Amstrad Action


Winter Wonderland
By Incentive
Amstrad CPC464

 
Published in Amstrad Action #17

Winter Wonderland

Not content with hunting for Apache gold, Incentive is also busy investigating lost civilisations amid the snowfields of the frozen mountain ranges of Tibet. On a mission to check out the evidence for the aforesaid civilisation you come a cropper in your plane and have to strike out on your own across some very inhospitable territory.

Winter Wonderland features the usual GAC format, though I didn't think the graphics were quite as good as Apache Gold. Perhaps that's because it's rather more difficult to draw convincing snowscapes than it is to draw wigwams. The puzzles in the first part of the game aren't that tricky either - once you've learnt to avoid thin ice and mastered the use of a flare pistol.

There are the normal parsing disappointments here. Despite GAC's ability to cope with complex inputs the game is only as good as the programmer and, for example, the input "WEAR SNOW SHOES" gets you the response "Just ignore it" simply because the program was expecting "WEAR SNOWSHOES"...! Ah, well.

Having found your way out of the snowfields and the neighbouring mountains you stumble across a Shangri-La-type city complete with hotel and receptionist ("We've been expecting you..."). From there on the game takes on a rather cosier aspect, but the puzzles make up for this by getting somewhat tougher.

Not bad, but then you are paying £7.50 for it and I can't help feeling that this game - and Apache Gold - should have been released at a considerably reduced price. GAC is a great utility and Incentive may justifiably regard it as a licence to print money as well as a program to produce games, but in this case I don't think it's going to pay off.

The Pilgrim

Other Amstrad CPC464 Game Reviews By The Pilgrim


  • The Legend Of Apache Gold Front Cover
    The Legend Of Apache Gold
  • The Lost Phirious Part 2: The Planets Front Cover
    The Lost Phirious Part 2: The Planets
  • Seabase Delta Front Cover
    Seabase Delta
  • The Test Front Cover
    The Test
  • Murder On The Atlantic Front Cover
    Murder On The Atlantic
  • Slaine Front Cover
    Slaine
  • Bestiary Front Cover
    Bestiary
  • Double Gold: Black Fountain Plus Sharpe's Deeds Front Cover
    Double Gold: Black Fountain Plus Sharpe's Deeds
  • Stationfall Front Cover
    Stationfall
  • The Price Of Magik Front Cover
    The Price Of Magik