Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb – From 1994, this point-and-click adventure game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by anthropomorphic animals, called Morphs. It’s pretty short, but generally enjoyable and charming. The graphics are appealing, and the music has a medieval feel to it. According to Wikipedia, it has a furry fanbase, for obvious reasons. I’ve heard of people who aren’t part of that subculture being attracted to Disney’s vulpine Robin Hood, and the game’s protagonist Rif seems to be partially inspired by him.

It starts with Rif winning a contest and being declared puzzle master. Right after this, however, it’s revealed that the Orb of Storms, a human-made artifact that predicts the weather, has been stolen. Suspicion falls on Rif, as foxes, as per Aesop, have a reputation for being tricky. Rif decides to hunt for the orb, accompanied by an elk guard named Eeah and a boar called Okk, who are there to help him out but also to make sure he doesn’t try any funny business. For the most part, different types of animals have their own tribes, sometimes more than one, although in the starting area the King of the Forest, who’s an elk, has some control over different species. Some animals specialize in a single vocation, like the ferrets who do craftwork, the rats who keep meticulous records, and the cats who perform spiritual roles. The feline priestess who keeps the Orb is named Elara, which made me think of the wizard Erana from Quest for Glory.

I think all of the rabbits who appear are servants, often mentioning being late as an obvious Alice in Wonderland reference, although that’s kind of funny considering how the White Rabbit bossed around his own servants. While some of the characters are antagonistic, there’s rarely much real sense of danger.

You get thrown into prison cells on two occasions, but it’s not that hard to escape. There are two occasions where you have to trick or distract guards, but if you choose the option, the characters will do it on their own. There are two annoying mazes, a common way to pad out short games at the time. And on two occasions, you have to find the wandering rodent merchant Kylas Honeyfoot in one of several forest clearings, which one it is being random each time. While the map isn’t hard to navigate, you don’t see much of it at once, and locations you have to visit can be a bit difficult to find.

The towns are much the same way, and there doesn’t appear to be any simple way to differentiate the buildings in the ferret village. Towards the end, you explore some ancient ruins that the animals can’t identify, but the player can see it as a lab containing experiments and weapons, the implication being that the humans wiped themselves out in a war. Or maybe the canine astronomer is right, and they all relocated to the Moon, but probably not. As the title suggests, the Morphs inherited the Earth, although not all of them are particularly meek. You thwart a raccoon’s plans to take over the world, and the Orb is lost, but the King of the Forest doesn’t really mind since it was kept out of hostile hands.

While we do get the always appreciated scene of a bunch of characters gathering to celebrate, the ending is pretty abrupt and leaves some things unresolved, like what happened with the Boar King’s alliance with the wolves. There were plans for a sequel, but it never happened. I did, however, find out that there’s a webcomic follow-up that started in 2014.