Blue Ice

Blue Ice is a computer game released in 1995, from Psygnosis. It is kind of a low-budget Myst, with a long sequence of 'arty' and largely static screens representing the rooms in a large house. These are made through what appears to be a blend of grainy photography and bitmap painting. Within each screen the user can complete puzzles by collecting and using items. The otherwise pointless puzzles include brewing tea, dissolving gold in vitriol, finding keys and making blue paint.

Each screen is overlaid with grainy photographs of up to five people, any of whom can be clicked on to read their 'thoughts' - another static screen of text. Since the rooms can be explored in any order and the thoughts never change, there is no narrative, merely a succession of wistful fragments. The thoughts also contain clues to what the player is supposed to do in this room, but these are over-elaborate to the point of total obscurity. A description of the room is also available, either on-screen or read in orotund style as a voice-over by actor Tom Conti.

There are signs that the game's authors recognised when too late its utter impenetrability and added an extra clue in the form of a question mark hidden in each screen. Clicking here gives another voice-over, usually saying something inscrutable like: "You can catch this without harming a hair on its head."

Since the items to be clicked usually blend in with the background and the logic behind the puzzles is often impenetrable, the only option is to click everywhere with everything, making progress excruciatingly slow. Some sequences of actions have to be repeated over a dozen times, slowing things down even further. A brave attempt at preparing a walkthrough gives up with the admission: This is not the end of the game. If anyone ever finished this game there is no record of it.