Rich Diamond Games Magazine Review

One of the joys of being a software reviewer is discovering companies that design fun, creative and intelligent products. It is even more exciting when the company is new, but already demonstrates the aforementioned qualities. Rich Diamond (suggested retail $24.95, coregames.com, 877-267-3426), the premiere entry of Core Concepts, a small game development business founded last year in San Gabriel, Calif., suggests the company has a promising future.

Rated appropriate for everyone, the game is targeted to ages 14 and up, with a version for younger players, "Richie Diamond", due to be released next month. The player assumes the role of the title character, an Indiana Jones-style adventurer searching for gems in a variety of scenarios and mazes booby-trapped with tumbling rocks, arrows set on hair-triggers, bombs, lava, water, pits, zapping robots, slippery and cracked ice, and ravenous, tarantula-like spiders.

The game's 80 progressively challenging levels are solved by collecting all the treasure while avoiding, destroying or manipulating the various hazards or creatures you encounter. However, parents need not worry about blood, gore or violence. Aimed at "the thinking gamer," Core Concepts' goal is to produce family games without the violence prevalent in other software. True, you can lose your "life," but everything is done in cartoon-like fashion. Get hit by a boulder and you'll get flattened, as will the spiders and robots you destroy.

We were impressed by the ingenuity of the design as the game became increasingly difficult. At first glance, some puzzles seemed obvious and easy, but proved to be far more complex than anticipated. Other times, we would rack our brains trying to figure out a solution when it turned out to be far simpler than first thought.

Although it has an adventure theme, "Rich Diamond" challenges you to think and is, at heart, a logical problem-solving game for people who love puzzles. Since all action that takes place on the screen is in reaction to Rich Diamond's movements, literally each step he takes must be carefully considered. Quibblers might argue that this makes the game too graph-like, and, in fact, you can clearly see the lightly marked-out squares on the playing surface. However, this is not only appropriate but helpful, since your success depends not on dexterity and speed-- what Core Concepts' programmers refer to as "the twitch aspect" of other gams-- but rather on your ability to think through a solution, one step at a time.

The game functioned well and was responsive, although the screen sometimes stuttered when we tried to move to get the overview of another play area. The multiple-player-friendly games, as well as individual levels in progress, can be saved. The controls were easy to access and the 3-D graphics were crisp, though somewhat flatter and less detailed than in other games. Attractive features include the level editor that allows players to create their own playing fields to trade with other players online, and the company's Level of the Week Web page, where new puzzles can be downloaded for free by owners of the software. We also liked the site's Puzzle Board, a bulletin board containing help, tips, and discussion. It appeared to be regularly monitored by the company's employees, who answered queries from gamers.

In the somewhat anachronistic words of Rich Diamond, we found the game "cool" and "groovy" and look forward to Core Concepts' next release.

Ronnie Gill

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