The second offering from Anonymouse is a so-called role-playing
graphic adventure. So called because it is similar to
the table top swords and sorcery-style games in that you wander around an
underground network encountering various creatures and disposing of them.
Role-playing has nothing to do with it. Booting the disc results in a very swish title screen - with Demo Copy stamped across it - and from there you move to the main display. This consists of a central area that displays the current room and on the left are two thermometer-type scales showing your health and strength.
To the right is a list of statistics monitoring health and strength in numeric form, number of monsters killed, gold coins collected, number of spells available, luck - starting at six per cent - score, rating and
compass direction. These alter continuously as you proceed. At the bottom of the screen are four icons, one to show the currently mapped area and three direction arrows: Turn left, move forward and turn right. There's also a space for a save icon which wasn't available on my copy. While you are taking all this in a little message tells you that the labyrinth is being created
teleported into the labyrinth and some where there is an exit.
The main display shows the wall immediately in front of you, and to the left
and right and the basic blank walls are overlaid with a corridor exit, open door, closed door, hole in the wall or occasionally a burning torch as appropriate.
If you turn left or right the display is updated to show the new view of the current room. This system works well, but gets boring after a while.
Moving to a closed door triggers a request as towhether you wish to listen at
it or enter. On every single occasion I have listened - but heard nothing.
Hopefully the complete version will provide a message - or even genuine sound.
Having listened you can enter or withdraw.
Approaching an opening of any variety results in a message saying what's inside and either it comes out to get you or you can go to get it - it's always an it and never a them.
At this point you may also click a query icon to see if there's any information about the creature.
What you get is a picture, a short summary of its habits and the number of hits it has - apparently taken from Jane's Encyclopedia of Monsters.
Once you've encountered something you have a simple choice: Fight or follow
the example of Brave Sir Robin and valiantly run away.
Unfortunately the monster is likely to give chase so you may end up having to
fight it anyway. Once the decision to enter combat is made, you are given the chance to select your weapon from the inventory of everything you've picked up - this is the only way of looking through what you've got.
If there is any treasure lying around it is picked up automatically and you're told what it is. The sort of things you get are food, drink, potions - all of which help to restore your strength and health - weapons, magic wands and spell books.
These final items also improve your characteristics - a situation I found very curious but typical of the hack and slash genre.
I can't say I really enjoyed playing Hawksridge Labyrinth, and even with the
improvements that are promised for the finished version - digitised sound, monsters that fight back and soon - I can't help feeling it lacks life.
I play a lot of role-playing games and while I appreciate the difficulties of creating thinking monsters, Level 9 succeeded on the 8-bit BBC Micro.
Despite all the graphics, potential sound effects and smooth speed and control, Hawksridge Labyrinth is a very primitive program. If you like hitting things with no thought required, buy it.
1st April 1990
