THE CUTTING EDGE : GAMERS' CORNER : Wagner's 'Ring' Adventure Stunning Visually, but Play Is a Little Slow

By AARON CURTISS

Sept. 23, 1999 12 AM PT

A video game based on Richard Wagner’s “Ring” cycle? Why not? It has everything a good game should have: epic struggles, creepy locales and a soundtrack that’s second to none.

“Ring” for the PC is an adventure with lofty ambitions. It primarily seeks to keep intact the power and grandeur of Wagner’s operatic epic. But remember, this is a video game--a medium not exactly renowned for its grandeur.

From the first animated sequence, “Ring” makes clear that it intends to be more than just another half-baked graphical adventure. Its imagery is stunning, and the musical accompaniment is sampled from Wagner’s work.

Like the “Ring” cycle, the “Ring” video game moves between past and present in a search for lost worlds. But the present in “Ring’s” case is many centuries in the future, long after Earth has wiped itself out. Players assume the role of ISH, who in turn transports himself back to take over the identities of characters from Alberich and Sigmund to Brunhilde and Loge.

The worlds inhabited by these characters are stunning. Sprawling over four discs, “Ring” creates environments that are at once fantastic and frightening. Combined with Wagner’s music, the effect is eerily beautiful.

But play rarely lives up to the visuals. Using an interface and movement system similar to that in “The Journeyman Project 3,” “Ring” sometimes seems more like an interactive movie than a video game. Long stretches of dialogue unfold between relatively short sets of solving puzzles and collecting magic items.

The result: Empty beauty.

Too bad.

“Ring” requires a Pentium 133 with at least 32mb of RAM and 290mb of available hard-drive space.

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‘Driver’

Cross a cop with a stock car driver. Then cross a demolition derby with a mystery adventure. The result is “Driver,” a simply wonderful game of driving and detective work--but mostly driving.

Players assume the role of Tanner, the aforementioned stock-car driver turned cop. Seems he’s the best wheelman the department has ever seen. So the brass decides to drop him into an undercover role driving for the mob.

Got it?

Players accept assignments from the grungy environs of motels in Miami, San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. Then it’s out into the streets to run errands for the bad guys--all the while trying to stay away from patrolling black-and-whites.

The vehicles are nondescript muscle cars from the 1970s that look as if they’re straight out of “Starsky & Hutch.” But they scream. The controls include burning out and using the hand brake to make those awesome 180-degree braking turns favored by everyone from “Baretta” to the boys of “Adam 12.”

Beating the missions is no easy trick. The wise spend some time before each new assignment getting to know the streets of the city. It comes in handy when trying to lose the fuzz and minimizes the amount of collateral damage inflicted on other drivers and pedestrians.

Conceptually, “Driver” is a cut above. The story has some points of interest--one of those tales in which nothing is as it seems. The cinematic sequences tend toward the cheesy, though the mix of racing and storytelling is brilliant.

Technically, the game rocks. Precision with the analog controller is tight, and the cars all follow real-world physics. So once the car rolls over, it doesn’t automatically right itself. And all the cities have working traffic systems, meaning cars follow the rules of the road and continue to follow patterns even after players pass them. Traffic lights change. Bottlenecks form.

All of this detail creates an engrossing environment that players can scream through at 75 mph. It’s good to be bad.

‘Curse You! Red Baron’

There is a simple, if unspoken premise behind “Curse You! Red Baron”: Have so much fun in the skies over Europe that you buy the full version of “Red Baron 3D” at twice the price. “Curse You!” is a combat flight simulator for players put off by all the technical details of combat flight sims.

It’s easier to get the hang of, and it’s a lot cheaper. The missions start right up, and it’s possible to have a lot of fun without really knowing what’s going on. Acting that way in a traditional combat flight sim would result in a death spiral for most players.

But behind the relatively simple missions and game modes lie the slick goal of “Curse You!” In the end, players are taught not to fear technical flight sims. In fact, they learn to crave them. Because though the play modes of “Curse You!” offer great mindless fun, they feel like candy after a while: yummy at first, but unsatisfying in the end.

The solution helpfully offered throughout the game is to upgrade to “Red Baron 3D.” It’s not a bad option--and one many players who dig the challenge of piloting biplanes in battle will no doubt choose.

“Curse You! Red Baron” requires a Pentium 166 with at least 32mb of RAM and 140mb of hard-drive space. The developer recommends playing on a Pentium 233 or better with 48mb of RAM, 300mb of available hard-drive space and a Glide-compatible graphics card.

To comment on a column or to suggest games for review, send e-mail to aaron.curtiss@latimes.com.

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Essentials

Ring

Platform: PC

Publisher: Red Orb Entertainment

ESRB* rating: Teen

Price: $39.95

Bottom Line: Beauty that’s only skin-deep

Driver

Platform: Sony PlayStation

Publisher: GT Interactive