When it was originally released last year, Ishar was justifiably praised as being one of the best role-playing games you could get for your ST and was awarded 90%. Now the game's programmers, Silmarils, have released a Falcon version of Ishar, with the promise of many more games to come.
Ishar: Legend Of The Fortress tells the tale of a power struggle between the people of Kendoria and the evil Krogh, a mysterious figure who wants to unleash the forces of darkness upon the land. It's your job to recruit a motley band of warriors, wizards and thieves, before embarking on a treacherous journey through Kendoria for a confrontational meeting with Krogh himself.
The Falcon version of Ishar's been ported across from the PC, and it shows. The first thing you notice is that the colours have been considerably enhanced - with 256 shades instead of 16, the graphics are a lot more detailed, gibing the game an even more realistic atmosphere than before.
This is helped by the improved sound effects, with more sampled sounds than before. However, by far the biggest improvement has been in the gameplay. Ishar now plays a lot faster, so you don't have to wait so long between each mouse-click for the screen to update itself. The end result is smoother, swifter scrolling which means it's a heck of a lot easier to get around.
Verdict
There are no real surprises here. The Falcon version of Ishar: Legend Of The Fortress is identical to the ST version in almost every respect - only the enhanced sound and graphics enable you to tell them apart. To be fair to Silmarils, Ishar wasn't intended to be an all-singing, all-dancing version on the Falcon - it was just a quick conversion job to cash in on the machine's popularity. To see what the Falcon's really capable of, you're going to have to wait for Ishar 2 which is due for release at the end of May.
Highs
The first Falcon game! A faster game engine and enhanced graphics make this a must if you don't have the ST version.
1st July 1993
