Time Sanctuary

Crash

Atmosphere 6/10

Logic 6/10

Addictive Quality 5/10

Overall 6/10

Derek Brewster 6/10

DEREK BREWSTER'S ADVENTURE TRAIL CHANGEABLE April is a relatively quiet time in the microcomputer games world when commentators like myself and the companies which produce the games ponder on the state of the industry now that we've seen the last of those long wintry nights. Three aspects of the games playing scene have recently made themselves conspicuous. The first is the rise of the cheap game reflected in Mastertronic's standing as a chart success company. Cheap games have become much more interesting recently and have become an important and sizeable part of the market. In particular the standard of graphics has risen markedly which has gone a long way towards compensating for the lack of originality expected of such games. In turn this has put an enormous amount of pressure on the expensive games to provide not only the last word in graphic techniques but also innovative features and storylines. The strain in producing such blockbusters is almost tangible to anyone who has dabbled with the idea of writing a computer game. Expensive games require an immense amount of time and dedication on the part of the programmers. The second aspect is the demise of the small independent software house and the rise of the large combine. While the British Telecom and Ocean empires expand, so the independents have contracted, along with their innovative philosophies. Ultimate were innovative until their later games were little more than an attempt to cash in. The third aspect is the appearance of a new computer, compatible with the 48K Spectrum, which all and sundry have attempted to critically take apart. The 128K is in fact a fitting compromise between technical novelty and software compatibility. Such compatability has ensured the computer's success and promises to supply a steady stream of games which utilise more memory, display finer graphics, and encourage greater interaction. The chief beneficiary will no doubt be arcade adventures, but the arrival of the new Sinclair model will be applauded by all quarters of the computer retail sector. TIME SANCTUARY Producer: MC Lothlorien Retail Price: £7.95 Author: Peter & George Carmpouloni To put it bluntly this game is like a cut down version of Lords of Midnight without all the interesting bits. The graphical style could be described as 'art de la primary school' with blocky trees and characters depicted as small blobs. What with the large trees and small houses the whole thing looks out of proportion. What you do with the game is hardly awe-inspiring either, and its playability is limited and becomes boring. Professor Mathius Calculus has been murdered and you, his closest assistant, are under suspicion as you alone possessed the security pass to the laboratory's security door. The prof's latest invention was a time machine and rather than stick around to face the inquisition you decide to take your chances on a trip through time. Perhaps you might be able to go back in time and prevent the murder from happening. The time machine malfunctions before you can reach the Time Sanctuary. You end up in a strange land populated by tribes and the wizards which oversee them. There are villages, temples, forests, lakes and other places that you must explore before you can seriously hope to find the time machine and the fuel to propel it. The local people are a very important factor in the game and a good relationship with them will see you progress smoothly. The natives and the monsters of the land each follow their own way of life but you are able to communicate with them. Some of these are friendly, others unhelpful. Their personalities are summed up between the attributes of stamina, health, intelligence, greediness, honesty, bravery and attitude. An over-riding factor is the limited amount of time available for your quest. Should you take too long your flesh decomposes and you will have had your chips. For example, to search a house takes 15 minutes while scaring a person takes 5 minutes. This concept is a touch implausible but having the time count down on the main screen may have added something. To move about you press 1 to turn left, 3 to turn right and 2 to move forward in the chosen direction. E enters a house, M has you talking to someone while I brings up your inventory displays the time remaining. Sub options allow you to search a house (which all look much the same) and scrolling windows give you the chance to bring two words together to say something meaningful to any character you might meet. The one thing wrong with the system is its apparent arbitrariness whereby a character alternatively looks scared or does not look scared and so on. Time Sanctuary is a game let down by its looks and its playability. The characters all look the same and the game soon lapses into the familiar territory of all games which haven't quite been thought out properly - boredom. Just as a book must hook a reader less he become disinterested, so a computer game must involve the player to an extent that he wishes to more than just see the game through. COMMENTS Difficulty: takes a long time to discover what you have to do Graphics: simple Input facility: scrolling windows Response: average

One of the rooms in TIME SANCTUARY, decorated according to the minimalist school of furnishing.

Sinclair User

Overall 2/5

Richard Price 2/5

Publisher: Lothlorien Programmers: Peter and George Carmpouloni Price: £7.95 Memory: 48K Lothlorien is mainly renowned for its strategy and war games, so it was with some surprise that I looked over Time Sanctuary in its Adventuremaster series. The packaging calls it an all graphic, non-violent adventure game with landscaping - the last, a description which brings to mind games like Lords of Midnight. In reality it strongly resembles trading games and relies on the same skills. The plot is relatively simple. You have become stranded in a time warp after your time machine has malfunctioned, and need to explore the countryside around to find the chosen number of fuel units to get your machine working again. Your time in the Sanctuary is limited to 5,000 game 'minutes' - if you fail to locate your machine or find enough fuel you die. The landscape contains three villages, each populated. There are lakes, forests, a maze, temples and houses. The graphics are cheerful, blocky and rather abstract but don't have the same naturalistic strength as in games like Midnight. They do advance and recede though, and you can take views of the compass points before deciding in which direction to move. To enter houses you need to point yourself directly at them and move in. When the picture of the house vanishes you are there. Press a key and you are presented with a shot of the interior - all of which are pretty much the same except for the furniture. Once inside you get the same choice - searching, resting or leaving. If you're lucky the place may contain some useful trade items like hides, papyrus, wine and the like. With goods like this you can attempt to deal with some of the characters in the game. You locate those characters in much the same way as the houses, and then press a key to get a status screen which tells you how much they will buy and sell things for, whether they're friendly, hostile or whatever. There's also a small text window where you can run through a preset menu of questions about a preset range of options - buying, selling, scaring or asking where other characters are. Scaring folk may make them give you goods or information, so may befriending, bribing or trading - you have to work out the best approach. Every action costs game time and you must not squander your valuable minutes - it costs 15 game minutes to act friendly, 30 to rest. There is no text input from the player and every action is by single keypress. I don't find this dull in a game like Midnight, where there is plenty of action and a solid storyline, but Time Sanctuary is essentially a seek-and-find game. Though the graphics allow fast movement the game format becomes quickly repetitive. Identification with the scenario is difficult and, however much you buy, sell and scare, you are still going through similar motions all the time. I began to feel I was playing an illustrated land management program. Fair enough if you're into that sort of thing but I'm not sure I'd call it adventure.