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This is the sequel to Firienwood, MP's first adventure, which took its name from the forest in which much of the action took place. MP claim that no prior knowledge of Firienwood is required and since I haven't as yet seen it and I've managed to finish this adventure, I have to agree.

In rescuing the golden bird of paradise in the previous game you inadvertently released an evil genie. Now, a few years later, you set out to kill the genie and restore peace to the land. Hopefully, you'll get it right this time!

You start your quest close to the castle, scene of your previous triumph, and after a couple of TURNS (hint!), you manage to reach the castle and obtain some of the equipment. This includes a password which will see you through to the main part of the adventure.

After a few more moves the PRESSURE begins to tell (yet another hint!), and you find yourself in Firienwood itself.

From this point on the tension mounts and you are presented with numerous puzzles to solve and red herrings to ignore. Also, for any Dungeons and Dragons fans who might be playing, you are frequently given the opportunity to fight goblins and thereby increase your score. Since I managed to complete the adventure without killing a single goblin I can only assume that this option is merely to pad out the adventure a bit.

Perhaps the idea is that having completed the game, you can go through it again to try to achieve a high score. First time I ever heard of an adventure having a top ten!

Anyway, after a lot more red herrings, a trip underground and a visit to the diamond mines, you manage to complete the adventure. At this point I felt it was all a bit of an anti-climax. In retrospect I can say that it is perfectly possible to solve this adventure without even meaning to. Only about 20 per cent of the puzzles and locations have any bearing on what happens.

It's a large program, completely written in machine code, very fast and has an excellent save-game routine. The layout on-screen - using different colours for text, messages and so on - is very impressive.

The thing lacking is a feeling of cohesion between the puzzles and the purpose of the adventure. In view of this I feel that the experienced adventurer would be disappointed if he bought this program. For the novice, however, I think it is ideal. Many of the puzzles that have a direct bearing on the adventure are fairly easy to solve and there are plenty of locations to explore once the initial problems are overcome.

All in all, a competent piece of programming but for the complete novice only.

Merlin