STORY
The Uncertainty Machine is an AGS adventure game.  It was made by Eduardo 'Ratracer' Campos, and released to the public on 12 January 2003. 

After watching the intro, we learn that the game takes place in a future society.  'Citizens' are assured a perfect life, but it comes at the cost of 'Off Limits' people. 

This game takes place over 2 days.  You are a young newspaper reporter named Susan Gant.  You are a 'Citizen', and you are very happy with your perfect life.  You arrive at work one day, and your editor tells you about the Vice-Consul Mansion being burgled.  He wants you to investigate the burglary, and then write a story about it for your newspaper. 

As you investigate the burglary, you start to realise that there is a lot more going on than you first realised.  Maybe your perfect life is not so perfect after all.  What started out as a simple burglary investigation has evolved into something much more sinister, and you are not sure whom you can trust anymore. 

You find yourself in the middle of a struggle for power - the result of this struggle could change the world, as you know it. 

GAMEPLAY
The game uses a simple point-and-click interface, which makes it easy to play.  Just left-click on an item to use it, or right-click to get a description.  Left-click on a person to talk to them.  Dialogue options are shown at the bottom of the screen, and you can choose what to say.  To move, just click on an area of the screen and Susan will move there. 

Your inventory is shown along the top, and you can scroll left or right as necessary.  Some of your inventory items (notebook, laptop, mobile phone etc) give further information when you examine them.  For example, look at your mobile phone to get a list of phone numbers you can dial.  Your laptop stores various documents that you can read, and these documents are updated as the game progresses. 

Above the inventory is a small section showing how long you have been playing the game.  It also alerts you when a document in your laptop has been updated.  This is a nice touch, as you can read the updated document to get more information etc. 

This game has 3 different endings, which is lovely to see.  The game automatically saves your game, so you can choose which ending to see.  You can then re-load the game and pick a different ending.

Pressing the 'F9' key brings up a menu.  This allows you to save the game, restore a game, restart, or quit.

GRAPHICS
The graphics are beautifully done, and are very impressive.  Many objects are very detailed, and almost look '3d'.  The floor in Jacob's research room really looks shiny, as it reflects other items in the room.  The characters and backgrounds are rich, and lovely to look at. 

A minor setback is the character animation.  Susan looks very strange as she walks across the room - almost as if she is completely flat.  This is a minor irritation, and does not affect the game.  

MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS
There are a few sound effects, such as traffic in the background, birds tweeting in the sky, and the 'ding' of the lift.  There is also some beautiful piano music that is played.  Different locations have different music to accompany it

However, the sound effects and the music are very short clips that run on a loop.  This gets quite annoying and repetitive after a while.  It would have been nice if each clip was longer, or if we got more variety of music.

CHARACTERS
There are some interesting characters in this game - from your Editor Colin, to the elusive Jacob Illya.  You need to talk to many people in order to solve the mystery. 

PUZZLES
The puzzles have been very cleverly thought out.  Some puzzles are quite logical, while others are very tricky.  You have to be quite creative when using objects in your inventory.

SUMMARY
This is a very good adventure game that I can recommend to anyone.  The story is very well written, about a society divided by 'Citizens' and 'Off Limits' people.  The game uses a point and click interface, which makes it easy to play.  The graphics are rich and detailed.  The piano music is beautiful.  The multiple endings are a lovely touch, and make you want to play the game again.     

My only niggles are the strange character animation, and the repetitive music.