Can't beat a bit of gore

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As Aldric, the horse lord, you have been given the task of delivering a message to the castle. However to reach your destination you must travel through enemy territory, and fight every step of the way.

The Horse Lord (Century) is in two stages. In the first one the screen appears rather like a board game viewed from above.

The screen displays the route to be taken, the obstacles to be overcome, and finally the castle. At this stage the user has very little to do but determine the speed at which Aldric reaches his next encounter.

This however is still important as Aldric's journey is against the clock. Take too long and the little chap falls over and spurts blood - you can't beat a bit of gore.

The second stage is entered once Aldric reaches an obstacle. At this point we are given a close up view of Aldric and his opponent. Both are large but not very detailed characters.

By pointing your sword at the enemy and banging the Return key like a madman you will soon hack him to bits. The only problem with sword play is that you tend to get hit, 10 such hits and you return to PROCspurt_blood.

Other obstacles do not involve fighting. For example, there are water jumps, and these are often the more fatal than the fights. Speed and timing are essential for a good clearance otherwise it's four faults and back to square one.

As you progress through the game you will find you have to take on opponents in pairs, an even purple horses!

These race around the screen loosing arrows willy nilly. You will probably find that two horses are no more difficult to overcome than one. because they invariably end up shooting each other.

The game was inspired by the book of the same name. I only hope the book was more exciting.

James Riddell