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After the likes of Eye Of The Beholder 2, is there really any need for games like this?

Shock horror. Yet another mediocre RPG lands on my desk. Do these people really think I have nothing better to do with my time?

Look back over the last six or seven issues and you will see some truly awesome RPGs. Legend, Ishar, Storm Master, Eye Of The Beholder II, they've got it all - great graphics, good sound and most importantly, instant playability. Even more importantly, this playability lasts throughout the game keeping you coming back time and time again. Now let's see what Treasure Of The Savage Frontier has, shall we? Great graphics? Nope. Good sound? Nope. Okay, so it has playability factor, yes? No.

The first thing that will strike you about Treasure is the amount of disk swapping and accessing that goes on. Just to load the option screen takes three or four swaps (!) and heaven forbid if you want to do anything clever on this screen, or even in the game. If ever a game was designed to wear your disk drive out then this is it. It takes forever to set up a party and actually get into the game. I know that RPG fans are used to this but they shouldn't have to be. Nothing ever needs to be this unfriendly.

Everyone knows that SSI have a great reputation for producing some of the best role-players around. It's just such a pity that they haven't caught up with the times yet and realised that you can have good graphics in a role-playing game. In the old days, people didn't expect much in the way of aesthetics, but it's been proved that it can be done. Take a look at Dungeon Master and the Eye Of The Beholder games if you don't believe me. The graphic style used in Treasures is out of date, and it looks it. They are simplistic in the extreme and occupy such a small area of the screen.

Speed is another thing that lets the game down badly. As if all that disk swapping wasn't enough, just moving around the play area takes ages. After a while it seems that just about every move has to be loaded in separately and if you happen to come across some creatures you want to fight then be prepared for some major swapping hassles, both before and after the event. While we're on the subject of fighting, the combat is just about as exciting as watching paint dry, but it's a close contest. This D&D system has had its day; it's time for something new.

Even an RPG fan would be driven nuts trying to get anywhere in this game - this takes slow to whole new extremes. Even with a coupe of disk drives it takes a lifetime to make any real progress through the game, and if you only own a single drive, hah, forget it! Unlike most RPGs this one doesn't even support a hard drive! If you're going to have a big game you need to be able to install it on a hard drive, and why one isn't found here is completely beyond me.

How can I put this without upsetting the old-fashioned RPG fans? Don't buy this. There are so many excellent role-playing games out there that this one should be left to fade away into the background while the real things take centre stage. An outdated waste of time and effort.

Treasures Of The Savage Frontier just goes to show that even if you have a tried-and-tested formula, it'll eventually go stale. It's just a very bad RPG. Go for one of the many excellent games out there instead.