The Kingdom of Krell

Sinclair User

Overall 3/5

Graham Taylor 3/5

Label: Anco Author: S Screech Price: £9.95 Memory: 128K Only Reviewer: Graham Taylor The Kingdom of Krell is one of the very first programs to be written only for the 128K machines. No 48K game with added twiddles this. It's all new in 128K only. It looks great on the box. It looks pretty good on screen. It seems pretty comprehensive from the instructions. But my God, is it tedious. I haven't waited quite so long for a program to process an instruction since the days of programs in Basic put out by companies called Wombat Soft. Move North you say, by selecting the arrow option and pressing Return. You wait, have a cup of tea and a biscuit, visit Benidorm and still be able to watch Minder on the telly before the computer updates the screen information. The Kingdom of Krell attempts to create a gigantic adventure which is totally controlled by icons. It attempts to incorporate all the ultra-slick features mandatory in any text adventure worth £10 or more like characters you can talk to and battle sections based on Dungeons & Dragons-style points systems. The problem is that in creating an icon system to incorporate all such features the programmers have ended up with something pretty unwieldly and, more important, inflexible. There are spells to be found, objects to be collected, weapons to be selected and battles to be begun, often with people who've done no more than wish you a good day. Still times are tough. The plot is pretty open-ended. You are eighteen and, according to the blurb 'stand on the edge of the wilderness surrounded by the elders, friends and family. Beyond stretches a bleak, mystical forbidden landscape. Everyone is enjoying themselves.' Why is everyone having such a good time, what with the mystical forbidden landscape right on their doorstep and all? Is it anywhere near Basildon? Anyway off you go into the landscape... like the standard adventure hero. There are some plus points to the game I should stress. The graphics are pretty good, both the scene locations and the icon-based information. The location descriptions are reasonable, if not great and being 128K only there are a lot of locations. Quite a lot happens in the early locations so your interest is maintained for a fair while before the time the computer takes to process your instructions becomes just too much. There are also some fundamentally good ideas in this game but somehow it just doesn't quite hang together. Myriad brownie points for Anco for trying to put out a 128K-only program that isn't just a 48K program with slight twiddles, but The Kingdom of Krell doesn't quite make it.

Crash

Atmosphere 80%

Vocabulary 68%

Logic 72%

Addictive Quality 85%

Overall 86%

Derek Brewster 86%

DEREK BREWSTER'S ADVENTURE TRAIL THE SPICE OF LIFE A real mixed bag this month: one Quilled, one from the GAC, one from yesteryear, one icon-driven, and one or bookware, how's that for variety! The Quilled game is from a small independent named Mystic, who have tried to take the Quill format and put some new life into it. Imagination, the Graphic Adventure Creator game from Peter Torrence, looks a little dry (like all GAC games), but it's playing around four different themes is novel. The blast from the past is 8th Day's Four Minutes to Midnight. Inspired by a Stephen King novel, it has now been re-released and served up with graphics and many new commands. Using icons can be a blessing or a bugbear when it comes to adventuring, and in the case of Anco's The Kingdom of Krell I'm not altogether convinced the icons make the going easier. The game does look good, however, filling 128K of memory, and deserves praise for stepping up to 128 if nothing else. The bookware program is, as you might have guessed, The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, a Level 9>Mosaic/Virgin affair which I particularly enjoyed playing. The software follows the book (by Sue Townsend) and the TV series very closely, yet in my opinion the program has been constructed in a way which creates sufficient options to justify the addition of the computer game to the Mole phenomenon. There was another arrival this month which was most welcome - a fanzine (The Adventurers Handbook) which had metamorphised into a full-blown, professionally bound and typed adventure booklet. What impressed me about What Now? is its thorough usefulness to people like myself (or anyone else who tends to have a crack at a lot of adventures). I think the authors of the booklet must be congratulated for upping the gloss, and still finding the time to keep up the standard. The contents page, which gives some insight into the multitude of maps, solutions, and articles on offer, is followed by a curt but informative news page. Reader's letters complete what is a very full and worthwhile publication The cost is £1.50, H&D are the publishers and [redacted] is their address, though with standards as high as theirs keep an eye open for What Now?in your local computer shop. THE KINGDOM OF KRELL Producer: Anco Retail Price: £9.95 Author: S Screech I stuck this one into the cassette recorder, noticed it wasn't loading, then referred to the cover to find out that it's 128 only. So, after a trip downtown, I am now a proud owner of that new fangle Amstrad Spectrum thingie. Yes, this program is for the Spectrum 128K only (or so I assume, as it came all by itself with no info), a fact which I can only respect as the work of a true devotee, as any program only on the 128 format rules out the sales possible on the 48. Needless to say, a 128 program such as this takes a long time to load, so I wouldn't recommend sitting there watching it; sit down instead, and have a good read of the cover to get to know all the icons used, as this is very much an icon-driven affair. Now, before I get all enthusiastic, let's just run over one or two drawbacks. The program appears to consist mostly of BASIC - the only explanation I can think of to account for the games slow, plodding pace. The proceedings aren't helped along any by the need to constantly press ENTER to confirm moves or to finish a sequence. This ensures you never miss anything, but often there's nothing to miss in any case. The other question mark over this game is the convoluted over-use of icons. Icons are surety meant as an easy option over text input. Unfortunately, in this case, getting to know the icons (which often lead to sets of sub-icons) takes some effort and, again, slows things down to a ponderous plod. At the start of the adventure you can pick up a sling, and it strikes me that simply typing TAKE SUNG would be an awful lot easier than coursing your way through the Russian doll sets of icons. The landscape over which the game develops isn't altogether convincing, even though the pictures are good. There are too many locations stuck into make up the number; they don't further the story, and your memories are of an adventure filled with location descriptions which have useless go-nowhere statements such as there are 'no notable features' (spelled 'noteable' in the adventure). I'm not totally enamoured with the 'barren grassy plains'either. Having given this review a less-than-flattering start, this game can come up trumps if you put these drawbacks to one side and just get stuck in. Time for the story - and it's quite a sound one, so pay attention. Back in the misty past, a kingdom in a remote part of Britain had one strange custom. When the young men of the realm reached their eighteenth birthday, custom declared that they spent a day in the wilderness. If they survived, they were welcomed back as men worthy to take their place in society. Well, guess what, you've just turned eighteen, and there you stand on the edge of the wilderness, ready to be sent off by your friends, family and elders. Beyond sketches a bleak, mysterious, forbidding landscape. The last thing you can remember is your father proposing a toast to your future and safe return. When you regain consciousness, the crowd is gone and you are alone in the vast wilderness known as the Kingdom of Krell. Something which you will soon realise about the land of Krell is your view of it differs from the location description, as it is the adjacent location that you see in the direction you are currently looking. This is somewhat similar to Lords of Midnight in style, but I don't think it works quite as well here - there is too much sudden variation in topography to mimic the feeling of genuine travel over a real land. Hence a barren grassy plain will be accompanied by the picture of a river and trees, and as often as not, will be followed by the picture of a plain when you are now by a river. In another area you have entered the mouth of a cave with damp walls, and the picture is of a green plain! I'd admit that it would be hard to eliminate this problem, given the game's design, without copying the system used in Midnight. The game design is again found to be weak when fighting the skeleton, where hitting the creature causes a deep gash which for my liking sounds too much like a flesh-wound, and describing a skeleton as either 'dead', or as a 'carcass', doesn't quite ring true. This game very much finds its roots in Dungeons and Dragons, with an unfaltering loyalty to that world's terminology. Strength, Wisdom, Intelligence, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma are all here. As with many role-playing games, amusing ratings are in evidence such as the far from complimentary Dung-Dweller. The Kingdom of Krell is a vast, real-time adventure with a multitude of independent characters. The main menu allows the player to Move, Sleep, select Weapons, cast Spells, Take and Drop, as well as Talk to characters. Taking the Talk option to illustrate the sub menus, in this case Pleasantly, Normal, and Nastily represent the different sorts of speech possible. If a nasty creature is encountered it is possible simply to give it the slip by moving on, otherwise Attack can be evoked. Although I had reservations during the early stages of play (including annoyance at only one arrow key to return to the main menu rather than the two together outlined in the instructions), I must say that after a while the effort that has gone into producing this game does begin to make itself apparent. Once the icon system is mastered time can be taken noticing just how well the adventure is served up, and how good the graphics really are - both pictures and icons. COMMENTS Difficulty: you can play straight away but completion is another matter Graphics: very good Presentation: very smart Input facility: icons Response: adequate