Soul Searching

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After the success of their Rick Hanson adventure games, Robico has embarked on another trilogy entitled Realm Of Chaos, Part One: Village Of The Lost Souls - finds you in the shoes of Nathan, the novice cleric. Your quest is to search out the infamous occultist Rhys Belroth, Lord-Talent of Dinham.

Starting from a mysterious ring of stones, you must explore the countryside and the nearly village of Dinham.

Movement through the land is relatively easy, with plenty of intriguing locations to explore before encountering any dead-ends. As with any adventure, it is advisable to map the land. This can be difficult, as the locations don't necessarily fit together as their compass bearings suggest. Humour traditionally plays a big part in a good adventure and this is no exception. Comments vary from the foolish and inane to the downright sarcastic. On examining the habit in which you are dressed, it turns out that 'It is a dirty habit'! The disc version for the BBC contains several 'enhancements' over the tape. One particularly good feature allows you to load or save your current position to or from a buffer in memory - no awkward changing of discs. Finally, the addition of WHAT, WHERE and WHO AM I? gives you an explanation of who you are and what you must do. By using WHERE with the name of an object, its location can be discovered. One word of warning: knowing the location of an object and knowing how to get there are different matters!

With a definite slump in the release of adventures over the last few months, it is a relief to find a software house producing consistently first-class games. Although the current trend is towards 'graphic adventures', I find that text-only games can be just as much fun and often more imaginative. Village Of Lost Souls definitely falls into this category and is a must for any 'traditional' adventurer.

Robert Miller