C&VG


Klartz And The Dark Forces

Author: Simon Marsh
Publisher: Dungeon
Machine: Dragon 32

 
Published in Computer & Video Games #35

Klartz and the Dark Forces

Wow! What a title! The object of this game is to destroy the evil Klartz who travels through time and space corrupting the very fabric of the universe. To achieve this, you must assemble the relics of his victims under the power of light. In theory, this should radiate enough power to destroy Klartz.

To find the relics, you must travel through five different time zones in your time capsule. The zones are early solar, mid-solar, late solar, far space and outer galaxy.

Each zone has a topical problem. For example, in the Roman time you must get past a Roman guard. The problems that confront you get harder as the game progresses.

Klartz And The Dark Forces

Unfortunately, the game is not as inspiring as its title or the description might suggest. It would have been a lot easier if it had been written with the user in mind. After all, who knows what they have done wrong if the computer replies ILLEGAL INPUT. PLEASE RECOMPUTE?

The HELP command is of no help either. The only message I could get was MESSAGE DELETED BY THE ORDER OF KLARTZ. Well, I don't know about you, but I feel that in Adventures you are meant to battle against the puzzles and not the author's apathy towards the player. For me, the game was ruined by its unfriendliness.

The lack of help when you make a mistake is very annoying and, in my opinion, Mike Meineck, the author, should have replaced the PLEASE RECOMPUTE message with I DO NOT UNDERSTAND (VERB/NOUN). In the absence of this, my only option was to try different verbs and nouns until the computer knew what I was talking about.

Klartz And The Dark Forces

Klartz is quite large, but I could not travel through all its realms for the reason that either the game was too difficult for me, or its logic too strange. I favour the latter but then I'm biased. To be fair, the game would have been worth buying if it wasn't for all these minor things.

There are three versions: a cut down Dragon 32/64 version, a 48k Spectrum version and one with expanded graphics for the Commodore 64 which runs in 120k in two parts! I played the Dragon version.

There is a prize for the first person to complete the game on Dragon and Commodore - a disc drive for their respective computers. If the mention of a prize has whetted your appetite, here is a tip from the author: "... You have to explore five different zones in time and space to recover the relics of lost civilisations. You need a good knowledge of the supernatural to complete the last part of the game!!"

Simon Marsh

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