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Noble savagery meets high technology in Palace's arcade adventure

Far off in the future the Earth is transformed into an irradiated wasteland by nuclear war. Over the centuries a new racce of primitive hunters emerged. The preferred a peaceful life but it did not last for long. Alien invaders conquered Earth and put the tribe into slavery. The ruling aliens created a stronghold deep insidde an extinct volcano. Powerless to fight the invaders' advanced weapons the tribesmen seem doomed, but the elders recall the legend of "a sacred armour" that could enable a man to withstand the radiation levels of the volcano and destroy the aliens' citadel. Tal, the strongest warrior, is selected by the elders to attempt this last ditch effort to save the people from slavery.

This scenario is brought to life by the inclusion of a 16 page comic book drawn by the game's designer Dan Malone. It makes a nice change from wading through grandiose prose that usually accompanies similar games and means that you have a clear idea of what you, as Tal, are out to accomplish.

The comic book also creates an atmosphere before you enter the game itself. This atmosphere is enhanced by the graphics which are among the most attractive and detailed to be seen on the Spectrum to date. Tal himself is a large figure, convincingly athletic and certainly not lacking in the jump department. His first objective is to locate the Anti-Rad suit and he can pick up an endless supply of rocks to help him knock out the nasties who stand in his way.

The throwing action takes a bit of getting used to - that's because it's lifelife. Rocks are hurled not in a straight line but in an arc which makes pin point accuracy essential.

Among the early contenders to whittle down your lives are hanging slothes who are deadly if they grab you, flying insects with "delayed intelligence" (i.e. they will give you a few seconds before they home in on you) and acid rain droplets which are instantly lethal.

Once you have located the suit, you can activate it simply by standing in front of it. Activating the suit brings the display panel at the foot of the screen flickering into action. The panel includes indicators for armour energy levels and Tal's stamina, geiger counter, tactical message read-out, and component indicator. This last indicator shows you are four components short of using the suit to accomplish the mission.

So you have to leave the security of the suit in order to find the 'grav boos'. This natty line in turbo-charged footwear will enable you to get into the suit and get airborne. Although you can hover quite effectively in the suit in order to pick up essential objects such as a particle negator pulsar beam and the implosion mine to blow up the alien HQ, you need to get out of the suit again from time to time. This results in plenty of hazardous nipping in and out of the sacred armour. One problem to avoid is parking your suit on a level to which you can't return. To alleviate this problem, there is a transporter concealed in the forest, which will return you to the suit wherever you have left it.

As you progress through the game, the obstacles of course become more difficult. A particularly tricky sequence involves running the gauntlet through a series of firebreathing dragon statues. The flames look very convincing and of course take a toll on your energy. The radiation rises to deadly levels the nearer you get to your objective, and it's a real race against time to plant the bomb before you succumb to the gamma rays. One moment of hesitancy, one false move and it's game over.

Antiriad is extremely pleasureable to play and the difficulty level has been pitched just about right. Palace's previous games Cauldron and Cauldron 2 certainly gave no quarter as far as difficulty is concerned, and it may be that the appeals of stumped Cauldron players have persuaded Palace to make Antiriad just a shade easier. Most games players will however find Antiriad is hard (but fair).

Overall, Antiriad is an excellent package that has been presented with an expert eye for detail. The post-holocaust scenario is hardly new to computer games but with Antiriad, effective twists and touches have been added to make it stand above the crowd.

A Monster Hit.