B.A.T.

B.A.T. is a mix of sci-fi adventure and RPG created by Ubi Soft and released initially for the Atari S.T. in 1989. More versions were released the following year, including Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, and MS-DOS.

In this game, you are an agent of the Bureau Of Astral Troubleshooters (B.A.T.). You will have to complete several missions to fight corruption and crime inside the Confederation of Galaxies. Exploration, NPCs, dialogues, and puzzles are very similar to the ones you can find in a typical adventure game. The interface is well made and entirely mouse-driven, with contextual menus. On the other hand, combat and character advancements, with many stats and several cybernetic improvements available, make the game more similar to an RPG.

However, what really strikes me about this title is the fantastic atmosphere that it can create, thanks to the excellent music and perfect graphics. The developers could have improved the colors on the Amiga version, but despite this, the visuals have their style.

B.A.T. is not an easy game - reading a tutorial is almost mandatory - but if you like the Total Recall kind of setting, this is a game you cannot miss.