Zak McKracken

A tabloid journalist who chases sensations about aliens suddenly finds himself in the middle of a genuine worldwide conspiracy involving ancient civilisations and a two-headed squirrel. Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is an adventure that takes its crazy premise absolutely seriously — and that is precisely where its charm lies.

The game by the studio Lucasfilm Games runs on the famous SCUMM engine, the same system that Maniac Mansion had launched before it. Instead of typing commands you click on verbs and objects, combine them and solve puzzles in a purely visual interface. Zak, however, expands the scale: you play as several characters scattered literally all over the world and beyond Earth, you travel by plane between continents and you must coordinate the actions of the heroes in different places so that the puzzles fit together.

It is precisely the global scope and the interwoven logic that make Zak one of the more ambitious adventures of its time. The conspiracy plot about aliens dumbing down humanity through the telephone company is a mixture of paranoid satire and sci-fi nonsense, delivered with the characteristic LucasArts humour. The game is also notorious for its difficulty and for the fact that some puzzles require careful notes and patience.

Zak McKracken was created at a time when LucasArts (then still Lucasfilm Games) was only building its reputation as a master of the genre, and together with Maniac Mansion it forms a cornerstone of this tradition. For many fans it remains a cult affair — it earned an enthusiastic community that still creates fan sequels and enhanced versions to this day.

Today Zak will be appreciated above all by anyone who likes more open, sprawling adventures in which you don't solve a single room but a whole planet. It is a game of freedom, discovery and absurd humour that ages surprisingly well.

Why play: For a sprawling travelling adventure on the SCUMM engine with a conspiracy plot, where you solve the world through several characters at once.