THE WHEELS MUST TURN
by Heal Butcher

Review: David Whyld (1)

Strange, unsettling, but pretty amazing I'm not sure how to start to review a game like this. Is it even a game - the storyline seems to move along whether you do anything or not and at times it seems more like you're reading a book than playing an interactive fiction game.

That said, the writing was superb and the depth and substance truly amazing. I was halfway through before realising that you play the part of a hamster running around in a wheel (don't blame me - it's a weird idea!)

Heal can certainly write with true power and if he applied his talents to a full size game it'd really be something to brag about. (That's a subtle hint by the way in case anyone missed it.)

I'd recommend the game though I really can't say it would appeal to everyone.

8 out of 10

Review: David Whyld (2)

Welcome to the bizarre world of Heal Butcher. The Wheels Must Turn isn't the strangest text adventure I've ever played (that award would go to Heal's other game Silk Noil) but it's still a strange and unusual game to say the least; and also quite brilliant. Just what it's all about is perhaps destined to remain one of life's little mysteries. Quite clearly you pay the part of a hamster and you (seem) to be trying to escape from your monotonous lifestyle of forever running around in a hamster wheel in a cage. But nothing is as it seems in The Wheels Must Turn and logic often takes a serious back seat to the style of the game, which, it has to be said, is pretty damn amazing.

The standard of writing used here is very much larger than life: locations are excruciatingly detailed, often with sentences that run on and on; dialogue is strange and evocative yet always enthralling to read; there is a definite feeling that the writer went for a bizarre feel and succeeded admirably, although at times the writing seems too over the top and you find yourself - as with MileOut's Panic - yearning for something a little more straightforward to read.

The Wheels Must Turn is a strange game to play as well as to read. The game seems to move on pretty much on its own and whether you take an active part or not, you find yourself being swept along all the same. There is lots to see and do in the locations - no doubt to give the game a rounded feel - but you can simply sit and do nothing for most of the time and the game will progress anyway. This makes The Wheels Must Turn a very easy game to complete; indeed the entire thing can be done in less than ten or fifteen minutes. However, to get the most out of the game it's advisable to examine as many things as you can and ask questions of the characters you meet. None of these are really required to finish the game, but they add considerably to the depth and turn a very strange adventure into an enthralling one.

If the above gives the impression that this is, at heart, a rather silly game, the truth couldn't be much further away. The Wheels Must Turn may well be set in a hamster cage and you may well play the part of a hamster - Number 23 being your name - but this is a darker piece of work than the subject matter might at first indicate. Once you escape from your cage and the warehouse it is housed in and reach the rubble, you seem to have almost stepped into another game entirely. Visions of an apocalyptic future spring to mind, complete with the bizarrely named Devil of Operose who searches through the rubble (for what is never really specified). Then again, little in The Wheels Must Turnfollows the usual rules of adventure games; indeed at times it seems more like you're reading a book with occasional choices to make than playing a proper adventure game. As said above, the game tends to progress whether you take an active part in it or not. For the most part, you can just sit by and watch what happens without having to do anything for yourself.

This isn't a game that will appeal to everyone. In fact, I can well imagine that the sheer strangeness of The Wheels Must Turn will put most people off playing it. If so they're missing out on a treat. This is a game that should be cherished because it's original, thoughtful and a million miles away from what you normally get with text adventures. The only real fault I could find with it is its shortness: ten minutes after you start playing you've finished, and though the game has tremendous replay value there's only so much you can do in a game of this size before you've exhausted all available options. The same kind of attention to detail and inherent weirdness applied to a full scale adventure would really be something to watch out for.

Logic: 4 out of 10
Even after completing the game, I'm still pretty much at a loss to understand what it was all about.

Problems: 10 out of 10 (10 = no problems)
No problems although a nice explanation at the end would have been much welcomed.

Story: 7 out of 10
It's hard to say just what this game is about and so difficult to rate it on a story basis. That said, the writing is illustrative enough to paint a dark picture of the world the game is set in and from this you can gather a feel for The Wheels Must Turn which pretty much makes a storyline academic.

Characters: 9 out of 10
A strange fellow called Master Awning (some kind of hamster himself?) and the aforementioned Devil of Operose. Each is nicely detailed and add considerably to the dark atmosphere of the game.

Writing: 10 out of 10
At times enthralling, at times bizarre, always a joy to read.

Game: 8 out of 10
The second strangest game I've ever played but also one of the best.

Overall: 48 out of 60

Review: Hombre

Having played both this and Silk Noil, I can say that Heal is very skilled at description. However, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing and after a while you just want to quit reading all the unnecessary pages of text.

Unfortunately, the poetic dialogue is the only thing these games have going for them, and that just isn't enough to carry the game. I give this one trick pony a thumbs down.