Future Wars

Lore & Background

Future Wars is an adventure game primarily the work of Paul Cuisset (story and programming) and Éric Chahi (graphics). The game was intended to be the first of a series of adventure games revolving around time travelling, but later episodes were never made. Gameplay involves left-clicking for character movement and right-clicking for actions, with a popup menu offering Operate, Examine, Take, Use, and Inventory options; Use includes a subcategory for dragging and selecting inventory items.

Reader's Guide

Upon release, Future Wars received positive reviews. Computer Gaming World's Allen Greenberg praised the game's story as good, its graphics as 'very imaginative and at times absolutely striking' and its musical score as 'a respectable soundtrack which many will consider superior to most of those composed and released for theatrical films.' However, he noted that the same graphical detail frequently hid important objects vital to solving the game and hindered the player's movement in certain cases. Greenberg also criticized the Cinematique engine as 'not quite the innovation Future War's designers claim it to be—similar features have appeared in games by Sierra as well as Lucasfilm.' The game's plot involves time travel from 1990 to 1304, the 44th century, and the Cretaceous period, with the player helping to thwart an alien plot by the Crughons to plant time bombs.

Did You Know?

• The player character is never named; the game cursor identifies him only as 'hero'.
• According to later references the game starts in 1990.
• The player travels to the year 1304, the 44th century, and the Cretaceous period.
• The game provides an alternate explanation for the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.