''Ubik'' is a 1998 video game by

Cryo Interactive Cryo Interactive Entertainment was a French video game developer, video game development and video game publisher, publishing company founded in 1990, but existing unofficially since 1989 as a developer group under the name Cryo. The company gai ...

, based on the novel ''

Ubik ''Ubik'' ( ) is a 1969 in literature, 1969 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. The story is set in a future 1992 where psychic powers are utilized in corporate espionage, while Cryonics, cryonic technology allows recently d ...

'' by Philip K. Dick.

Plot

In the year 2019, Joe Chip is working for Runciter Associates in Los Angeles, where he is tasked with preventing enemy companies from spying on his clients.

Gameplay

The player has to lead, train and equip a team of five combatants (including Joe Chip) and complete missions in 3D-rendered maps. Though the backgrounds are prerendered, players can choose from a limited number of different camera angles for each scene. Shooting is a key aspect of the gameplay. The missions include killing all enemies, rescuing hostages and stealing corporate secrets.

Production

The developers thought long and hard about how to translate Dick's work into a video game. Fans of the time associated him with the world of the ''

Blade Runner ''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Di ...

'' movie, so the team felt compelled to stick to this. However, they wanted to avoid a wholly science fiction route and instead stay somewhat true to the book. They thought that Dick's 1960s description of the future was more in the tone of

Starsky & Hutch ''Starsky & Hutch'' is an American action television series, which consisted of a 72-minute pilot movie (originally aired as a '' Movie of the Week'' entry) and 92 episodes of 50 minutes each. The show was created by William Blinn (inspired ...

, whereas they wanted to update this with a ''Blade Runner'' or '' Total Recall'' dark cynicism. The PlayStation conversion was difficult due to the hardware not supporting z-buffering.

Critical reception

John Saavedra of ''Den Of Geek'' thought the convoluted plot wasn't suitable for a strategy game. Brutoom of ''Hardcore Gaming 101'' thought that the game merged different genres together, and pushed creative boundaries.

References

External links

*{{moby game, id=/ubik, name=Ubik 1998 video games Video games based on works by Philip K. Dick Cryo Interactive games PlayStation (console) games Single-player video games Strategy video games Video games developed in France Video games set in 2019 Video games set in Los Angeles Video games set in the future Video games with pre-rendered 3D graphics Windows games Video games based on novels