Blade the Warrior

Your Computer

Hugo North

Spectrum Cable Software This is a text adventure, written with the aid of Gilsoft's ubiquitous Quill. The game has a largish vocabulary - over 140 verbs, fast response and an interesting plot. Your job is to hunt down the Black Witch, following in the footsteps of Mazar the Wizard who went before but has not been heard of in many moons. The game has one of the best openings I can remember seeing in an adventure. You have been chased by a large band of Orcs and in your anxiety to escape have lost all your possessions. You now stand at a dead end, a wall at your back. There is a solid door in the wall but the Orcs are closing in for the kill. The wall is unclimbable and if you think that simply rushing through the door is going to help, think again - the Orcs charge through and tear you to pieces. As they say on TV, now get out of that!

Crash

Atmosphere 9/10

Vocabulary 7/10

Logic 7/10

Debugging 10/10

Overall Value 7/10

Derek Brewster 7/10

DEREK BREWSTER'S ADVENTURE TRAIL CLAMBER UP THE TREE AND DELVE INTO THE NEST Reviewing adventure games is not a simple matter when compared to arcade games. For one thing, it takes a lot longer to do a game justice and the reviewers own prejudices can bear more upon an adventure. Leaving aside the fundamental text vs graphics, the vocabulary a game accepts can either reassure or perversely cloud the reviewer's conscience. Some adventurers have GET, others TAKE and some have both. Some use ENTER, and others GET IN, some GO object as in GO DOOR. Some adventures have tried to establish, and keep to, a standard or a reasonably uniform use of words. Others have entered the market with little prior knowledge of what is the vogue. My opinion has changed in order to fall in line with the concensus. I at first viewed GET and GO DOOR as crude but now accept these expediencies both for their ease of use and more importantly, for the simple reason that many good adventures use them, and therefore many seasoned adventurers will approach a new game expecting to be able to use them unless the cassette packaging expresses some substitutes. Dollarsoft have produced some games that display many aspects that lead me to the belief that they either haven't consulted the rest of the adventure market or have done so and rejected much of what they have found, Their adventures are strange but Black Tower, it has to be said, is original. Adventurers, judging by the mail I receive, do not dedicate their computer time to just one adventure and its problems, but have many on the boil at one time. This suggests to me that, as far as vocabulary is concerned, a few familiar commands might help ease the explorer into the adventure and any original or nonstandard features should be clearly marked on the packaging. A game that reduces me to a swearing moron all because its hallowed maker assumes my idea of an adventure is to match the first phrase that came into the author's head ,, well, that game will not endear itself to me, even if it be Sherlock itself. BLADE THE WARRIOR Producer: Cable Software Retail Price: Author: Shaun Watts You are Blade The Warrior renown for your prowess with weapons and your quest is to find and destroy the Black Witch who rules the land of Sayell far to the north. You follow the trail of Mazar the Wizard who carries with him magic strong enough to defeat the witch. The game is riddled with magic and an early sign tells you to seek gold to buy spells. Cable tell us that the game is written entirely in machine code. The layout of the screen and the characteristic Have a Nice Day! when you quit the game leave me in no doubt as to the pedigree of this game. At the first location you at once sense the rich atmosphere that pervades the whole game. In your haste to escape a large band of orcs you have lost all your possessions. Hence this game has provided a good reason for your lack of worldly goods that marks the start of all adventures. The first problem is logical and it s solution sets you off nicely. The door is locked between you and the orcs and reassuringly you see the word LOCKED blocked with inverse print to help it stand proud within the description. Similarly later, AN UNLIT TORCH is blocked red and A LIT TORCH, yellow. When you've collected a few items the inventory looks super with all the different colours. These attractive features help the game break away from the confines placed upon it by the mother Quill. A few paces east and then south brings you to a trail of blood and on through a dense thicket to a savaged body. You examine the body and it looks like a fresh kill. The word KILL is blocked out in red for emphasis should its connotations momentarily escape you. The game really impresses after a very little time for its brave departure from the conventions of the Quilled adventure. EXAMINE is not much used in this type of adventure yet here it is dynamic and helps create atmosphere. But further, the game condenses around an immensely enjoyable plot; suspense builds and subsides as in a novel. Here a trail of blood leads to a body. Later a money sack lies looted - after all, how long does loose money usually last? Smoke meets your senses before you reach the hut in the forest. Wolves are heard howling before you meet them. A troglodyte stares at you and you would be wise to heed the warning. These evocative descriptions are the very soul of a text only adventure. What is amiss is minor. The logic behind finding a torch, for example, just lying around on a leafy path strikes a flat note with me. Its funny how people and creatures are always dropping useful things in this way. It might be better, in the interests of a more believable plot, to find the torch on a dead creature or hanging up in his dwelling place. Just finding it in the middle of nowhere makes it look as if it's been planted - by the programmer. Also, that annoying adventure syndrome, the instant death, is evident when you pick up the black axe which then reveals itself, without prior warning, to be an enchanted evil weapon that turns upon the hapless victim. Blade The Warrior is a very interesting text only adventure with an enjoyable plot. Well worth taking a look at. Difficulty: Average-Difficult Graphics: None Presentation: Good Response: Instantaneous Special Features: None