[Review] Pilgrims

[Lunix I]

Pilgrim: Faith as a Weapon is a 1997 adventure video game, written by Paulo Coelho, who wrote The Pilgrimage, the novel on which the game is based. Pilgrim has been described as a "commercial cultural heritage game" and "graphic interactive fiction". It is the premiere title of Arxel Tribe and the first in The Paulo Coelho trilogy, which also includes The Legend of the Prophet and the Assassin (1999) and The Secrets of Alamut (2001).

The game is loosely based on Paulo Coelho's 1987 autobiographical novel The Pilgrimage. It is a time of superstition and religious persecution, where Catharism reigns supreme. Set at the beginning of the Albigensian Crusade (1208) in the south of France, the story sees Simon Lancroix aim to complete his dying father's wishes by finding a secret manuscript and delivering it to a friend named Petrus. It is revealed that this is actually a Coptic manuscript that a renegade Templar brought back from the Crusades; it is believed to be the lost Gospel of Saint Jean. This manuscript is passed around to various characters in different locations. Meanwhile, Pope Innocent III orders the inquisitor, Diego de Osma, to retrieve the manuscript.

Mystical creatures such as angels and demons also become entangled in the battle. The first half of the game sees the player complete a series of tasks to help other characters. They in turn help the player. Halfway through the game, the player meets Petrus. He reveals that the player's father was the leader of a fictional religious sect called "The Tradition", which aims to bring an absolute truth that no other religion can. From this point the game covers symbolic, spiritual, and supernatural philosophies such as dreams, peace, compassion, love, salvation, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, growing up and giving up, and re-learning what we knew as children; the final scene takes place in Limbo.

Pilgrim is a first-person point-and-click adventure. Players click through a series of static frames—a slideshow of pre-rendered 3D environments—to move around. The player is not free of their movements and must often strategically click screen points in a certain order to reach a destination.

The cursor becomes an arrow to indicate a possible movement, and a click transitions the player to the next location. It is possible to die in the game; one cause of death includes the player failing to accomplish certain time-dependent challenges. If the player dies they are returned to the beginning of the latest checkpoint, often after a cutscene.

There are also two unwinnable states. One of them occurs if the player gives all their money to a beggar in Toulouse, in spite of needing it to go past the very next door. The player is encouraged to "save early, save often". The game's final puzzle has been described as "no less than an exam about what you're supposed to have learned". The game comes with two discs, which are required to install the game; regardless of where the player is Disc 1 must be inserted every time they boot up the game.

The "Inventory" interface has three elements. "Bag" is used for acquired items The number of items and the weight a player can carry are limited. "People" contains the characters the player has encountered, knows about, or wants information on. "Items" has the objects which have been seen or heard about but not acquired. "People" and "Items" of interest can be brought up as topics of conversation with others. To use an item in "Bag", the player clicks on it to activate it (it then has a yellow box around it), then clicks "View". 

To offer a topic of discussion, the player clicks on an item in the "People" or "Items" tabs to activate it. They then click on a character in the "View" screen to talk about it. The puzzles require both reflection and patience. The "Bag" items and the clues within the "Encyclopedia" can be applied and mani[CENSORED]ted to solve puzzles thereby advancing the story. The latter is similar to how the Chronopedia in used in the Broderbund adventure game Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time. The game has a hint system to provide clues for the more obscure puzzles.

 The entries in the in-game "Encyclopedia" have been described as "spartan", consisting exclusively of text. Sometimes when a character mentions a topic that is available in the "Encyclopedia" during a conversation. A keyword will appear on the screen which may then be clicked to bring up the corresponding entry. While not required, this feature allows the player to delve deeper into the interesting historical nuggets featured throughout the game. The player has an in-game notebook, into which they may copy-paste extracts from the "Encyclopedia".