Previous Next

This is not a novel in the sense of interactive function. True, the player interacts, but in a very limited way. Play is by narrative text, after each sequence of which, he is presented with a series of choices - often as few as two, and frequently so obvious as to be a waste of time.

You play the part of D'Artagnan, and your beloved Constance hands you a letter, which the Queen urgently needs delivered to England. Will you accept the mission? You answer: "Yes I am more than willing to accept the challenge of her majesty the Queen's mission". Or: "Alas, this mission seems all too grand for me, and I do not want to risk my own nor any other man's life to save the noble Queen..."

The choices available are displayed separately, and cycled by pressing the space bar. RETURN is pressed to select, when the player had decided which to choose. Although these are perhaps the most obvious of the series of selections to be made, few require much tonight. Where a more plentiful number of choices is available, they are listed on a single screen, menu fashion and selected by number.

Movement from place to place is possible when a choice of action is not presented, and this is effected by use of the four function keys, which are used for N, S, E and W respectively.

The player, on occasions, is force into an action he does not wish. For example, accidentally arriving at the gates of Paris before I was ready to depart, I had no alternative but to go through and leave the city, for the program took over, showed my papers to the guard, and he ushered me through. I felt like an old lady being forcibly helped across a road she does not wish to cross.

There are logical inconsistencies in the program, too. Having prematurely departed from the city without my companions, I encountered a supporter of Richelieu. I encountered a support of Richelieu. I was offered the choice of killing the man myself, or selecting any of my three absent companions to do the job!

A monotonous dirge accompanies the unfolding novel, and perhaps the only saving grace of the program is the graphics - mostly digitised cameos, sometimes in black and white, sometimes in sepia, occasionally in colour and always very pleasing to the eye. 'Game' is hardly an apt description of Three Musketeers - and the degree of interaction leaves one feeling decidedly uninvolved. Worth a walk-through, though, if this type of approach appeals.