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Pilgrim is an original machine-code adventure with plenty of text, and over 70 locations. It has a range of interesting puzzles, some to be taken in one's stride, others more baffling.

The land of Meridian has been invaded by a warlike race from Sylvian, a distant neighbour. You, a lad whose village has been pillaged, vow to seek out the Guardian of Meridian, said to live deep in a mountain. You awake in your room, straight into the problem of how to get out.

Not difficult, nor particularly original, but enough to start building the adventurer's confidence, and give him the general drift of how to approach the problems to get the most out of the game.

Pilgrim makes good use of the command EXAMINE, and this is what gives any adventure one of its essential ingredients - the element of surprise! It also teaches the adventurer to be observant. Fail to examine things thoroughly in this game at your peril!

The text is very descriptive, and tries hard to build the atmosphere. In this, it almost succeeds, but tends to overdo the narrative in "empty places". Thus the player can easily become convinced there is something sinister behind a particular description, only to find that it is just a "walk-through" location.

This, coupled with a tendency to take itself just a little too seriously, lacking that vital thread of humour which adds so much to any game, makes Pilgrim a little disappointing.

Setting out, then, our hero must first explore his village. There are quite a number of potentially fatal events lurking around, and these are well handled, for good warning is given, and repeated for some moves before death finally strikes.

With a bit of quick thinking there is a chance that the danger will be overcome before the player dies, and finds he has to reload a saved game, or start all over again.

For example, an injury sustained whilst escaping the first room, because a problem, and our hero is warned of this time and time again before the wound finally takes its toll. There is time enough to look around and get a remedy, if he is quick!

On through the village, an into the forest, in search of the Guardian. Soon enough you find that you are not alone - another survivor of the raid also has the same thoughts as you! There is a particularly nicely worked puzzle with a built-in pitfall around the lake, and a logical but, perhaps, slightly obscure one near a cliff.

All in all, this is a game that should please those who enjoy a text adventure. It is a rare event, these days, to see a new text-only adventure (unless it has been Quilled) and rarer still to see one on the shelf in a big store.

Let's hope the store buyers, who seem to have a horror of anything without pictures, and who influence adventure playing far more than reviewers simply by restricting availability, will have the sense to stock this one!