Received: from uucp-gw-1.pa.dec.com by s.ms.uky.edu id aa05248; 15 Jan 92 22:44 GMT Received: by uucp-gw-1.pa.dec.com; id AA23078; Wed, 15 Jan 92 14:32:54 -0800 Received: by limbo; Wed, 15 Jan 92 14:28:32 pst Date: Wed, 15 Jan 92 14:28:32 pst Message-Id: <9201152228.AA06310@limbo.intuitive.com> From: Info-Source To: abbott@ms.uky.edu Subject: Re: Your Request For Information X-Mailer: The Info-Source System (send Digital.Games/Digests/Digest.24) Digital Games Review Digest, Number 24 Tuesday, April 30th 1991 TG-16: CD-ROM game overview NES: Mega Man 3 Genesis: Whip Rush Shining And The Darkness Lynx: Gates of Zendocon PC: Death Knights of Krynn King's Quest V Dark Heart of Uukrul Eye of The Beholder ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: ppplee@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Peter Lee) Subject: TG-16: CD-ROM game overview Date: Fri, 8 Mar 91 1:58:07 PST Here are some thoughts on Japanese CD games that I've been able to play on my TG-CD. Urusei Yatsura: Stay with You - This game is a simple RPG based on the characters of a very popular anime series in Japan. Not being a fan of RPG's and knowing very little Japanese, BUT being a fan of the series, I loved this game. There is lots to do and the game is very, very long. Real voices are used throughout this game (there must be *hours* of dialogue!). The graphics are spectacular and the game is a lot of fun, mainly due to the fun of the storyline, and the ability to become one of the characters. I can't say that the game is very difficult though, since I solved it with just a *little* bit of help from a translator (my mom :-)). A great game, but I seriously doubt that it will EVER come out over here. Too bad. Ranma 1/2 - This is another game based on a popular anime series in Japan. This time, though, the game is basically all action. I *really* like this game too. Great graphics and animation, BGM, and of course the use of real voices during intermission sequences. Oh yeah, the action is not shooting, but rather of the kick/punch/jump variety. This game has a better chance of making it to the US than the UY game, but not without a major restructuring of the underlying story. Again, too bad. JB Harold Series #1: Murder Club - This game is a detective RPG that is fun, but suffers from being way too easy, provided you're patient. The mystery is quite long, though. I knew who the killer was about 3/4 of the way through, but there is no way to end it until he confesses. Oh yeah, this game was playable in either English or Japanese and real voices were used throughout. Graphics were adequate, nothing special. The BGM was very repetitive, but could be turned off (as could the voices, leaving just text). The game can be solved using the brute force method (just do EVERYTHING), though, and that is its major drawback. I hear this game is coming out for the TG-CD very soon. I wonder what changes, if any, will be made. Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? - This is a translation of a popular computer game that was *VERY* disappointing. The graphics are poor, the sound effects suck beans, and the gameplay is slow and tedious. I forced myself to solve the game. It is way too short, and way too easy to be a CD game. The only saving grace was each place's theme music, but that fades out as soon as you press a button. I'm very disappointed that they didn't use the amazing storage capabilities of the CD-ROM to make this game a real challenge. Oh yeah, it was bilingual, but only in the sense that the text was readable in English. There is absolutely no use of real voice anywhere in the game. A shameful waste of a potentially good idea (sorry Tommy). Shanghai II - This is a CD version of a popular tile-removing game. I adore this game. Not only is it very addicting, but it has loads of spectacular features to it. Wonderful music, clear and colorful graphics, and smooth gameplay are big pluses. There are six starting tile patterns to choose from, and that is my only regret. With the CD you can probably have LOTS more than just six! I keep seeing a listing for the game Shanghai as a TurboChip card, but have yet to see it. The CD is wonderful, but I really don't think that it will be brought to the US (especially if a TurboChip is to be released). Super Darius - My favorite "SHOOT!!!" game for the TG-16 overall. The CD just makes the game even more likable. The graphics are really nice and the music is just-right. What I like especially, though, are the end-stage bosses. There are 26 and EACH one fills the screen and is different (and I don't just mean different coloring!). The challenge to this game though is its difficulty. It is extremely difficult, even on the "normal" difficulty level, thus lots of practice is involved (most of practice, though, is learning where and when things appear, 'cuz it's always the same). This game has reportedly been coming soon for the TG-CD since the TG's inception. My last chat with the folks on the TG hotline informed me that the game has been indefinitely pulled from the schedule for US release (that was back in mid-Jan.). Now, some vid-rags are saying that it will be released this year. The game is great, and if you like SHOOT!!! games like me, than this is a must get when/if it comes out here (o/w get it in Japan, where it's actually pretty scarce, trust me). ------------------------------ From: Chris & Mark Runyan Subject: NES: Mega Man 3 Date: Mon, 11 Mar 91 21:11:56 pst It seems that everything has a sequel these days and especially popular things seem to have more than one sequel. Well, Mega Man has proven to be exceptionally popular, so here's another one! And, as with most sequels, while it can stand on its own, it is probably best to have known the originals first. Mega Man 3 has you facing an incredibly complex set of deathtrap mazes that you must thread you way through, using brains, sharp reflexes, your blaster, and, at times, your trusty MegaDog, Rush. You start with your choice of 8 primary opponents, each with their own maze. You must fight your way through the maze to face the Robot Master, then you must vanquish the insane Robot Master. Upon killing off the Robot Master, you acquire that Master's weapon. Choose carefully which order you defeat the Robot Masters in, for you may need the weapons of one Master to defeat the next. Once you've defeated a Robot Master and have acquired the new weapon, you learn the secret password that will allow you to restart the game at a later time so you don't have to fight through that maze again. This particular feature is a necessity, for I doubt many players would enjoy constantly rethreading some of these difficult mazes every time they wanted to continue the game. Chris (age: 9) finds the game fascinating. Of course, he played it enough to defeat the first 8 Robot Masters (and, yes, the game doesn't end when you do that), so he acquired the 8 new weapons and all the Rush capabilities. He is constantly experimenting with the weapons and Rush powers in an attempt to defeat the next level. Still, despite the fact that he has done quite well so far, he is often frustrated by his inability to translate what he knows must be done into actions for Mega Man, because the fingers don't dance across the controls fast enough at times. The fact that the graphics tend to slow way down when the screen fills up with animated attackers has thrown off his timing on several occasions. Still, he struggles to defeat the next level so he can get one more password so he doesn't have to continuely race through the same death mazes. He was pleased with the fact that the player gets to choose which Robot Master to attack next. It helped to get over any monotony that might show up from having to face the same maze over and over until you got the reactions proper to get through it. When I (age: 30) attempt to play, I find that I just don't have the reflex speed necessary to play using the normal NES controls. The A and B buttons are shoot and jump, respectively, and when you need to do both in the proper order, I find myself blundering about with my thumbs. To make matters worse, the height to which you jump and how long you stay in the air seems to depend on how long you hold down the button, so if you let up at the wrong time to hit the shoot button, you may end up dropping into a very inconvenient situation. How bad do I do? Well, while Chris has defeated the first 8 Robot Masters and started on the Mystery creatures, I have yet to actually survive a death maze to the point where I can face one of the Robot Masters (even with the "aid" of Chris calling out the next action I need to take). Chris's biggest disappointment is that defeating the Mystery Creatures doesn't provide him with any new weapons to face the next Mystery creature, while mind is that I can't even get through a maze (and after watching Chris defeat one of the Robot Masters, I'm not sure how I'd do against one if I got that far). So, the final word on this game is: if you want to play, make sure you've got Mega-fast thumbs! There are many points where you have to think your way through the maze, but reflexes count for nearly everything. I may know what jumps I have to make in order to get through Magnet Man's maze, but it doesn't matter if I can't make the jumps at precisely the right moment. Still, if you have fast reflexes, you'll probably find this to be a totally consuming game. Graphics: 7 Good images but annoying slow downs Sound: 8 Good music; good audio cues Fun Level: 6 I couldn't play it; Chris played often Intuitive Feel: 5 You can confuse the buttons Documentation: 4 Only important points covered Overall: 8 Fun if you can react fast enough MEGA MAN 3, By CAPCOM, U.S.A., for the Nintendo Entertainment System ------------------------------ From: exuhag@exurchn1.ericsson.se (James Hague) Subject: Genesis: Whip Rush Date: Mon, 8 Apr 91 13:58:32 CDT Whip Rush for the Sega Genesis, already twice reviewed in Digital Games, has achieved the status of a "classic" Genesis game (in other words, it is over six months old and still on the market). Originally $49.99, I've seen it discounted to $29.99, so it may find a new (and poorer?) audience. Hence a new review. This is yet another one of those side-perspective scrolling shoot-everything-collect-power-ups-kill-bosses science fiction kinda shoot-em-ups. I assume everyone knows how these things work. Like most games of a similar species, the thrill is in discovering new obstacles and scenery ("Hey, I reached level four! Oh, man, oh--HEY DAVE GET UP HERE I'M ON LEVEL FOUR!) and not on scoring (why does the game even keep track?). Once you've mastered a level there's little incentive for a repeat performance. And while there is a multitude of enemy and terrain, there is absolutely *no* consistency between the four levels; they may as well be separate games. Whip Rush is distinctive in that the game does not always scroll horizontally to the left, but also up, down, and horizontally in the other direction. All the while, your very un-aerodynamic looking ship points to the right, so you're not always facing your attackers. Indeed, sometimes you are flying at them *backward*. Of course, different power-ups will let you shoot in different directions, so it isn't quite as bad as it sounds. The bosses are...well, bosses. They are big and slow and require seven-hundred shots to kill. The power-ups are also standard fare, except for a funny little shooting satellite-buddy thingy called a "power claw." You can change the firing direction of this contraption as well as its distance from your ship. While this targeting ability does come in handy, it is tricky to control in the midst of battle. The distance adjustment especially, requiring two buttons be pressed simultaneously. There's also a peculiar "speed control" feature which lets you change the speed of your ship, but does *not* change the speed of the scrolling (?!?). In effect, you select the sensitivity of your ship to movement of the controller. This is often useful but gives the game a very loose feel and, as a bonus, is awkward to use. Graphics are pretty average, if a bit wasteful. For example, there is a large, detailed, pseudo-boss near the beginning of level one. This so-called "Sandwich Man" is so incredibly wimpy--you can easily defeat him the first time you play--that you have to wonder why it was included at all. Surely, the memory occupied by these graphics could have been put to better use. Sound effects are also average, but the music is pretty tasty. Or so I thought when I first started playing. The tunes at the beginning of level one are great, but are very inconsistent from there on. Whip Rush was never really anything to write home about and now that is has been very much surpassed by the popular Thunder Force III and Gaiares, there really isn't any reason to bother with it, even at a substantial discount. All these sort of games are just so close in concept and play mechanics that you might as wll get the best and forget the rest. And Whip Rush, if definitely not the best. GAMEPLAY/FUNNESS: 3 (major factor) CONCEPT/ORIGINALITY: 2 (major) GRAPHICS: 5 (minor) SOUND: 6 (minor) DIFFICULTY: 7 (just for reference) OVERALL RATING: 3 Whip Rush for the Sega Genesis by Renovation Products, $49.99 (but probably available for much less). ------------------------------ From: milton@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Milton W. Kuo) Subject: Genesis: Shining And The Darkness Date: Sat, 13 Apr 91 21:52:36 -0500 Shining And The Darkness is Sega's newest role playing game featur- ing 8 Mbits of code and battery back up. Developed by the programmers who wrote the phenomenonally successful Dragon Quest series, Shining And The Darkness is Sega's most highly anticipated role playing game. One of the original misgivings I had about this game was the lack of originality in the selection of character names. The people who will eventually join you on your quest, a mage and a hobbit, are named Merlin and Bilbo, respectively. For me, this did not seem like an auspicious start for such a heavily promoted game. However, once I started playing the game, I realized that while the names are rather contrived, the ac- tual plot and game play of the game is quite interesting. The story begins with the evil Mephisto's kidnapping of the prin- cess Clea. Mordred, Max's (your character) father, departs for Mephis- to's stronghold in an attempt to rescue Clea. Mordred eventually finds Clea but must defeat Mephisto. In a fight to the death, Mephisto tri- umphs and Clea remains a prisoner. It is at this point the game begins; Max must rescue Clea, avenge his father, and achieve knighthood. Along the way, Max will meet people who will join his cause to restore peace to the kingdom. The graphics in Shining And The Darkness are set in a first person perspective much like that of the original Phantasy Star. While explor- ing the dungeons, monsters occasionally jump out of corridors to fight the party. Most of the time, however, the game just states that there is an encounter and combat begins. In these instances, the monsters are not shown walking out of corridors -- rather, they just suddenly appear on the screen. While the graphics on Shining And The Darkness are pret- ty good, I felt the graphics could have been better. Out of the role playing games I've played so far on the Mega Drive (Phantasy Star II, Phantasy Star III, and Vermilion), I feel that the graphics in Shining And The Darkness are the least impressive. This is probably because the team that programmed Shining And The Darkness used to program Famicom games and this represents their first work on the Mega Drive. Another shortcoming of Shining And The Darkness is sound and back- ground music score. During game play, only a few music scores are used and the composer did not do as good a job as the musicians in the Phan- tasy Star series. But being that Shining And The Darkness is a role playing game, sound is not central to the enjoyment of the game. The final fault I found with Shining And The Darkness is the small size of its world. For an 8 Mbit game, I was surprised to find that this game did not have as many dungeons or dungeons as big as Phantasy Star II which is a 6 Mbit game. However, despite the smaller size of the world in Shining And The Darkness, it still offered me over 80 hours of play time. As a role playing game, Shining And The Darkness is above average with its magic system. Whereas most games just give spells upon gaining levels, Shining And The Darkness has different levels for each spell. As the spell caster gains experience, the spells become more powerful and effective. Another plus in Shining And The Darkness is that combat is not as frequent as in many other role playing games. To further les- sen combat, a spell can be cast to render the party invisible to the monsters in the dungeon. This is extremely welcome since more time can be devoted to exploring the dungeon rather than fighting (unlike Vermil- ion, the all-time leader in the quantity of combat). Shining And The Darkness does not represent the best use of the Mega Drive's abilities but it is a fun game. The quest is well thought out and the mix of combat and exploration is perfect. With more exper- ience programming the Mega Drive, Shining And The Darkness' creators can only creat better software in the future. Graphics : 7 Sound : 7 Gameplay : 8 Originality : 7 "Funness" : 9 Overall : 7 Shining And The Darkness, for the Sega Genesis, from Sega Enterprises. ------------------------------ From: hawley@adobe.com (Steve Hawley) Subject: Lynx: Gates of Zendocon Date: Wed, 10 Apr 91 16:26:39 PDT The Nutshell Review: 8.5 on the Massive Proton Death scale This review is going to be biased. I'm telling you that up front, so don't panic. All reviews are biased. You probably know that at some level, but most reviewers don't let on, or even worse, try to *sound* unbiased, so you get seduced into believing that they are impartial. Bogus! I'm not impartial, and I won't pretend that I am. If a game is produced with enough care that it has no major bugs that get in the way of the playability, then it impossible to rate is objectively since what's left is what appeals to you. I'll tell you what appeals to me, then tell you about the game, then tell you what I like about it and what I don't like about it. The rest is up to you. You have to take my opinions and normalize them with respect to yourself if you want some help in deciding whether or not to lay down the cash. You won't get any numbers from me (ie, graphics: 8.374213 on a 1-10 scale), except for my nutshell review which is only there to confuse you and get you actually _read_ this. Let me start off with a little background about myself. I consider myself a prime connoisseur of video games. I was an early teen when Space Invaders was released, and I was a fairly adept assembly language programmer when Asteroids was released. I sold my first video game for the Apple ][ the year after Defender was released. This means two things. One: I had/have a strong appreciation of what it takes to create a video game and have an eye for what makes a "good" game (for some definition of good). Two: I spent most of my savings on video games when I was in high school. I like games that "feel" good to play. This usually comes first in deciding if I like the game or not. My all-time favorite game is Defender and it always felt incredibly good to play. The controls were sturdy and well- placed; the auto-scrolling for reversing was very well done; the weaponry was just about where you want it to be: enough to give you a sense of power, but not enough to make you feel invincible; it had a concrete goal, but granted you generous latitude in how you could carry out that goal. One of my least favorite games is Space Harrier. It felt terrible; the character's movements didn't bear much resemblance to real life (ie, it took little or no effort to move him around. There was no feeling of momentum. It just didn't wash). There never seemed to be a real goal except to kill or be killed. The game seemed like a wet dream for a programmer: color sprites galore with scaling in hardware. Big deal. Hardware alone doesn't make the game. If the game had a good feel, I could've forgiven the lack of coherence. I have yet to see a "perform a canned set of judo moves over scrolling backgrounds until you reach a 'boss' character" game that can hold my interest. OK, now that you have an idea of my tastes, let's take a look at the Gates of Zendocon. GoZ is a game of the shoot 'em up variety where you pilot a death machine through tons of really nasty levels with truly strange things that are actively trying to put you out of their misery. These truly strange things were left by this big, ugly, red brain with claws and a gazillion eyes. You goal is to fight your way through the great unwashed masses of creatures and machinery to face the big, ugly, red brain with claws one-on-one. Your ship carries with it a shield, some sort for forward laser, and an unlimited supply of bombs. Your ship can also inflict damage with the exhaust jets. Your death is usually brought about in 3 stages: first your shields get blown off (your shields emanate from a fin in the back), then the nose of your ship goes away, leaving you with just bombs as weapons, and finally you get toasted. How much damage you can take depends on whether you're playing the easy or hard setting. The easy setting is just that. You can get away with a lot of slop before you lose your shields. On the hard level, it takes a single hit of just about anything to cause damage. Along the way, you can supplement your arsenal with companion pods that orbit your ship. Each level starts out in a stargate/space dock that has a code to allow you to restart at this level instead of having to play through the entire game. Die, and you come back to the last dock. At the end of each level you are presented with one or more docks that gate you into other levels and afford you the opportunity to land your ship and swap it for one in mint condition. You fly over scrolling backgrounds with a certain amount of foreground detail as well. The playfield is about three times as tall as the display, affording you plenty to room to explore/dodge/get pinned. The bad guys are many and varied. Any attempt to describe/list them would be futile. There are just too many types. OK, so much for the game description, here's what I like: Plays pretty well. The ship takes a wee bit of effort to move around. It doesn't model acceleration because you don't carry any momentum. In other words, you can't move at full speed right away; you have to speed up to get to full speed, but you can stop instantly. That feels funny at first, but not bad. The explosions are pretty attractive and the explosion noises are fantastic. It really gives you that "lone rider of the apocalypse" feeling. The levels are very well designed. There are very few levels that you can get through by just holding still and holding down the fire button, and the rest aren't impossibly difficult. This is a tough balance to strike. Trust me. It's really hard to create bad guys who aren't so stupid that they just die for you, and aren't so smart that the player doesn't even stand a chance. The music is pretty good. There are 4 different songs that play, with a new song at the next level. It isn't intrusive, yet it impels you pretty well. Fits the mood. The companion pods are pretty well done. They track you well and manage to stay out of trouble (ie, not destroying themselves _too_ often going through an obstacle in an attempt to catch up). There are some real gems in terms of levels that show the true nature of the twisted minds of the programmers/designers. Several levels feature these huge things that look like giant nerve cells that swing back and forth really fast. One level features you fighting some bad guys who are subject to Conway's rules of life, with you as the main mutating factor (by killing them or colliding with them). There is a secret level which allows you to fight against the faces of the programmers. Surreal. The bad guys are animated fairly well considering how many of them there are, and the designs look pretty good. Not too many "unidentifiable blue blobs". If you think this is easy, sit down with a piece of paper and fill it with sketches of nasty monster things. Takes a while, doesn't it? If you like dishing out hot electric death, you'll like this. Now the bad points: Some colors for the levels are very poorly chosen. Bright yellow backgrounds don't cut it. Fortunately, this is rare. You have just a little too much fire power. One of the companion pods in particular, emits a beam that is a vertical bar that grows in length as it moves forward. It basically destroys everything is wipes over, and nothing will stop it (although there are some things that can't be destroyed by it). When you have this weapon, you are basically invincible. The difference between "easy" and "hard" is in two forms: 1) The "easy" level ship is much more resistant to damage, whereas the "hard" level ship is made of tissue paper. 2) The hard level moves faster than the easy level. There is no difference in terms of level content, bad guy density, their behavior, etc. I think this is not the best way to differentiate between levels of difficulty, since the main discriminating factor is not the content of the level, but your reaction time. There are these laser beams (I guess) that are one pixel tall that come at you from out of nowhere, can't be shot, and on the hard level can take out your entire ship (since they can be destroyed, they can impact your ship 3 times as they pass through). They are a sort of non-sequitur in the game. They don't fit it well. It really looks like somebody in the hierarchy said, "this game is too easy, make it harder" when the game was close to release, so this was added in at the last moment. Actually fighting the big, ugly red brain with claws is a walk in the park. Kind of anticlimactic compared with the rest of the game. This is really disappointing. Docking to replace a damaged ship is much too easy. I have failed to do dock correctly exactly three times. If this is supposed to be an integral part of the game, it should be more challenging. Summary: In spite of the bad points, I *like* this game. It shows a fair amount of imagination and attention to detail (which makes the noted deficiencies even more puzzling). I paid $13 for the game (from Children's Palace during a clearance) but it normally goes for around $35 or $40. At 25 cents a game, that's 160 games for $40. It held my interest for more than that, and still holds it pretty well. The Gates of Zendocon, for the Atari Lynx, by Epyx ------------------------------ From: see@cs.utexas.edu (Jason H.T. See) Subject: PC: Death Knights of Krynn Date: Thu, 4 Apr 91 12:40:37 CST I've just finished the Death Knights of Krynn(DKK), and thought that I'll write a review for those of you who are interested in buying the game. Death Knights, the sequel the Champions of Krynn(CoK), is the second in a series of FRP adventures in the Dragonlance Saga. The game picked up from the celebrations at the end of the CoK, and ended with the archvillian, Lord Soth, being teleported to another dimension, thus setting the stage for another sequel in the future. You can either import your characters from CoK, or create your own characters. DKK uses the same interface as the previous SSI AD&D games, like CoK. In the past I used to like this a lot, but after playing the new interface in Eyes of the Beholder, I find that the old interface is rather cumbersome, and boring. Graphics is in EGA, and the sound is not very captivating. The plot itself is rather simple. There is 1 long sequential quest, with a large number of simple, 1 screen quests, that can be completed in any order. Most of the 1-screen quest are extremely easy; I finished the game in 1 weekend (2 nights of game-playing). The game is similiar to CoK in that there is a large main map that the adventurers can explore. As they explore the large map, they will fight monsters, meet people or stumble upon places where there are quests to be solved. (examples are the Kuo-Tao Slave Ship, the Fun House, the Father of Trees, etc) In each of these tiny quests, the team will discover what is to be done by talking to the inhabitants there. Upon completion of each of these tiny quests, the team will gain experience and treasures. Upon completion of the game by getting rid of Lord Soth, a special path will be opened in the main map, leading to a SPECIAL CHALLENGE. (a kind of grandmaster ending which is really hard to stumble into, and very satisfying). This quest is not marked visibily on the main map; you have to be very patient, or very fortunate, to stumble across it. The quest involve the temple of Thakasis, and you'll meet lots of tough monsters, including Spectral Dragons, Death Knights and high level Vampire Mages. Playability : 7 Documentation : 7 Realism : 7 Interface : 6 (Average, compared to Good as in EoB) Difficulty : 5 Death Knights of Krynn, from SSI for the IBM PC and compatibles. Supports EGA (not VGA), $39.95. ------------------------------ From: Wyvern@cup.portal.com Subject: PC: King's Quest V Date: Fri, 5 Apr 91 17:18:31 PST Many have looked forward to KQ5 with great anticipation. The promise of vastly improved graphics and sound has had many fans of Sierra games watering at the mouth. There is little doubt that Sierra had produced the promised glitz with this game. The graphics are indeed beautifully done and filled with great detail. I do not have a sound board so cannot comment on the music accompanying the game except to remark that I found the music using the speaker that came with my computer annoying rather than enjoyable. This game is huge taking up almost 10 MB of disk space and all your memory. Memory becomes a problem in this game. You have to cut everything down to the barest of bones to be able to run the game. That is not easy. I did so and still had the game crash on me during the end game sequence for lack of memory . Why didn't Sierra bother to take advantage of extended memory?? This game was written for the best of everything taking advantage of VGA graphics and sound cards but doesn't allow for extended memory? PLEASE!! The game is suppose to be playable with either mouse, joystick or keyboard. It is NOT playable with the keyboard . Playing with a mouse works well by can cause problems with available memory. Perhaps it is ironic that as an artist I am not really that impressed with this game. Yes it's beautiful, but that is just glitz. I'd be happier if there were more of a game here and less window dressing. There are times in this game where the window dressing actually gets in the way of the game. In past games of this series, just about everything had some purpose in the game and the problem was figuring out what to do with it. KQ5 has many dead ends/red herrings upon which the unwitting player can waste much time and a great deal of frustration to no end. Other areas are so filled with detail that it becomes difficult to spot the one small item that you need to find or explore. KQ5 is also filled with many animated sequences. I know that there are players out there that enjoyed these sequences. Some of them are enjoyable. My favorite is the sequence in Mordack's laboratory with his strange machine. On the whole, though, I would have preferred far fewer of these "sit back and watch" episodes. On a whole, KQ5 is a game for those who are fond of special effects and fans of the KQ series. I'm just glad I didn't pay full price. RATINGS: Comment Graphics: 10 While beautiful, not always in the best interest of the game. Music: ? I have no music card. The music using what speaker I had was unimpressive. Game: 5 No great shakes and rather short. Cost for Play 2 Okay, my rating here is low. I admit it but I don't believe I got my money's worth. KING'S QUEST V, Sierra On-Line, for the IBM PC and compatibles. Suggested price $69.95; Babbages price $39.99 ------------------------------ From: Wyvern@cup.portal.com Subject: PC: Dark Heart of Uukrul Date: Sun, 7 Apr 91 15:48:03 PDT I'm impressed! This slick variation on the dungeon crpg is not only a lot of fun, it's cheap too! The manual is thorough. The graphics are nice. The are puzzles interesting. The user interface and auto-mapping work well. The program isn't overly large <250Kand the game comes with both 3.5 and 5.25 disks. Gee, I can't think of anything wrong with this game! Okay, if I must think of something wrong with this game it's spell names like: "cyqieqaraqk" but that isn't a spell you use very often like "lum" . Dark Heart of Uukrul supports VGA, MACGA, EGA, CGA and Hercules graphics which should please just about everyone. I played in VGA mode and found the graphics pleasing. Most of the graphics do consist of the same dungeon walls in 3D. While the repetitious nature of the environment has bothered me in other games, I was too involved in the game to get bored with them in DHOU. Combat scenes are an overhead view which works quiet effectively. The monsters and magic within a battle are nicely handled. Dark Heart seems to have taken the best portions of many games and utilized them all here. To tell you that it is like Magic Candle or Pool of Radiance or Dragon Wars would really not be accurate or informative. Certainly there are similarities between DHOU and many other games especially in terms of user interface and/or visualization of combat but I find myself placing DHOU in a class unto itself. This is a very good game. The thought and effort that went into it is obvious. Consideration for the player has been given more emphasis than I have seen in many a game. Part of the plot of the game is to collect 6 stone hearts. There are 8 hearts available within the whole game which allows for a player to miss one or fail to solve some of the many puzzles and still be able to win the game. Great emphasis has been placed on making this game user friendly. Dark Heart is not a game filled with a muliplicity of character and skill choices. You play four characters: fighter, paladin, priest and magician, period, no other options. The game provides a predesigned party, but you can create your own. You can even play multiple parties. Your character's stats are determined by how you answer a simple list of questions. Once your party is created, you enter the city of Eriosthe' and begin your explorations. Level increases are given when you have obtained sufficient experience and return to one of the many santuaries. Your characters always recieve an overall increase. Unlike other games where your stats can go up and down and you end up playing "restore restore" to maintain a constant improvement of your character, in DHOU your characters just keep getting better. Isn't that the way it should be? Saving your game can be done anywhere but creating a backup can only be done in sanctuaries. It is simple to create your own backups by simply copying the appropriate files to another directory. There is only one store in the game which is easily reached via the multitude of teleporters throughout the whole game. The store gives you a better buy back rate than I have seen in any game. An identified item will bring in more money than an unidentified one but the difference is not extreme. Most items can be unofficially identified by simply looking at the icon for it. Almost all items are available at all times. A few special items will only begin to show up after your party has gained experience and levels. The store can run out of some items but most show up again a few visits later. Many weapons can be fixed at the forge and there is a healer, a mausoleum for resurrecting dead characters and a tavern where you can hire replacements if you prefer. While on the surface Uukrul appears to be the same old "rid the world of the great evil" plot it is presented in a fresh manner with great attention to playability. The puzzles are varied and interesting as well as challenging. While other game companies have been devoting their time to glitz, Broderbund has spent it on what really matters: good programming, good plot and lots of FUN! BRAVO! and is there a sequel?? The bottom line is Uukrul is an excellent game! BUY IT! Fun 10 Playability 10 User Friendly 10 One of the best I have seen. The auto-mapping is a user's dream come true! Documentation 10 Puzzles 10 Combat 10 Graphics 7 Not state of the art, but the game more than makes up for that. Sound none The Dark Heart of Uukrul by Broderbund, for the IBM PC and compatibles Suggested retail: $24.95; Egghead's price: $19.99 ------------------------------ From: bhv@mot.com (Bronis Vidugiris) Subject: PC: Eye of The Beholder Date: Mon, 11 Mar 91 21:07:38 CST Since 'Eye of the Beholder' just arrived at Babbages here in Chicago (and I bought it), I thought I'd share my first impressions here. Eye of the Beholder is SSI's new Dungeons & Dragons computerized roleplaying game, currently available for the IBM PC. My review system is a 16mhz 386 with VGA graphics and PC speaker sound. A bit about my biases - I like computer FRP games. It's my favorite sort of game. As far as specifics, I really liked Wizardry, which is where I started out - though it didn't have the competition that it does nowadays. I also liked Dark Heart of Uukrul, Curse of the Azure Bonds, and the new Wizardry Game 'Bane of the Cosmic Forge'. The first thing about 'eye' is that it works in REAL TIME. You have to decide what to do quickly, or you have problems. A mouse is a great help in playing this game - I started without one, and I was getting a little frustrated with the system, though I think I'd have adapted in time. I'm enjoying the game a lot more with a mouse. The game is based on a 'point of view' idea. You see on the screen what your characters would see. You might catch a glimpse of a monster lurking ahead behind the corner - and, if he spots you, he'll appear to walk toward you in a realistic '3-d' animation. You never see your own party on the main screen - but you do see their graphics on the right side of the screen, which has a status display for all characters (default), or the detailed pictorial inventory for a player or his statistics when in the 'inventory' mode. The monster and party graphics are excellent - but the wall graphics are not very good, IMO. It may be a matter of taste, but I find the bright orange brick walls in the first three levels rather ugly. There are other graphics later in the game, but they share the problems of strange garish color schemes, and a lack of the fine detail that should be possible with a VGA display. The bricks are not really brick sized bricks - they are way out of proportion, being approximately 1/2 man sized at a guess - there are maybe half a dozen of them in total for one 'wall' section. Floor buttons and other dungeon features are also quite big.I imagine that all of this was done so that the game could work in CGA mode, which it does support. The game keeps tract of every object - if you drop it, it stays there. I'm not sure if there is a limit on the number of objects or not - I wouldn't leave anything valuable just 'lying around'. The combat system is completely different from the previous SSI games. There is no tactical combat movement - the two characters 'in front' take the brunt of the damage and attack with meele weapons, the last two characters can cast spells or use missile weapons. Characters in the rear can take damage from missle weapons, spells, or an attack by an unseen monster group from the rear, however. The combat is real time, and consists of clicking or 'using' the readied weapon. or spellbook. You can only 'use' a weapon every so often - it 'grays out' until you can swing again. Spells are handled similarly - you have to 'click' on a readied spellbook to cast a spell, then you have to select the spell you want from a menu. This part of the game works a lot better with the mouse. Switching weapons or changing from weapons to spellbooks in combat is theoretically possible, but as _all_ your characters stop fighting while you fumble with the inventory, it's not a good idea in practice. Keeping whatever characters that have something ready fighting is the best tactic. Only the first two characters can use 'melee' weapons - others must use spells or missle weapons. Similarly, only the first two characters can be hit by melee weapons - from a frontal attack. It's possible to get surrounded and attacked from several directions at once - but it's not advisable to get yourself into such a situation! Your party will only attack what's in front of them - the other monsters get in 'free shots' until you turn and deal with them, and will attack the (presumably) less well armored party members (such as spellcasters) rather than the 'front line' fighters. One handy touch - there is a map of the first three levels included with the game. I've had a few minor bugs (I think), but they are not of the repeatable sort. One character started out with two MU spells, and went down to one for some reason. Another time, I dropped an unneeded extra object, and had it disappear permanently, rather than appear on the ground. All and all, I'm begining to like this game, after a somewhat uncertain start due to the 'arcade' aspects of the game [aggravated by my lack of a mouse]. There are still aspects of it I would change, such as the wall / background graphics. ------------------------------------- To join this group or have your reviews appear in the next issue, please send electronic mail to Dave Taylor at the following address; digital-games@digital-games.Intuitive.Com We welcome reviews of games for any computer system, including the IBM PC, Apple Macintosh, Atari, Nintendo Entertainment System, Atari Lynx, Sega Genesis, Nintendo GameBoy, NEC TurboGrafix, Amiga and so on. Back issues are archived as digests, as well as broken into individual reviews. To receive them via electronic mail, send a note to the address "info@limbo.intuitive.com" (or decwrl!limbo!info) with the body containing the lines "help" and "listall Digital.Games". The views expressed in Digital Games Review Digest are those of the individual authors only, and do not represent the views or opinions of Intuitive Systems or any of our affiliates worldwide. 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