Inca II: Introduction

Since Inca II is finally getting played over at TAG, it's time for us too, to see Inca II. After two Coktel Vision games that involved roughly the same style of gameplay that didn't sell, I have to wonder what changed for Coktel to presumably make a sequel. Was it just that having Sierra publish the game was enough for Inca to sell? I don't think Sierra was that much of a golden goose then to have helped that much.

Inca II is interesting, in that it seems to have had a bizarrely negative reaction in some places. Computer Gaming World has it as one of the 50 worst games of all time, which feels like proto-clickbait for two reasons, one, they wrote a single line of text, I would be kicking someone in the face for paragraphs of text to put in for something I hated enough to put on a worst of all time list. Second, The Dark Half was infamously hated enough that someone at the company making it was sending letters to them about it, that doesn't count for a worst list? Really?

The story is, Eldorado, the player character from the last game, became Grand Inca after finding the stuff he needed to find in the last game, and now rules of the Four Quarters of the Empire. Only the Old Lands, where Aguirre rules, is not under his control. His rule was great and peaceful, but recently a menacing asteroid has been orbiting the Earth, space communication has become hazardous and natural disasters have struck the Suyus. He called a council to decide what to do about all this.

Eldorado's son, Atahualpa is just old enough to be on this council, but decides that his father's "thoughtful" approach is unwise and decides to do things "hotheadedly". Will he vanquish Aguirre again? Then we get story characters and various important bits of information. It's seemingly the same as Inca I, but with various minor changes. I see a battlefield map option for some reason.

There's a demo mode and a play mode. Knowing AGE, I play the demo mode first. We get some generic Adlib music in comparison to the epic Incan stuff from last time, and some very obviously pre-generated video, and something about how Kelt is plotting against Eldorado.

The generic music was just in the demo, once it ends we get some Incan stuff. Anyway, Machu Picchu. We get some scenic building and then we get some dialog with a guardian who tells me I have to take one of two tasks, mental or physical. Atahualpa sounds awful, by the way, his image is that of a serious adult, but his voice is that of an annoying teenager. Now, this is an important choice, because this changes how the endgame goes, according to the manual. I really want the mental choice, but eh, I guess since Ilmari is going to completely fail at the action sections again, it's up to me to do the fighting.

It's not great in motion, but at least you're not constantly staring at the dude's open mouth.

The guardian explains how this action section goes; It's an assault course in which I have to destroy statues in order, not missing one, while getting used to the game's controls. At least this is how it seems.

In practice, this is actually the perfect introduction, it's fairly simple, but does expose the problems of the game right away. You get five weapons, really four with one dedicated to boarding ships. The weapon I'm likely to use all game is the standard laser which has a fancy name. It starts off firing quite fast until it goes down to 80 and starts slowing exponentially until it's in the 20s and shooting at about 1 shot every three seconds and draining about 9 a shot. Stopping recharges it.

It's basically the same as last time, annoying movement where you constantly go at a constant speed. I don't remember if the mouse aiming was like this last time, but it's nice for now. My cursor doesn't actually show where I'm shooting, but we'll worry about that later.

It takes many statues, some seemingly shot out of order, before I eventually win. "You are worthy of your father, Atahualpa, you are now the crown prince." What. This takes us to a cutscene, in which Atahualpa tells his father the good news. By name, which seems hilarious considering how nebbish Atahualpa is. Atahualpa is now on the council because why not?

The council, they show a video from a probe they sent to the asteroid, which just shows a nice 3D animation, for 1993 anyway, and then Eldorado jumps to the conclusion that the asteroid caused the communication issues. I mean, obviously it did, but that video showed nothing.

Kelt, WWI ace and one member of the council who was sent into the Old Lands, or Ancient as he says, informs us that Aguirre is up to his old tricks again and is plotting to destroy and enslave the new empire. Atahualpa then proceeds to act like an ass to Kelt, at which point Eldorado tells him off and has him leave.

Then we get Dona Angelina, wise woman of the south, who then encourages Atahualpa's act of defiance by saying she doesn't trust Kelt. He should do something, after all, he can access the super ship Tumi and use it to fight Aguirre's forces. I note that the manual informs us that Angelina is half-caucasian and a bit of a femme fatale. Yeah, I'm sure she isn't a secret agent for Aguirre.

A narrator tells me that the Tumi's guard has to be neutralized before I can grab it. Adventure section. And let me tell you, this is first-person and you can scroll the screen. A long way. So much so that it's truly awful. It would have been better having multiple screens or something.

If Atahualpa was intended to look as serious and mature as he actually does, I have to wonder why they picked these scenes.

Continuing to be really goofy, I can throw a stone at the guard, really the wall, and he says I'm not that young anymore. I can also hide behind a fence or some vegetation, which just comes off as hilarious even if I suspect it fits into the solution.

The actual solution, which I spot fairly quickly, even if it feels lame, is to pick up some coca leaves, then pick up the post and rope they were attached to. Put the post on top of a gate, then use a stone on the guard, and quickly rush over to the fence. This causes the guard to investigate and you hit him on the head with the post.

I quit at this point, and on a different day started the game up again. I had taken a screenshot of the passwords, assuming, as was the case with past Coktel Vision games of this era, that I would need to input the passwords. Not so, instead they're just pre-made saves. Weird.

Atahualpa went straight to the Old Lands, where Aguirre's forces immediately spot him, we get a cutscene of his interceptors taking off. The 3D graphics have improved remarkably over Inca I's, helped by everything that could put it off not using 3D graphics. On the other hand, people are a series of still shots, which is creepy when they make characters talk this way.

Space combat is weird with proper opponents. I can't really aim, I can't really dodge except by spinning around like an idiot, so I'm just sort of there, shooting at things. Somehow this strategy works, I hit enemies, even far away. Enemies flee, it seems, because after killing two the third runs away. Bringing up another cutscene.

Aclla, Eldorado's wife and Atahualpa's mother, is criticizing Eldorado for putting Atahualpa on the council when he's barely an adult, then humiliating him in front of the rest of the council. Then Eldorado says that Atahualpa is forcing him to act without knowing where they are headed. You know, I'm not used to this, that is, characters despite having differing viewpoints coming into conflict in a reasonable way that doesn't make someone look like an idiot. Especially Coktel Vision, since I don't associate them with character drama.

Another space shooting section, this time I have to take out a space station. It's fairly simple, even if my auto targeting system seems to get permanently locked on the space station. It's...fine? I don't seem to be having any trouble with things at all.

We get another cutscene, Eldorado has taken control of the Tumi and brings him to some satellite thing, where he chews out Atahualpa. Kelt is also there. Eldorado thinks the whole thing was a trap for Aguirre to declare war on the Incan Empire. They attack the station, so Eldorado goes out in the Tumi and Kelt takes his own ship out. Eldorado tells Atahualpa to not touch anything, yeah, like he's going to do that. I'll end here so I don't finish the whole game before Ilmari even starts.

First impressions, this game is nowhere near bad enough to be on the worst 50 games of all time, or the decade or year. So far it's better except in terms of the weird Incan mysticism than the original. This is just a space opera game with an Incan theme. The worst things I can say so far is space combat is boring and the main character is an idiot, but at the same time, he's not entirely wrong in his assumptions and his idiocy is called out. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.

This Session: 1 hour