Back in 1983, Severn Software created and released a game called Encounter for the Oric Atmos. In those days, it was a purely text-based adventure, and it has since faded somewhat into the retro gaming world along with the relatively obscure platform it was created for. Now, a staggering 42 years later, Mickaël Pointier has brought Encounter a new lease of life.

Let me make one thing absolutely clear before we get into this: No, I am not a retro gaming expert. I was born in 1991, and my first console was an Atari ST. I’d never heard of an Oric before being introduced to Encounter and subsequently researching it, so if anything in this article is off base or wrong, I take full responsibility for that and will make changes accordingly. 

With that little disclaimer out of the way, let’s take a look at this glorious little remake of a classic adventure. 

A new, old adventure

I’m a huge fan of point-and-click games, as you probably know, and as such, my mind makes connections and references to them whenever I play a game that even remotely resembles one. Encounter feels like a point-and-click with no pointing and no clicking. Instead, everything you do everything through typing instructions into a text box.

You navigate the large and admittedly confusing map using either the arrow keys or typing ‘north’, ‘east’, ‘south’, or ‘west’. If you want to pick something up and put it in your inventory, you type ‘take’, and so on. It’s all pretty self-explanatory, but it does get alarmingly confusing when you’re lost on the map and have no idea where you’ve been, let alone where you need to go. 

Still, it is fun to explore all of the locations and try out the different commands on items you find, although the ‘right’ way to do things is not as straightforward as you might think. I wandered around aimlessly for a long time before giving up and following a handy guide, but the wandering itself was fun, in a weird way.

Adding some imagery

If you played Encounter at the time of its initial release, or have seen pictures in the time since (including those I’ve included here), it’s staggeringly clear what the focus of this remake is: The images. Back in 1983, Encounter was a game made up of text alone on a bright yellow background, and things are looking very different these days. 

Each separate location within Encounter now has a dedicated pixel image to illustrate exactly what’s being described in the text. What’s more, inputting certain commands will bring up close-ups of certain items, and each image is filled with details that jump out from the screen.

I have to admit, I generally struggle with text-based games. I struggle to visualize what’s being described, and had I played the original Encounter, I likely wouldn’t have gotten very far. However, these added visuals keep my attention in a much more sustainable way, and I’m driven to keep exploring just to see what additional images I can find. 

How will you proceed?

In Encounter, you are a detective tasked with finding and freeing a kidnapping victim, and you need to use all of the commands at your disposal and the knowledge you acquire during your investigation to do that. There is no one ‘right’ way to get the job done, and there are multiple routes you can take based on your decisions. 

You can be lethal, taking down the bad guys in order to rescue the kidnapped woman, or you can be a pacifist and figure things out by solving puzzles and implementing outside-the-box thinking to bypass dangerous situations. 

Either way, you’re on a time crunch. Encounter has a leaderboard for those who complete it, showing how quickly each person managed to reach one of the different endings. Rushing through the story purely to get on the leaderboard isn’t something I’d recommend for your first playthrough, but speed-running through it for your own satisfaction is an option that’s there if you feel like challenging yourself (or your typing skills). 

Like I said, I’m no expert on retro gaming or text-based adventure games, but I can honestly say that I did enjoy my playthrough of Encounter, and I would recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of the genre. You can get the full game now through Steam, or if you want to see whether it’s for you, there’s also a demo to try.