Plan B From Outer Space A Bavarian Odyssey Preview: Shapely
The first thing I think of when I hear ‘Plan B’ is the classic sci-fi film, so it’s reasonable to believe that Plan B From Outer Space A Bavarian Odyssey is somewhat influenced/inspired by Ed Wood’s flick. It’s a good starting point, but perhaps something more important: it’s by Robot Pumpkin Games.
Who’s that? How dare you! They’re behind one of the best adaptations of Lovecraft thus far: The Innsmouth Case. A late adopter to visual novels and subjected to text adventures during the days of the BBC Micro, it was surprising just how much I enjoyed this game, which is an evolution of said genres.
Plan B From Outer Space A Bavarian Odyssey is much the same. You have a large text window with the narrative and a smaller window above for character animations and scene locations. Besides being descriptive, the main window is your place for interacting, choosing the very many options to unlock a new path. If you’re familiar with the Steve Jackson books, it’s like that, but with all due respect, so much better as you can’t tuck your fingers in-between pages to cheat. Oh, that was just me.
At the beginning of your adventure, you get to shape your destiny by confirming your last mission. The shape is significant here, as is the mission, as you play a shape-shifting extraterrestrial. Regardless of the mission, you select and subsequent profession, you end up crashlanding in Bavaria.
Before this accident, you’d had the opportunity to customise your alien appearance-wise, but upon loading the demo up after an interruption, my avatar had changed entirely. It’s a demo, so just crocodile tears. What was a pain in the arse, was the ASS jokes. Your ship is called Automated Ship System, and those ASS jokes came thick and fast. As a fan of toilet humour, even the schoolboy in me (Woah..) was rolling their eyes.
What was a pain in the arse, was the ASS jokes
So, crash landing on the planet, you set out to investigate and encounter a dog. This is the time to impersonate a Jeffling dog (the name of the citizens of this planet as I named it Jeff), then follow one of the true Jefflings/hoomans – one of the Bavarians of Plan B From Outer Space A Bavarian Odyssey and seek out the beast Berta.
Like The Innsmouth Case, the presentation is very nice and makes good use of the screen. I liked the font choice and sizing, but it would have been easier for the eyes to have double spacing as the text is a bit bunched up, depending on the size of the screen you play it on.
Of the 25 chapters in the game, the Plan B From Outer Space A Bavarian Odyssey has three available chapters, but like its predecessor, there are plenty of endings, allowing you to experiment with paths you might not typically take.
There’s no longer a launch discount for the game, but to be honest, it’s well worth the pennies. Plan B From Outer Space A Bavarian Odyssey is a game for me, and as I missed out on a review copy, it’ll go on the wishlist for when I have time. That is, a leisurely pace instead of the furious deadlines I aim to keep when provided with a key!
Check it out and see if you are indeed an ASS lover yourself.
