Into the Mystic

Crash

Overall 78%

Paul Rigby 78%

ADVENTURE TRAIL You are standing on a couple of empty pages. You can see: a Spectrum, a word processor and a stack of brand new Speccy adventure games. WHAT NOW? - Get adventure expert Paul Rigby to review the lot and dig up a ,load of happening newsie stuff! I'm sorry, I do not understand the word 'Paul'. - Give me strength... INTO THE MYSTIC River Software £2.95 'Where has all the magic gone?' and, 'Without magic our lives are empty and void', were typical of the cries to be heard throughout the countryside. Magic was a handy thing to have around and it relieved the boredom of a long day in the field. Lose something and you must find it. Hence you've been nominated to find out what's going on and where all the magic has gone. Orcs are a pain in the armpit. Ratty y'know. Mean. Oh, and they have a thing about tearing people limb from limb. But nobody's perfect, right? However, orcs were the main problem at the beginning of the game. In fact, they were in hot pursuit, chasing you through the forest. Luckily you're pretty fast so it was no surprise when you lost the group around the old fort. After resting from the chase, you awake the next morning to find the orcs blocking your escape route! What to do? Hmmm. After the introduction and a short list of usable verbs, the game begins. Displayed with (largely) black text on a green background. into the Mystic uses succinct location descriptions with a restricted use of the EXAMine command. That is, only where it's necessary to forward the plot or add essential atmosphere. The principle feature of Mystic is the puzzle quality, which is very high. There are one or two real brain teasers in there. I especially enjoyed the first puzzle which is quite logical. Although you're given subtle clues, the solution remains obscure enough to drive you crazy. Technically, the game is not the most advanced adventure I've ever played. Although you have a handy X command to replace the EXAMINE command, you can't link commands via AND or punctuation. However, programmer Jack Lockerby is not known for his technical achievements. Instead, he has a well deserved reputation for producing well designed, very playable adventures that guarantee hours of enjoyment. into the Mystic is a very good example, doubly so at this price. Contact point: [redacted]

The orc attack begins in into the Mystic...

Your Sinclair

Text 7/10

Value 7/10

Personal Rating 8/10

Mike Gerrard 8/10

Title: Into the Mystic Price: £2.95 Publisher: River Software, [redacted] (Cheques etc to be made payable to J A Lockerby) Reviewer: Mike Gerrard My mind's full of ancient Chinese proverbs this month, and here's another one spoken by the great Confucious himself - Jack Rockerby make exceedingly fine games. It shows how long Jack's been around, and is absolutely true. The latest of his games is Into The Mystic. The idea's been used before, that you live in a land where the magic has suddenly disappeared, which takes all the fun out of life. The Privy Council have held a meeting, presumably in the privy, and guess who they've elected to go looking for the missing magic? Wrong! Not you, you berk, but Merlin the magician. And so the adventure never begins and that's the end, goodbye. Oops, my mistake. Merlin decided to find some other mug to go off on this little errand, and that's where you, the trembling YS reader, step in. Off you go, dressed in your sandals and smock, and very nice you look too. The game's text-only and begins with you in the forest, with some sleeping orcs in the very next location. River Software regulars will remember a sleeping orc from an earlier game, and they can be very nasty when woken up (just like our Ed after his afternoon nap. Not a pretty sight). Don't go blundering into them then, but examine them from a distance and head off in the opposite direction. This brings you to a castle courtyard, and a room with a barrel in it, and stiff hinges on the door. Now, a door with stiff hinges usually requires opening, but this one's already open. A plan takes shape in the adventurer's mind. What does he need? Oil, of course. And what was floating in the moat as we entered the castle? A patch of oil. Righty-ho, just go and figure out some way of... what's this... feeling drowsy... throbbing head... been at the old tequila again? Whoops, I'm deaded, killed off by the noxious fumes in the courtyard that I'd been pretending weren't there. Heading in the only other direction leads to a forest, where you might find a very handy garment. It's a magician's cloak, that turns inside out to become a monk's habit. A wonderful object. The bad news is that the forest's full of thieves. So, orcs on way, thieves another, noxious fumes elsewhere. Nowhere to go. What a short adventure this was! Fear not, the answer's there somewhere, and a cunning on it is too. Just as well then that the accompanying sheet gives you a list of verbs the game understands. Read these carefully for clues, as there are some less than common words life SIFT and SQUEEZE. There's also the usual plethora (this month's good word) of handy commands, like RAMSAVE, X for EXAMINE, A for AGAIN to repeat the last input, GET ALL FROM CONTAINER and the rest of the flash PAWS features. Into The Mystic is, of course, immaculately presented, like all of River's games. The author's an old hand now at writing adventures, and comes up with some new, intriguing problems. I like the building whose door you have to unlock, except that the key to the door is inside the building! And as for how you catch a toad... well, I think you'll need your wits about you, so while almost anyone will enjoy the game, I wouldn't recommend it as your very first adventure. As Confucius also said - Liver Software, bruddy good, ah-so!

Orcs, eh? What a bunch of pesky blighters they are, Spec-chums. Always getting you into a tizzy and then probably gobbling you up in the bargain too. It's just jolly well not on!

Read it at Your Sinclair Rock'n'Roll Years