Web Fed Award-winning Planets

Reviewed on August 20, 2000

When entering the link to this system visitors to Thera are met with an almost inaudible signal on their comm units. They may even press their ears to the speaker to try to understand the weak, garbled message. Most of them will give up and circle the planet until they find the small land mass suitable for settling their spacecraft, and gently guide their vehicle to the open bay reserved for tourists on this abandoned and overgrown planet.

Most of them don't have canine auditory faculties.

That's right, the automated signal coming the planet was weak, but with my sharp sense of hearing I had no problem understanding the message. And it was this –

"Bump into the walls here, it's really cool!"

I landed, stumbled out of my ship, and started doing just that. While smashing my snout in every non-movement direction I could, I did manage to notice that the landing bay needed a lot of sprucing up – it looked like this place was a million years old and had been abandoned for half that long. Stone walls had crumbled to rubble; roads had been neglected and were now nothing more than weed-choked paths. Dusty crates in the warehouses threatened to topple and crush anyone unfortunate enough to inspect them too closely. Although there didn't seem to be much life here now, the landing pad must have been a bustling place at one time with plenty of interesting buildings and roads nearby.

Trotting down the southern road I admired the statuary lining the avenue. I stopped at each at every one (I was just reading the plaques, really!) and found these were erected by the missing inhabitants to honor the local Gods of the Sea – Triton, Alpheus, and Doris. A rather impressive statue of Poseidon towered over the entrance to a large wooden pier extending out over the ocean.

That pier hadn't been used in a long time. It too was old, decayed and rotting, and with each step the boards threatened to give way under my paws and toss me into the depths of the Aegean Sea...

Taking wrong turns on Thera really is entertaining, with some delightful events giving fresh alternatives to the 'You can't go that way' message. A really worthwhile visit does involve solving a major puzzle landside, and then within the planet's hidden world the explorer is presented with an absorbing theme, a second puzzle, and some first class planet writing. Before I slap on my muzzle to keep from revealing any important clues, let me just add that Thera has won the Coveted Walrus of Merit Award. Well done, Triton!