Remember the "good ol' days" of gaming when purchasing a new game was akin to ripping open a box of Cracker Jacks? One never knew what surprises awaited: a cloth map, a pewter ankh, a piece of fluffy lint. Well, those days are back, sort of, when you open the box of Bethesda Softwork's newest release, The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard. The enclosed map is on folded paper, not cloth like the Ultima maps, but in a wonderful touch of realism, it has been charred black around its edges. The 94-page instruction booklet is a throwback to the glory days before the creation of strategy guides--the bastardization of the industry. It is a thick, magnificent opus detailing the history and genealogy of the Empire and Hammerfall, the setting for the game. A comic book rendering of the prequel to the storyline and, of course, an explanation of the game controls round off this thick presentation. Some store copies of Redguard even have a free limited edition pewter figurine attached to the front of the box. All said, the figurine, booklet and map are a stellar introduction to a game that attempts to recapture the halcyon era of adventuring.

Bethesda has been marketing Redguard, in its magazine advertisements and on the box hyperbole, as if it is a new movie release. It is in fact the newest entry in the fledgling action/adventure field and a sequel of sorts to the RPGs Arena and Daggerfall. Any doubts regarding the action aspects of Redguard are swiftly allayed. Traditional adventure games begin with a puzzle to solve; this new genre of action/adventure hybrid begins with the fury of an Indiana Jones flick as you find yourself facing off against not one but two saber-wielding scalawags. How did you arrive at such a predicament, and what is your inspiration to press forward? Let us sheath our swords in peace for a fortnight as we take a closer look at the world of The Elder Scrolls.

You play as Cyrus, a Redguard mercenary (Redguards are renowned as fierce fighters). Upon learning of the disappearance of your sister, Iszara, you hasten to your hometown of Hammerfall to search for her whereabouts. There are, though, two flies in the ointment. Your hometown is now under martial law and you have not seen your sister in ten years since you accidentally killed your brother-in-law during a drunken brawl. Yet to relate the plot so simply would be like insinuating that Romeo and Juliet is about nothing more than doomed young lovers. There are conspiracies afoot and political intrigue aplenty. There are mini-quests that enrich the story, but have no real bearing on the final outcome, and they do not have to be completed in order to finish the saga. Yet for all the plot convolutions, there is never any real sense of danger, no unexpected twist or turns. There is nothing here that has not been explored in countless other adventure and role-playing games. If this were literature, it would be dismissed as pulp; if it were a movie, it would be the "B" feature. Since it is a game, though, our expectations are supposed to be lowered and we are spoon-fed another hackneyed story full of clichés that is all too common in the adventure field. Redguard plot: C+.

As dictated by the term action/adventure, the puzzles are, and should be, of the cerebral and the physical variety. The majority of the new action/adventure releases seem to have overlooked this minor factor and seem to think that the action should consist of nothing more than fighting sequences. Thankfully, the combat system in Redguard is a step above some other recent releases such as Redjack and Mask of Eternity. There are occasional problems with character control and angles, but for the most part the action sequences and puzzles utilize a keyboard or gamepad combination that makes it very easy to swim, swing, jump and duel. Bethesda is to be commended for taking the genre a step further by incorporating action into some of the puzzles. Thus, what in other games may be viewed as a cut scene, in Redguard must be accomplished via the player's participation. You must jump across that rotting bridge, skim along that ledge or push that crate into an advantageous position. Having accomplished these dexterous feats, you must then still deal with the traditional adventure game puzzle. Bethesda has struck a fine balance in the puzzle category. My only complaint would be that the game is often too nonlinear and you may find yourself wandering for hours wondering what to do next. There is an inherent danger in allowing the player too much freedom in a real time 3D world. Your long-range objective, finding your sister, is always in sight, but often the building blocks to your goal are obscured. Redguard puzzles: B.

The graphical quality of Redguard is extremely inconsistent. The cut scenes are simply magnificent. They serve to propel the story to new avenues and would be worthy of any animated movie. The atmospheric background visuals and animation are the best I have ever encountered. Clouds are not stationary but roll overhead. Dolphins leap and twist from the ocean, enormous mythical statues tower over the city and the citizens' body language alters according to your status (you will, through necessity, end up an escaped criminal) at the time. There is a wonderful moment on the Isle of N'gasta that brought back memories of a favorite scene from Jason and the Argonauts. As you pass through the Tower Gate and approach the lair of N'gasta, sword-wielding skeletons spring from the graveyard dirt and attack with wild abandon. Yet all the deliciousness of the graphics are offset by the close-ups of the characters that populate the gameworld. They are blocky and stiff and look totally out of place when juxtaposed against the gorgeous backgrounds. Their mouths do not move when you engage them in conversation, which you must do often in this game. They bring what could have been an immersive experience crashing back to reality. There are no facial movements during speech, only an awkward nodding of the head, and thus, in what becomes a major incongruity, they are not life-like in this real-time world. Redguard graphics: B.

Redguard's music and sound effects are excellent--mood-setting and appropriate to the situation. Weather-worn boards creak, waves slosh against ships and sounds in the distance grow louder as you approach their source. The music is a reinforcement of the sprightliness we have come to expect from pirate tunes. It is the voice acting in Redguard that is unoriginal. The spectrum of accents and voice inflections is well-done, but it is uninspired and stereotypical. The fat, corpulent governor sounds appropriately slimy, the call-girls brash and uneducated and the lighthouse keeper sounds, of course, weather-beaten. Worst of all is Cyrus, the main character. Whereas at least the stereotypical characters have varying accents, Cyrus has none. His deep voice is reminiscent of that John Wayne/Clint Eastwood white-bread, middle American sameness. In a world that is rich with brogues and different tongues, this strikes me as odd, especially since Cyrus is originally from this island and appears to be black. Is this a conscious attempt by the software company to not alienate the majority of their buying public (white males)? This effort to appeal to the widest possible fan base by ignoring the ethnicity of the main character greatly detracts from the authenticity of the game. So while the voices are well done, they are also, especially when combined with their blocky characters, imbued with a sense of deceit. Redguard music, sound effects and voice acting: B-.

Redguard comes on two CDs--one for installation and one for gameplay. It will occupy at least 300 MB on your hard drive. There have been rumblings from some gamers experiencing configuration problems attempting to run the game, but it would be unfair of me to comment on this as I personally did not encounter them. (There is in fact one reviewer on the Internet who gave Redguard a lower grade because he had heard others were having configuration problems--how ludicrous!)

Some may feel that I have been too harsh in my critique of Redguard, but this is a game that is attempting to reach new heights, so while I extend praise for its aggressiveness, I also feel that its shortcomings are more pronounced due to a commitment to quality. This is a solid game-playing experience, though it may be difficult for novices, but the time has come to quit judging games by what has gone before and to begin judging them for what they can be. Well-written games like Grim Fandango and Dark Side of the Moon have raised the standard by which we now judge our entertainment. While Bethesda seems to have found the almost perfect balance between action and adventure, a willingness to take more chances with the plot and with the main character's voice would have gone a long way toward making this a classic experience.

Final Grade: B-.

System Requirements:

Windows 95 or 98
32 MB RAM
Pentium 166
350 MB of hard drive space
SVGA, VESA 2.0 compliant video card
16-bit sound card
Supports Voodoo, Voodoo Rush, Voodoo 2