Download Bargon Attack

I'm sure a lot of you will never have heard of Bargon Attack before which doesn't come as too big a surprise though, because this game isn’t very brilliant, sadly enough. Compared to Coktel Vision's other adventure game, this one really scrapes the bottom of the barrel.

Let's start with the story: aliens take over the planet, and you, Bob Sprite, have to defeat them. Well, totally original right? Right? Okay, it’s a totally lame and lazy plot. But if only that was the only thing wrong with this game...

For starters, the “interface” is extremely sparse. Despite having huge black borders at the bottom of practically every location, the space goes nearly completely unused, making the game feel really cramped. But even worse is the way you interact with the world. There are only two actions you see: right clicking opens the inventory, left clicking does whatever the game decides. It may be picking up an item, using an item, looking at an item, whatever, but you have no idea what action it will be until you click on it. This makes any interaction totally non-transparent and is a critical mistake for any adventure game to make.

The game is also oddly sensitive to where you click, too. At the start you’ll find a trunk. When you get it open, clicking on the bottom part of the trunk won't do anything, but if you click on the top part (the lid that is open), your avatar will take out an item and drop it on the  floor. Why? I mean, both parts are labeled “A trunk..” so why would clicking on the top or bottom part make any difference? Another cardinal sin! That's two major sins and we haven't even left the first screen.

Oh but, what's that there?! A pixel hunting puzzle! Oh yes, ladies and gentlemen. Coktel are on a roll here. There's actually an object to pick up that is exactly one pixel big – and it's far from the only item in the game like that, the game is littered with them.

The longer you play, the more problems pop up left and right – how Coktel managed to get all these bad design decisions into one game....  Another example: you can die in this game. This is no problem on its own but when you die, it's usually through no fault of your own! Usually, it’s a cheap way to make sure you didn't forget to do anything but lord  knows what because the game gives no hints. When I didn't lock a door, I got killed by one of the Bargon aliens on the next screen! What does locking a door have to do with getting shot? Nada. Good thing I had a walk-through at hand because I'd probably have committed hari-kiri trying to figure out the logic behind this game.

Really though, this game is one disaster after another. Items that  disappear from your inventory for no reason other than you moving to the  next screen, twisted puzzle logic (apparently, you can use a pump to  inflate a burst tire according to Coktel), no music at all, annoying sound  of footsteps, etc. etc. etc. Except for the reasonable graphics, this game has absolutely nothing going for it.

In the end, this game deserved to be forgotten by history. This is Coktel’s Pandora's Box, with nearly every sin an adventure game can make all rolled into this one game. You should get stuck because of tough puzzles, not because of demented design decisions, which you'll drown in when playing this game. Bottom line: avoid this game unless you want to see exactly what adventure games shouldn't do.