Download Kronolog - The Nazi Paradox

The developers certainly didn't skimp on the title for this game, did they? Kronolog is set in the future, and tells the story of the world after a Nazi victory in WWII. Naturally things are pretty grim; worldwide, governments are totalitarian, the workers are downtrodden and Big Brother is everywhere. But enough of current events: What's the game like?

It's pretty much as you'd imagine. But your character, Dr. Hoffman, is organising resistance and must save his son and change history all in one go. Naturally, if you succeed, things will be back to how they 'really' are, which is a nice twist. Although the plot is interesting and the setting is rather original, I can only really recommend this to fans of adventuring that are determined to play every game going, or players who find the setting or premise interesting. Why?

Well, to be honest, the interface is shockingly bad, and many of the puzzles require you to pick out a tiny pixel of difference in the scene. Worse than that, though, is how you can actually get quite far into the game before realising that you've made a mistake that there is no way to rectify! Luckily, that kind of nonsense has almost vanished from adventure gaming. Kronolog's poor reception probably contributed to developers dropping the whole idea that you could die or get stuck in games.

If you are going to tackle this game, and I by no means discourage you, then I suggest you arm yourself with some kind of guide and save frequently. I guess I've probably put a lot of people off from trying this game, but if you like your adventures tough, with a plot that challenges you and gives you a nice taste of history, then this game is for you.

In the Extras section you can find the European version of the game, called Red Hell. It's basically the same game, with the same interface, graphics, design, and the same general plot, but with one major difference: if in Kronolog we find ourselves in a futuristic what-if scenario, with an entire world in the hands of the Nazis, then in Red Hell, the one to take this role is the USSR.

How does this affect gameplay, you ask? Well, it doesn't. There are a couple of names changed, including that of the main character (Dr Constantine). Others are left unchanged, even if they are German. The Nazi symbols are replaced by the Soviet flag; you can also find some busts of Lenin scattered around. Further differences include location names and most importantly, the Personal Information Manager, your notebook of some sort, which has different info on historic events, news headlines and trivia that will help you understand the circumstances. The rest has not been touched; you can even use the same walkthrough.

You might want to increase the cycles up to 4000-5000.

To start the game, run krono.exe. It works best in DOSBox as in Windows XP and VDMSound it runs too fast. Every time the copy protection pops up, you can press whatever five symbols you like. It doesn't matter.