Reviewed: August 10, 2008
Reviewed by: Jason Flick

Publisher
Viva Media

Developer
Brain Game

Released: June 30, 2008
Genre: Adventure
Players: 1

9
8
8
9
8.5

System Requirements:

To understand this title you must understand the man whose name resides in the title. Perry Rhodan is a man that became immortal (along with his friends) during one of his adventures. In 1971, he and his crew come a cross an alien spacecraft and use that technology to unify Earth (called Terra) and put humans in deep space.

The story immediately kicks off with the residency/ government building where Rhodan lives falling under attack from alien robots that have some how managed to break through Terra’s (Earth’s) shields. The player is then treated to an awesome display of Mondra Diamond kicking robot butt on the roof of building, before eventually getting kidnapped.

You, the player, get to step into the boots of the famous Perry Rhodan as you embark on an intergalactic quest for the truth behind the kidnapping of his love Mondra Diamond and more importantly find the mastermind that wishes to end life as they know it.

The Immortals of Terra is a third person perspective point and click adventure so if you’ve played an adventure in the last century you’ll catch on quickly. Immortals of Terra feature a very space age look and feel so going old school with the user interface is a perfect fit. There is a scan feature that allows players to locate all of the interactive or educational areas that you should be aware of. Simply pressing the “S” key will initial an uninterruptible scan of the screen.

Character movement is done by simply clicking left clicking anywhere on the screen. By double clicking you will make Perry run to the desired location. The Immortals of Terra also features a pop-up window that shows you the location of a previously explored location. However if the screen in the window is blank then it’s usually a location you have to go to.

Perry the Terran Leader that he is rushes to figure out what is happening outside. Only he is stone walled by his guards and forced to remain in the residency until other wise directed by a long time friend named Bully. Thus starts Perry’s mission to figure out what happened on his own, after ditching his guards first.

An adventure title is not complete without some level of puzzle integration and Immortals of Terra doesn’t disappoint. The difficulty is hard enough to keep adventure gamers happy without being overbearing to those that are less than inclined to puzzle solving. One of the things that I quickly found out that in order to fix a seemingly simple problem you end up having to solving several other unrelated puzzles along the way.

The developers at 3d-io obviously spent a lot of time trying to pack as much background information about the Perryverse in this title as possible. This acts as a great way to give the player a better understanding of how things have developed over the years. It also acts as a way to expose us North American gamers to a series that has its roots in the German community.

They actually make reference to the Perry novellas throughout this adventure; including Perry mentioned that the events that are featured in the novellas are not as he remembered them. This I believe is a gesture to the fans of the books upon which this space opera of an adventure title is based.

The one thing that I really like about The Immortals of Terra is all the locations that you visit. While each location looks amazing, my ultimate favorite is Thora’s Museum. The museum features huge towers, stained glass windows and the biggest robot I’ve ever seen outside of a mech title is absolutely stunning. The developers put a lot of detail into this title and it shows with flying colors.

One funny bit of information is that one of the characters, Kato Da Trumort, has the alias Lucius Malfoy, which Harry Potter fans will recognize immediately as the name of another nefarious light haired man. So while most of us North Americans will most likely not read any of the novellas, they have name that they will recognize.

The Immortals of Terra is graphically amazing for an adventure title. While I wouldn’t rate the graphics a perfect ten, this is one of the best looking adventure titles that I have seen this year. The attention to environmental detail is obviously there, especially in Thora’s Museum, and the character models are also quite impressive.

There are also various cut screens that play throughout your adventure that are really cool, especially the opening video that depicts two pods crashing into a planet. They are then opened by their passengers to reveal a white haired man and woman.

The sound score of The Immortals of Terra is truly amazing. Since the Perry Rhodan series is often regarded as space operas, it only seems fitting to give this title an orchestral score. Each scene seems to have its own tone that gives The Immortals of Terra a cinematic feel sometimes.

The Immortals of Terra also features a fairly impressing professional sounding bunch of voice actors. I personally can’t tell you how many titles that had a great presentation but the voice acting was down in the gutters. Luckily this title presents the same level of audio presence as it does graphically.

The Immortals of Terra: A Perry Rhodan Adventure is fully of intrigue, mystery and a bit of romance that would do any space opera proud. It took me about 8 hours or so to complete this title so value wise it’s not to shabby. The Immortals of Terra also features the ability to save at any time, however with limited save slots. The Immortals of Terra: A Perry Rhodan Adventure comes on a DVD-ROM (which must be in the drive to play) and retails for around $30 dollars at most retailers.

At the end of my adventure, I found The Immortals of Terra to be a highly enjoyably title. While I may not have had a real connection to the main character, I came off with a better understanding of why the Perryverse has lasted this long. The story was intriguing as well as the characters and the locals I recommend this title to any gamer looking for a title that get its roots from an until now, little known source. IT may just have you looking for the English translations of the Perry series.