Commodore User


Zodiac/The Secret Of Life

Author: Keith Campbell
Publisher: Incentive
Machine: Commodore 64/128

 
Published in Commodore User #51

Zodiac

Your mission is to find the twelve signs of the Zodiac and deliver them to the evil wizard Ramus, before he destroys your tribe.

The method of solving the rather weak problems in this adventure, is to visit every location possible, pick up everything in sight, and then proceed to open up new exists. Initially, there are some temporary dead ends, which is proceeded beyond, result in instant death. But provided you are carrying the required object, the problem dissolves. Thus it is possible, by chance, to visit the locations in the right order, and walk through much of the game without encountering any difficulties!

For example, there is a chest in a cottage, which must be unlocked, and hides the exit to a swamp. The swamp cannot be entered without a pair of wellies - but you only need to hold them, you don't need to actually wear them. So if you happen to come across the key and the wellies before venturing into the chest no problem presents itself.

The graphics are small, fairly meaningless pictures surrounded by a rather large border which is identical for every location, except in colour.

A simple adventure, ideal for beginners, but without the necessary mystery and imagination to get them hooked on adventure games.

The Secret Of Life

This is a three part adventure, involving finding the secret of life in two houses. When you enter the first house, you find the way you came in has vanished, leaving you stuck inside - unless you can find the way out. You must also find the password to take you into Part 2 of the game.

Mundane pictures accompany most of the locations - passages, stairways and bedrooms make very boring viewing. And there's some odd bugs around - the first bedroom I searched not only had its own private bathroom, but a bath in the bedroom itself! Strange...

Try as I might, I found the game unplayable! The combination of colours at a number of locations - green on an orange background - rendered the text completely illegible on my TV, despite adjusting colour, contrast, and brightness in every conceivable combination. And I do not blame the TV. I have been using it to play and review adventures ranging from minor Quilled and GACked ones, to major Level 9 and Magnetic Scrolls epics, on all manner of computers including the C64 and Atari ST, for years, with no problems.

Perhaps this might actually be an absorbing game - but I would only recommend it if you are the sort who can solve adventure with your eyes closed.

Keith Campbell

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