Tsunami Media, or Tsunami Games, was a studio founded by former Sierra employees with an aim of tackling Sierra on its own home front. They didn't, really, but some interesting, albeit not great, titles emerged. Ringworld was their first title.
Ringworld is based on the sci-fi series created by Larry Niven. I'm not particularly familiar with it, though I have read one book ages ago, of which I remember very little. But, as you might surmise from the title, it does involve a gargantuan artificial, ring-shaped object called the Ringworld, which is inhabited by numerous species in different stages of civilisation. It is also where the first Halo game got its inspiration for its environment.
The Kzin are angry. They have learned that a race known as Puppeteers has been doing secret breeding tests with them for centuries. They've done the same for humans as well, but the Kzin are particularly peeved about this to the point where they are prepared to go to war about it. Kzin bride and all that being at stake. This information was found by Louis Wu and kzin Chmeee when they travelled together to Ringworld many years back.
Elsewhere, a mercenary Quinn is about to deliver a message for Chmeee. As it turns out, Chmeee has disappeared, just as Louis Wu, from whom the message was and as it happens, an assassin strikes trying to kill Chmeee's son Seeker. Together, Quinn and Seeker escape and steal a jump-capable ship, in which they encounter a mechanic, Miranda. Together they travel to Ringworld, encouraged, or strong-armed, by a puppeteer Hindmost to grab a bunch of advanced technological items from there, which could be handy in preventing the war.
From the get-go, it's quite clear that Ringworld is a rather linear game, with relatively little to do. Every time you get to a new location, all you need to do is figure out how to get a stasis box containing the item you need. The first village you arrive at is a place you need to return to, as it has an ancient spaceship you can open only after you get a specific device.
There are very few puzzles as a whole, and it feels like most of the game is just watching a cut scene, in which the trio discusses their situation and then gets a call from Hindmost. who is trying to get them to work faster with empty threats. Ringworld is also at times very poor in telegraphing that it is expecting you to actually do something. Like in the final scene, you might be thinking you are watching a cut scene, but you do have control, and you do need to do something before you die. When you do, you aren't really given any indicator that what you did was the thing you needed to do until you suddenly see the outro and end credits.
Another issue I noticed was that at times it's hard to find the correct spot to click. Nowhere was it as evident as in the flesheater monster's cave, where you know exactly what to do; it's just finding the correct place to click took me far too long. But other than that, the progression is relatively straightforward, and the puzzles are quite simple. Though it is easy to miss some items. I don't know if there are any dead-end situations because of it, but at least you won't die in most locations because you missed an item.
As a note, it is possible to die, but generally, the scenes where that is a possibility are somewhat logical. So no falling off some nasty stairs or anything like that. Then again, there are locations in which dying would be a logical thing, but as far as I tried, that never happened. The design is a bit inconsistent about it.
The UI is a simple icon-driven point-and-click interface. Right-click on the screen opens an icon menu, from where you can access the commands, look, use, walk, talk, inventory and options. In inventory, you can only look at items or select them to be used on the game screen. There are no inventory puzzles. It's a competent system, relatively streamlined and does what's needed.
I wouldn't call Ringworld: Revenge of the Patriarch a particularly great game. It's not among the worst adventure games you could play from the era; it even looks pretty good, and the soundtrack is decent, but it's not really doing anything particularly noteworthy or memorable. It might be worth looking at if you are a fan of Larry Niven or are desperate to play some sci-fi adventuring.
At this moment, Ringworld: Revenge of the Patriarch is not sold in any digital outlet. If you want it, you need to either rummage through second-hand stores or just Google it.
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