Getting the thing to work was a pain to begin with. The game installed to my Program Files directory but I decided I’d sooner have it in My Documents because that’s where most of my programs are. Bad mistake. The way the game is set up, it won’t work if it’s anywhere but the Program Files. So I had to copy it all back. Sigh.

Did it work then? Kind of. I wasn’t sure which of the 152 objects in the game file I was supposed to click on to actually start the game, so I tried “Space Horror I” and completely missed the introduction. Several clicks later and I found the right one.

On with the game…

Aliens have landed! Yep, it’s one of those games which pits you, the hapless average guy, against a ravening horde of space aliens hell bent on conquering the world.

I liked Space Horror for the most part. The storyline was kind of uninspired, not to mention unrealistic as hell, but I still enjoyed reading it and following my character through to the many various endings. I wasn’t too keen on the way it was set up, though. Clicking the links at the end of the page seemed more troublesome than, say, typing a number or a letter would have been. Then there were the annoying errors when the screen kept flickering from time to time – pretty distracting when you're trying to read something on it. A time or two, I even clicked on a link, the screen refreshed a few times, and then I found myself back at the start of the game again. I'm sure I hadn’t died, and hadn’t accidentally clicked the wrong link, so clearly there are a few bugs in this that need ironing out. The delay between clicking on some of the links and being taken to relevant section was annoying as well. The game was tested with IE6 but I use Firefox so maybe that’s where the problem lies.

Space Horror isn’t a large game. It’s split into just 124 sections, of which at least half don’t have any kind of option at the end of them, just a link to click to take you to another section. It’s easily playable in two hours, though, and maybe that was the intention.

Despite enjoying the game, I quit before the two hours were up. Why? Too many bugs, too much tedious waiting to be sent to the correct section, too much screen flickering. I’d like to see everything this game has to offer, but only if it’s in the form of a game written with a proper IF authoring system.

6 out of 10 for the game itself (about 2 out of 10 for the errors)