Download Escape from Delirium

Escape from Delirium is a fun shareware game by a small German company Virtual Xperience.

The game's plot sounds as if it were borrowed from one too many Indiana Jones movies, but with some neat twists: you are Paul Cole, an archeologist sent to investigate an antique corpse found in an abandoned subway tunnel. As you are descending into the site, your rope is scratched, making you slip and fall into the darkness below. While trying to find a way up again, you will discover a supervising room of the museum above you. At that exact moment, you notice a man breaking into the museum on one of the monitors. Unfortunately, the burglars managed to steal a valuable stone plate which is rumored to show the way to a source of unbelievable power. As the press prints the name of a witness - YOUR NAME - in the papers your fate is sealed. The next day you are to fly to court to Washington D.C. As if THAT isn't bad enough for you, a terrorist appears during your flight and directs the captain to fly to the Philippines...

Unfortunately, the game itself fails to live up to this exciting plot, as most (if not all) puzzles are borrowed from previous adventure games, most notably LucasArts', and they will therefore be very easy to longtime adventure fans if not downright boring. How many times must we endure the use-someone's-hand-to-pass-security-scanner, or the replace-some-real-thing-with-a-fake-thing kinds of puzzle? The interface, which is virtually identical to LucasArts' point-and-click adventures, is intuitive and convenient. The dialogues and plot development are competent, if nothing special.

In the end, Escape from Delirium feels like a game that tries to hard to be what it is not-- an amateur-produced adventure. The designers could have made this a much better game had they try to come up with puzzles on their own, instead of borrowing liberally from other games. Still, the high production values and good story make this one of the better shareware adventure games ever made.

Fans of LucasArts' Indiana Jones games should find this a pleasant and easy diversion, and beginners will find it a good introduction to the genre. Compared with other shareware games, this is not as good as Igor: Objective Uikokahonia, but it is a good effort.

Review By HOTUD