ZERO ZONE

You will rule supreme in this adventure

In the year 2098 in Megatown, a sprawling city populated by Bios and Cybers. The Bios use the Cybers as slaves; the males work in factories and the females serve.

Your father has just been killed and you have inherited his fortune as well as his company. It is within this harsh and heart-pushing context, amid a  world of sumptuous settings, that the story unfolds.

Your mission is to help Agent Ridley find out who killed your father and why. You'll journey through outer space in search of the computer chip that will allow the sensual union between the Bios and the Cybers.

• Fall under the spell of superb creatures with demonic charms.
• Plunge into an astonishingly beautiful world visible in 360° with OMNI 3D™ technology.
• You will discover a multitude of characters, one more intriguing than the other; both friends and enemies, both despicable and seductive.
• Learn to use the Internet of the 22nd century to find precious clues.

~ from the back of the box

 

Back in the late ’90s, French studio Cryo Interactive was known for its big ambitions and uncanny failure rate in achieving them. They would often stir things into their point-and-click adventures that nobody really asked for. More often than not, this ethos lead to some fascinating games that just didn't play well, making them a frustrating company you really wanted to root for. Released in 1998, ZeroZone stands out as one of Cryo’s stronger efforts, a stylish and atmospheric cyberpunk adventure that, while certainly not perfect, delivers a pretty enjoyable experience for fans of the genre.

Set in the sprawling megacity of Megatown in the year 2098, the game pulls you into a world where humans (bios) and humanoid machines (cybers) coexist - though cybers are denied rights and treated like little more than slaves. You step into the shoes of Stan Gonzo, a young man whose life flips upside down when the father he never knew dies under suspicious circumstances. Suddenly, Stan finds himself not just the heir to Kanary, the city’s biggest cyber-tech corporation, but also tangled in a dangerous murder mystery that could upend the city's entire social order. It’s a classic cyberpunk setup, full of intrigue, danger, and the allure of rebellion, but it's one that's told on the edges of the game itself; from lengthy in-game emails and dry paragraphs displayed in an entire encyclopaedia embedded into a separate program. 

Your inventory. Drag over to the eye to get a description. Feed or dress Stan by dragging over to him (left).

Your pocket computer is how you interact and speak to the droids, although in emoji form (right).

Gameplay-wise, ZeroZone follows the familiar first-person point-and-click formula, with interconnected movement between beautifully rendered static screens and a handy 360-degree camera view. The large, animated mouse cursor changes shape depending on the action, whether it be a pointing fingers to move or a gripping hands to pick things up. Your inventory is accessed with a right-click or tap of the Ctrl key and it not only holds an incredible amount of space to carry just about anything and everything, it also gives access to an in-game pocket computer that feels surprisingly modern for the time. This tool has its own pre-scripted approximation of artificial intelligence and can speak to you in emoji-like pictograms. In fact, all of the robotic droids and computers converse like this. So, a drinks vending machine it will show the following; machine, man drinking, equals sign, the number one, coins. This means that the vending machine charges 1 coin for a drink. A bartender droid spews a hand point left, a brain, a thumbs up, a lower-case I and the female symbol which your pocket computer translates to "me, know, good, information, female". Leave it to Cryo to not conjugate a simple sentence.

In another instance of Cryo being Cryo, they couldn’t resist tossing in some occasional (and slightly clunky) shooter segments. At certain moments, you need to fend off hostile robots to move forward and you'll no doubt lose some of your health when you do so. Found in your inventory, this life bar also represents hunger and thirst. That's right, there's survival mechanics! You have to keep Stan fed, hydrated, and in overall good health by feeding him pizzas, cups of coffee and cake. It's a totally unnecessary addition, but it's implemented in a way that never drags the experience down entirely.

Access the GalaxyNet via these terminals. They're in almost every location (left).

Its contents will contain a lot of needed information, clues and back story to make sense of the game (right).

The puzzles, while occasionally clever, don’t quite reach the elegance or ingenuity of something like Myst. They’re often inventory-based, requiring you to make logical leaps that only make sense after the fact. Some are obvious, like feeding a hungry robot dog who says he's hungry or holding a keycard over a panel next to a locked door. Others are a little obtuse. Your late father's mechanical helper won't help unless you show you care, first by accepting a drink from him, then showing a photo of a woman named Ruth (your father's lover) found in the apartment, then taking a picture of the bot by using the in-game screenshot feature. Accessed via your portable computer, turning it on will reveal an icon on the top right of the screen. Clicking on it will then let you save a screenshot anywhere on your hard drive (or emulated one as I'm using DOSBox). In this instance - and as far as I can tell, only this instance - it will also be added to your in-game inventory to flatter the droid by showing it to him. And now he'll tell you some much-needed information in emoji form.

Other puzzle allude to code-breaking. One oft-repeated attempt presents you with a 5x5 grid of numbers with the last one left black. I suspect the game wants you to follower the pattern to solve it, but I couldn't figure it out (and an online help is non-existent). I solved all of them through sheer brute force. There's no down side to failure, and even if the numbers shown change after every attempt, it only cycles through three different patterns. Trial and error it is. The other way to progress the story is through NPC dialogue. Conversations are one-sided and end up as little more than exposition dumps and can sometimes feel dry or mechanical, lacking the emotional pull that could have elevated the already decent story even further.

Travel to each location via the transportation pods (left).

Clunkily fight off attack droids with you gun. Just don't take too many hits (right).

Where ZeroZone really shines, though, is in its visuals. Its richly detailed cyberpunk environments ooze atmosphere, and the attention to small details in the world design is impressive. Sure, the 3D character models and their robotic lip movements might break the immersion here and there, and some of the designs are a little out there, but Cryo was never lacking in this department. Running at a 640x480 resolution, it is a little pixelated particularly in the 360-degree environments which make up most of the game. It's all the more egregious when the aforementioned encyclopaedia called GalaxyNet - which runs in a separate program - displays at 800x600. Browsing these pages really highlights how low-res the base game is. It's not like similar games of this era weren't running this high, though it was by no means the norm quite just yet, but I suspect the real reason why they they look so bad is because they crammed a large number of them on a single disc. For the amount of locations, full-motion video and voice acting found in the game, that's quite a feat.

In the end, ZeroZone stands as one of Cryo Interactive’s better adventures. It's a stylish and sometimes frustrating game that never quite reaches the heights of the genre’s masterpieces but still offers plenty for cyberpunk fans and adventure lovers to enjoy. It may not have the puzzle brilliance of Myst and its sequels, the narrative depth of Blade Runner or the polish of Morpheus - each coming from around the same time - but it’s an intriguing ride from the notoriously spotty developer that’s worth venturing into.

To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses the DOSBox-X build of DOSBox 0.74 running Windows '95. Manual included. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

IMPORTANT - Remember to shut down the emulated version of Windows before exiting DOSBox. This could potentially result in errors, lost saves and corrupt data. The program will automatically shut down when you exit the game.

File Size: 437 Mb.  Install Size: 769 Mb.  Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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ZeroZone is © Cryo Interactive

Review, Cover Design and Installer created by me

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