Zenfar

First looks at the new roleplaying game, Zenfar, The Adventure Begins, show a promising story line about an alien planet with an ancient secret that is waiting to be told.  Dynamic Adventures, Inc., producers of  Zenfar, describes their new game as "An Alien, Science, Fantasy Roleplaying Game!"

This adventure begins on the plane of Zenfar, located in the sea of Aether known as the GigaDim.  Once populated by a simple humanoid race called the Dwellers, the planet was taken over by a superior alien race who divided the planet into 6 distinct areas using powerful force fields.  Each of the six areas became the home of separate, less powerful alien races:  The humans (a carbon based species, The Throks (creatures made of living rock), The Zen Warrior Women (another carbon based species), The Prizms (beings composed of crystalline properties), and The Psions (bio-mechanical in nature).

The superior alien race intended a futuristic use of each of the lesser races as a source of food and energy.  Once they had established the six colonies they left Zenfar to grow and flourish on its own.  However, as time passed, the force fields diminished in power and the humanoids rose up to fight against their oppression.  Using what is now known as The Chant, the humanoids were able to break through the force fields and destroy them.  Only one force field remains...the area of The Throks.  Now this is where the adventure of Zenfar begins...

The first issue at hand is to choose an alter ego.  There are five types of characters from which to choose.  Implars and Pure Defenders are warrior types who are also able to use some powers.  The Coz Guards are pure warriors who are able to use many types of weapons and who are adept at hand to hand combat.  Atunes and Wielders are both casters.  Atunes are basically healers and creators while Wielders utilize destructive and protective powers.

As you choose each type of Alter Ego, you can see that the numbers reflecting attributes and skills will change in color.  White numbers indicate a high value; green indicate an average value; tan numbers indicated low values.  Skill values showing a negative value indicate that skill cannot be used.  Once you have an acceptable group of numbers, click the Create button to enter the game.

Once you enter the game, movement is done by using the hand cursor of the mouse.  Simply move the hand cursor to where you want your character to go and he will move there.  When you encounter a game character with whom you can interact a menu will pop up and you can click on the interaction you would like to have with that character.  Although there is some voice acting possible with some characters, most conversational topics are displayed on a menu.  You can select on of the topics or simply move away.

You will move from screen to screen by way of clicking on the Enter tabs you will find along the outer edges of the screen.  You will find that you can fight most NPC characters that you encounter but be prepared to deal with the consequences.  There are missions you will be given to complete that will take you to the next task at hand.  There are also objects with which you will need to interact to replenish power and health.

Graphically speaking, the beta copy of Zenfar leaves a lot to be desired.  I am told there are optimizations in the final copy that will make the movement more smooth and the graphics more pleasing to the eye.  Voice quality in the beta copy is, quite frankly, very poor.  This, too, is promised to be much improved in the final copy.  I worked without a manual but gathered a lot of information from the game web site at www.zenfar.com.

As I said before, Zenfar, The Adventure Begins has a promising storyline.  Here's hoping the guys at Dynamic Adventures, Inc. come through on their promises of a better quality finished product!