Diving straight into the game reveals a full screen display of
the Repton variety - it's OK, don't hide yet - with a status
screen across the top. Your character is a hooded monk who
moves through the maze, which scrolls beautifully, trying to
get through various puzzles. Unlike Repton, he does have
some offensive power.
You begin with 999 points of power plus the ability to throw
fireballs - but this uses lots of power. You can take many items
just by moving over them to add to your score. Some - like
bunches of grapes - boost your power and the ball lightning
puts you back to max, so shouldn't be wasted.
Difficulties include most greenery which drain power if you
touch it and various rotating objects - I can't imagine what
they're supposed to be! - which are equally lethal. Then there
are puzzles on a simple level. Most passages are blocked
and, as you can only throw fireballs left and right you can
only remove them by shooting through walls.
Keys lying around are needed to open doors - but some
doors require two keys so it's very easy to half open a door
and then find you need the key somewhere else. So there is
an exact order of solution.
The first level is fairly straightforward, the only tricky bit
lies in getting the keys right - but the second level is horrendous.
It lulls you into a false sense of security with a simple
little puzzle to start. Then hits you with a one-way wall -
knock out the barriers first or you can stuck very quickly - and
when you've done that there's nowhere else to go.
You can see lots more of the maze at the edges of the
screen but there's no way to get to it - and your energy is
clicking down all the time. You really wish you could walk
through walls - and that's a hint.
The sound is digitised and very good, full of yeahs, greats,
phoomms. As for the sheep - believe me you'll come to hate them.
Thundermonk is interesting and fairly enjoyable but I
wouldn't say it had me rushing back for more. Like most Minerva
games it is competently programmed has impressive graphics but
ultimately the gameplay inspired a wave of indifference. The
Archimedes is an exciting machine - when are we going to have
games to match?
1st July 1989
