Heart of China (1991) review for MS-DOS, Commodore Amiga and Apple

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Heart of China
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Heart of China is one of only three adventure games that were developed by Dynamix and released by Sierra. This is one is in a very similar style to Rise of the dragon with VGA color background graphics that were scanned in to show some very lifelike graphics. It is played from a first person perspective and interaction was limited to left clicking to use something or right clicking to examine it. It shows you and any other characters you are with in the bottom corner of the screen and clicking on that will bring up your inventory. You can use things from your inventory simply by dragging them to whatever it is you want to use them on. Interaction between characters is done by selecting from a number of replies you can give and depending on what you choose it can change the outcome of some events.

The game takes place in 1920's China where you star as Jake Master a.k.a. Lucky, a veteran from the war now turned cargo hauler / adventurer. You must rescue Kate Lomax, a nurse who was kidnapped by a Chinese warlord. Her father being a rich guy offers you 200.000 dollar for her return but each day you come in late he will substract 20.000 from the total amount so you must do it quick or loose most of the reward. You can't do it by yourself you being a westerner in China so mr. Lomax gives you the name of a local ninja named Zao Chi who might be willing to help. After subtly persuading him to join the cause it's off to find Kate and from there on you go on a wild trip from Asia all the way to Paris in your trust old plane. Along the way there are plenty of dangers that you must face and in two of these events you get to play an arcade game driving a tank and fighting on top of a train. If you are not the arcade type you can opt to simply win the event instantly but I suggest trying it anyway because they are a fun disctraction from the adventuring.

The interface is easy to learn and you'll be adventuring the moment you start.
This game offered something that a lot of other games boasted with and that is multiple branching plots. They are a bit limited though because it basically means that you can get to the next point in the game by doing it in two different ways. It does mean that if offers a bit of extra replay value once you completed the game. The game itself is not too difficult and you can finish it in a day or so even if you have never played it before but still while it lasts it is great fun to play.

Overal rating: 8.5/10

Erde Kaiser

Heart of China was released for three different systems here are some notes:

Apple	Released in 1991. Game has been tested and completed with the Basilisk II v0.8 system7.5.5. This version is pretty much equal to the DOS one. Because of the apple's onebutton mouse you have to use shift-click to examine objects and to bring up your inventory with your own picture in it (you need this for some events).
Amiga	Released in 1991. Game has been tested and completed with winUAE v0.9.91. The original Amiga was ageing at the time of this game's release and it shows. Many screens are lacking in detail and color and much of the music is also missing. The game comes on 9 disks so I suggest you install it on a harddisk to avoid constant swapping.
DOS	Released in 1991. Game has been tested and completed on a DOS and Win2k PC. If you configure the game for soundblaster sound and have anything faster than a 486 based PC it will not recognise the soundcard. Either slow down your PC or select Adlib sound, you'll miss some soundeffects but nothing really that will make the game less enjoyable. I found references to an EGA version but I have never seen it.
Others	Even though I did not find it, it is quite possible that this game was also released on the Sega CD console because Willy Beamish and Rise of the dragon were also released on it.