Big K


The Inferno

Publisher: Richard Shepherd
Machine: Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Big K #8

The Inferno

What The Hobbit is to Tolkein's novel, The Inferno is, I suppose, to Dante's epic of the same name. Not that I've actually read the thing, you understand. And comprising as it does three volumes of rather murky medieval Italian verse, only a nutter would start looking in it for help with an adventure like this.

Anyway, that traditional guide to the Underworld, Virgin, acts as a sort of Thorin except that he does actually lead the way sometimes and mercifully never once sits down and starts singing about gold. Meanwhile, you descend into the several circles of Hell, beat off harpies, lob bricks at Cerberus the three-headed dog, wade through fetid swamps and crawl across windswept plains. All very gloomy but, as far as it goes, pretty entertaining.

The trouble is, as with a lot of adventures these days, the problems you're presented with seem to be either pathetically simple or so subtle you don't even guess there's something there to be solved. Whatever, despite having descended to the fifth circle a few times, I still can't work out how I've got past Minos in the Hall of Judgement (an early obstacle) each time. Seems if you just hang around long enough he lets you through.

Otherwise, a graphic adventure with a smallish vocabulary that's neither duff not particularly revolutionary. And if I can't work out how to get into the devilish Castle of Dis...