The Collection Chamber: SENTIENT: EXPLORE THE INFINITE

Explore the Infinite

You are sent to the Icarus Space Station to investigate the outbreak of radiation sickness. Upon arrival, it quickly becomes evident that radiation sickness is the least of your worries.

The captain has been murdered by a mysterious on-board assassin.

A power struggle has ensued to see who will take over and the ship is careering dangerously toward the sun.

Do you take the easy way out and save yourself, or take the more courageous route and save the entire ship?

Your decisions determine what happens next in this unique sci-fi role-playing adventure.
Unparalleled in-game Artificial Intelligence automatically randomizes sub-plots, so it's never the same game twice.
Unique communication feature allows you to interact with over sixty characters.
Characters react and express a variety of emotions based on your intercommunication and actions.
200 real-time rendered locations to explore.

~ from the back of the US box

In the 90s, artificial intelligence (AI) had a very different standing than it does now, especially in the gaming sphere. The promise of intelligent, self-aware characters interacting with players in dynamic ways was enticing. Psygnosis' Sentient: Explore the Infinite ran with that concept and filled an entire space station with sentient AI personalities that promised to interact with players on a deeper level. Or at least an approximation of that. It was a fascinating premise, even if it wasn't entirely executed well.

Set aboard the massive Icarus space station, the plot revolves around Garrit Sherova (you), as he arrives to investigate mysterious happenings related to radiation exposure. Once there, disaster strikes and you're thrust head-first into a conspiracy that could end with the ship flying directly into the sun. I guess they shouldn't have named the ship Icarus.

The first moments of the game set up the precarious premise well. Your arrival is greeted with an explosion that destroyed the docking bay. Debris is scattered everywhere, and you can see an engineer knocked out on the floor in front of you. If you give him a first-aid-kit, he will then assist you by manually unlocking the door to the main station. You will need to do this quickly (along with a bunch of other discoverable actions) in a strict time limit. Not only will you be sucked out into space if you're spend too long in this location, that door the engineer unlocks only stays open for a few seconds. I imagine first time players would have had to have repeated this section several times before getting it right.

Navigate the station with these numeral signs. Would still prefer a map, though (left).
Fast travel between areas with this transporter room (right).

Even so, no matter how you play this section, you will be transported to a surreal hedge maze. You will visit here often, but the significance of it becomes clear much later. It seems like a dream anyway, as you wake up in sick bay along with the engineer you rescued and before long, you'll be given free reign of the station.

All this time, you'll be controlling your character as if it were a first-person shooter, yet there is no combat to speak of. Here, the story is king, though Sentient admirably attempts to do something different than the linear narratives found in other games. There are no predefined goals or directions to follow, and any instructions that come your way are optional. Both you and the NPCs will carry on with your day regardless. It encourages exploration both locational and conversational, with very few recognisable puzzles to solve. At times, it almost feels like a choose-your-own-adventure story, except you can mess with everyone by throwing insults or compliments.

The freedom of choice is evident from the start. You can interact with any and all crew members that cross your path and explore the station's many decks with abandon. You will see the crew stroll throughout the hallways as they go about their daily operations, and sometimes you might have to manage your own duties as a medic too. This freedom, however, is a double edged sword. Sure, the world feels lived in and buzzing with purpose, but there is also a distinct lack of clear objectives. When you do get the odd task, you might get so lost that the NPC who gave it to you got tired of waiting and ended up doing it themselves, forever treating you like their you exasperated mother from here on. Make a mistake -intended or otherwise - and there's no going back. It's all too easy to lose track of what needs to be done or where to go next.

Conjugate sentences to ask anyone almost whatever you want. Special topics are uncovered as you play (left).
Your inventory is a little clunky to use, but the game doesn't wait for you to navigate it (right).

Navigating the station itself isn't the most intuitive. While movement is easy enough, how you interact with the world is a little more complex. There are separate keys required for talking, interacting and opening doors not to mention your inventory. All too often did I assume the same key would be needed for all three like the more modern context-sensitive action button. You need to press Enter to talk, Space to open doors, I for your inventory, and C to bring up a cursor that allows you to interact with or pick up objects in the game world.

None of these work as you might expect either. To talk is to string together sentences from a cascading menu as opposed to selecting topics from a dialogue tree. Your inventory is a menu that has you select an item from a list before selecting what you want to do with it. And do interact with the environment has you change control schemes completely. Tapping "C" on the keyboard will hold the camera in place and allow you to move a cursor over the screen with either the mouse or arrow keys. Hotspots are highlighted with a greed square, so you don't have to make sense of the low-res pixels in front of you. The only thing that's simple is opening a door - just tap Space.

While certainly convoluted and awkward, it's a control system that allows for a variety of complex actions and a great amount of freedom. By stringing together sentences, you can ask each NPC a bunch of questions, while the cursor-mode lets you connect to the location better than the corridors of a fast-paced FPS. My only issue is that it does take a long time to do anything, especially when you're just getting used to the game; a problem when the in-game clock never stops.

Use your cursor to look at or interact with the game world. Useable items are highlighted with a green square (left).
Some items can be read, such as your credentials - complete with embarrassing ID photo (right).

Graphically speaking, it was decent for its time but not revolutionary. By today's standards they grainy pixels and uncanny character models are alarmingly uncanny, but still strangely fit within the atmosphere of the game. You are supposed to feel like an outsider on this ship, and it accomplishes this through visuals alone. Unfortunately, perhaps due to the way dialogue is generated, there is no voice acting outside of cutscenes. Not always a big deal, but it does feel like something's missing here. Instead, character voices are displayed in comic-book style speech bubbles which can overlap if you witness an argument going on. It's quite a thing seeing two NPCs converse in the distance, reading what they're saying as if you're spying on them.

Despite its shortcomings, Sentient: Explore the Infinite is an intriguing example experimenting in game design. Its attempt to weave AI interactions into gameplay in such a direct and central way was ambitious, and though it didn't fully realize that vision, it became an unpolished portent of what was to come. The gameplay may be alienating for some, but those who spend the time to fully embrace its strange world will find a rewarding, if occasionally infuriating, experience.

To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses the DOSBox-X build of DOSBox to bring the game to modern systems. Manual included. MP3 Soundtrack included as a separate download. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

File Size: 306 Mb. Install Size: 550 Mb. Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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