Quantum Gate

As the game progresses the overall feel becomes increasingly dark; from the initial briefing which consists of confronting images of dying animals, famine and industrial pollution, through the increasingly paranoid rantings of Private Michaels to the distressed and teary messages from Griffin's mother and girlfriend. The gameplay itself is extremely linear in nature, as is normally exhibited by interactive movies and the player's input is limited to conversing with other characters (through a choice of pre-existing phrases) and some involvement during missions. The game is unusual in that the player 'wins' only by having their character die (or possibly fall unconscious as this, like so much else in the game, is never made completely clear). This allows the shock-conclusion reveal of the true nature of the planet and its inhabitants, and hence the most likely truth of the character's own participation in genocide. For these reasons the game and its message are quite confronting.

The player takes on the role of Private Drew Griffin, an army medical student in the year 2057 who is recruited by the UN on a secret mission to an alien world where water is scarce.

During the mission briefing Drew discovers that an advanced environmental simulation program called Earth-5 has predicted that there are only five years remaining before irreversible ecological damage caused by industrialisation, pollution and the overuse and destruction of natural resources will cause the Earth's demise. The Eden Initiative, of which this mission is the major part, is a project aimed at saving Earth from this Armageddon. The key to this is the rare mineral iridium oxide, found on the harsh alien planet AJ3905. AJ3905 is a world accessible only through an interplanetary device called the Quantum Gate and the mission involves a series of mining expeditions to extract the mineral and bring it back to Earth.

Greg Roach wrote and designed the title which follows the story of Drew Griffin, a military recruit in a base on a far off planet, preparing for a war with an alien species.

Originally the two releases, Quantum Gate and The Vortex, were written and designed as a single story/experience, but the publisher, Media Vision, exercised an acceleration clause in the development contract and demanded the title months ahead of the original release date - causing the developers to have to split the title into two. As a result, The Vortex was redesigned to allow its story to stand alone.

Computer Gaming World said in March 1994 that Quantum Gate had good acting and was "one of the most engaging CD titles yet to appear". In April 1994 the magazine said that it "packs a good entertainment punch" and "interesting", but "it's still a game—not the great leap beyond the marketing folks would have you believe". Charles Ardai in June 1994 complained that Quantum Gate was—contrary to its marketing—"hardly a game at all [but] a movie", as players could not affect the plot. He denounced the first-person tank sequences as "the less said about which the better", and said that as a game "Quantum Gate deserves a scathing review".

Ardai praised it as a science-fiction movie (the best since Blade Runner), however, citing "simply outstanding" acting and video and comparing the "shockingly adult and shockingly good" script to Philip K. Dick and Fredric Brown. He concluded that Quantum Gate "is a hell of a good movie, period, with a story that sticks with you long after the final credits roll". The game was reviewed in 1994 in Dragon #212 by Ken Rolston in the "Eye of the Monitor" column.