is a Hungarian-American computer artist and game developer. He works at Bethesda Game Studios, specializing in art direction and 3D graphics. His interest in video games began when his father brought home an Apple ...

in 1998. It is a pseudo-sequel to '' Majestic Part I: Alien Encounter'' (1995) and the predecessor to ''

Zero Critical ''Zero Critical'' (also known as ''Satin Rift'') is an adventure science fiction PC game developed independently by Istvan Pely and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is a 2D third-person game with an emphasis on story and characters. The game ...

'' (1999).

Plot

The player is a new service technician aboard ''I.S.T. Rident'', a class B space-faring passenger liner in the ''Delta quadrant''. Implanted into the player's brain is a "symplant" (or simply, a "sym"), a

symbiotic Symbiosis (from Greek , , "living together", from , , "together", and , bíōsis, "living") is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasit ...

artificial intelligence designed by ''SYNSYM Corporation'' to act as a companion as well as a tool to help people in scientific and technical disciplines work more efficiently. The Rident was experiencing a problem with its artificial gravity generators, and as a maintenance engineer, the player was assigned to fix the ship's

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gravity arrays. As a safety measure, Captain Roland Tailor and co-pilot Yuri Ruport decided to keep the ship's worm-drive off-line while the gravity generator is being worked on. Disabling the worm-drive significantly reduced the speed of the vessel. At this point the Rident was attacked by two war ships. The Rident shakes violently, knocking the passengers off balance, and alarms all around the ship start going off. The captain orders an

SOS is a Morse code distress signal (), used internationally, that was originally established for maritime use. In formal notation is written with an overscore line, to indicate that the Morse code equivalents for the individual letters of "SOS" ...

distress signal to be sent and hollers to prepare the lifeboats. The player falls unconscious while busy fixing the ship's gravitomagnetism. The game begins with the player being woken by alerts from the implanted sym. I.S.T. Rident is left adrift in the depths of space and the player is alone aboard a deserted spacecraft. The player's objectives are to escape from the crippled transport and to find out who destroyed the ship and what happened to the 163 crew members and passengers aboard.

Development

The game was developed by Istvan Pely and his team, Sherban Young (screenplay writer) and Seth Jones (musician and sound editor). Symbiocom was intended as a pseudo-sequel to Majestic Part I: Alien Encounter as it takes place in the same universe. Whilst the storyline and characters of Symbiocom do not continue over in the subsequent game ''Zero-Critical'' (1999), there are few references to its events. In an interview in 1998, Istvan Pely stated that Symbiocom was implemented very close to its original concept. He added that:

Gameplay and reception

The protagonist of this game is both nameless and faceless, a feature that was praised by certain critics. The game is divided into five chapters, each taking place in a completely different environment. Each location is displayed with 3D pre-rendered graphics and a 360° view. Movement is restricted to sudden jumps between still screens and "move along a rail" videos from location to location. The locales are generally unpopulated. There are very few character interactions throughout the game. Most of the player's interactions take place with

drones Drone most commonly refers to: * Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg * Unmanned aerial vehicle * Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft * Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to: ...

and

entertainment robot An entertainment robot is, as the name indicates, a robot that is not made for utilitarian use, as in production or domestic services, but for the sole subjective pleasure of the human. It serves, usually the owner or his housemates, guests or cl ...

s. The player's sym talks to the player in text only. The puzzles are inventory and logic types. In his review, Gordon Aplin (1998), states that the puzzles "are not too difficult for experienced adventurers and are logically consistent within the game world." It is possible to die in this game, however the player will be automatically restored to a point before they made their fatal error. The game has been compared to the film Soylent Green.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * {{cite web , last1=Aplin , first1=Gordon , title=Syn-Factor / Symbiocom , url=http://www.metzomagic.com/showArticle.php?index=256 , website=Metz O'Magic , access-date=16 April 2021 1998 video games Adventure games Bethesda Softworks games First-person adventure games Classic Mac OS games Point-and-click adventure games Science fiction video games Video games developed in the United States Windows games