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Level 9 have done it again. But then they always do! Not only have they produced another superb adventure, they have incorporated all the new goodies that are beginning to appear in adventures, plus more besides!

The Price Of Magik is the sequel to Red Moon, and shows off the Austins' latest and greatest parser. With a thousand word vocabulary behind it, there's all the features you might find on an Infocom game - and on cassette! Multiple commands, GET ALL, EXAMINE ALL BUT, and IT, are all supported, as well as conversation with characters in the game.

Also included is a RAM SAVE option, but best of all, is an entirely new OOPS (or 'undo') command, which takes you safely back to your last location.

Your task is to displace Myglar, before he sucks all the power from the magic crystal of which he is Guardian. Fail, and very soon there will be no magik left in the world.

Naturally, to get the better of so fearsome a magician, you'll need to use a bit of magik yourself. Unless you happen to know some, you'll have to learn - and fast.

You are told nothing, but will soon come to recognise a decent spell when you see one, and later, discover how to use it! In the course of all this, you may well suffer a few blows to your sanity, but don't worry - the less sane you are, the better a magician you become!

Magik alone will not see you through though, you'll also need to brush up on your fighting techniques. There are ghoulies and ghosties, and all sorts of other very nasty creatures lurking in the house of the Red Moon. Some attack you on sight. Others simply refuse to let you pass by. Combat is carried out in text mode, and reports on your strength points are displayed regularly whilst you're fighting.

As well as magik and combat, there are, of course, plenty of puzzles! And here I found the new features incorporated in the game make it very slick to play. Confronted by a collection of cheats, it soon became apparent that danger was lurking inside many of them. By a combination of RAMSAVEs and OOPSes, all the tedium of tape saving and loading was removed, allowing the situation to be sorted out rapidly and methodically.

Hitherto, Level 9 adventures have been identical on every one of the wide range of micros for which the games are produced. In order to make full use of the increasing memory of the average computer, slightly cut down text and reduced 'extras', are provided on smaller machines. But the C64 is up there near the top of the list, only marginally smaller than the MSX.

This is the first Level 9 product to be provided with the expensive Lenslok protection system.

The Price Of Magik is the second adventure to be produced at 'Level 9 West', the home of Pete, Nick and Mike Austin. Set on a hillside overlooking a peaceful valley, it's obviously proving an ideal retreat in which to create their special brand of magic. There are also views of Weston Super Mare, "...home town of comedians John Cleese and Jeffrey Archer..." says the inlay.

Anyway, as with all Level 9 games, one can only say, "Their best yet!"