Previous Next

This journey is a Middle-Earth type of adventure, with a somewhat unusual feature; you don't have to discover tricky words in order to explore it. However, there are some complicated problems to be overcome, involving devious use of the various recognised words.

This is one of the new style real-time interactive adventures. The real-time being of paramount importance, as the characters do have a limited amount of individual choice of action. Also, certain events will periodically occur which you must take advantage of, if you are to succeed.

The objective is to explore the many lands and finally locate the white ship of the Elves. The interactive feature will need to be regularly used, as you will certainly require help from the other characters in order to complete your quest. To obtain this, you must first gain their trust; how you achieve this is another of the game's puzzles which must be solved by trial and error tactics.

Limited use of graphics is made, although they do not add much to the game. There are only some 75 locations, but many must be explored before you are finished.

Various clues are carefully scattered throughout the locations, hidden by the use of a symbolic language. Hence the early stages consist of explorations to work out this code. Once deciphered, the clues will guide your actions during the adventure.

Always examine things thoroughly and use the help of others to defeat your enemies, if possible. If you must attack any of the guardians yourself, make sure you are strong enough and have a suitable weapon to hand. The use of 'real-time' will aid you in this task. How you act determines how the other characters react towards you, so think carefully.

The final solution to this adventure is quite devious and will involve much thought, as well as frequent saving of useful stages of play. As always, careful mapping of all locations is essential.

In conclusion a refreshing adventure because of the well-defined vocabulary. It's nice to know that if you're not getting anywhere, it's not solely due to the fact that you can't think of the right words to use. Hopefully this trend in adventuring will continue in the future, well worth the tape price.