Producer: Video Force
Retail Price: £
Author: Anon

Warriors Revenge is the first part of a Trilogy of continuous adventures. After you have mastered The Land of No Return, The Castle of Death awaits you but cannot be played without completing this adventure. The instructions on the cassette inlay are almost obscure in places but charmingly precise when in the loading instructions it says 'Type LOAD... ENTER... PLAY on cassette recorder and Warriors Revenge will load automatically.' Amazing what these computers can do.

You are asked by Yeta, Wizard of Sebra, to return three golden keys lost in the land of No Return. A semi-role playing combat system allows you to fight monsters and hopefully you survive long enough to return the keys and collect a reward. Your skill, determined by pressing S as numbers ranging from 1 to 6 are randomly flashed onto the screen, and stamina, equivalent to hit points and similarly determined by pressing A, are added to values achieved during the fight sequences.

Warriors Revenge is basically a multiple choice adventure. At each location you decide between options like R (Run), L (leave), D (Drink), F (Fight), as well as the usual N, S, E, W. Which of these confront you varies with the location, but of course, you always have a choice. However, just as with some of the quiz shows on TV that feature exotic prizes, you may be forgiven for thinking that when a crucial answer is needed it relates to a trick question.

For example, take the time I came across a cavern which sounded to me suspiciously like a crevasse. You are told you can probably jump the crevasse and so you have no need of Spock Logic to rule out R (Run) from the other two options - Jump and Vine. Yet jump gives you the report that you nearly reach the other side but fail while Vine has you falling into the cavern since the vine breaks. Run, incredibly, saves your life as you use the rope and tie it to the tree and swing across. So the moral here is that you must pick the least probably option to survive.

For 'A Game of Skill and Determination' this program has much dependency upon luck. Leaving aside the aforementioned appropriation of skill and stamina points the adventurer has locations where your progress is determined by pure luck. Take the place where you meet a man sitting by a tree stump. To pass you must engage him in an arm wrestling match but let me save you the doubts cast upon your manhood; when you are confronted by the choice between the numbers 1 to 9, choose 4. I had to break into the program to get around this bit of nonsense.

If you've caught the tone of this review you might guess at what's coming next. When I broke into the program a load of twaddle tumbled out onto my screen. The programming is, to borrow what's now becoming a worn euphemism, inefficient. Furthermore, though I am not the world's greatest for spelling, it's not difficult for me to spot that this program has some howlers. It gives you the impression no one else could be bothered to play the game.

The game is not mappable. N Takes you into the forest and S further into the forest. There is no Save routine - perhaps not essential considering the length of the game but it is certainly very easy to get yourself killed. At one point you must guess the name of a potion. If you don't guess correctly (?!!) then you are killed and must start again.

Perhaps this game would suit the younger end of the market, I think to myself, but what is this? Is this the game's attempt to splash its name across the pages of a notorious, salacious Fleet Street journal - a warrior is being raped! Run round to the video hire ship will you and hand in my video recorder - I'm going back to organic farming... Moo... Baa... Bah., Bah!!

COMMENTS

Difficulty: Average
Graphics: A few, very small
Presentation: Yellow on black. Good
Input facility: Very limited choice
Response: Fast

UTERLY GARSTLY

MAKER: Viedo Force
FORMAT: cassette
PRICE: £5.95

Stunningly inept text adventure apparently written by illiterate seven year olds for backward under fives. Yep, this is a real turkey. In fact it's SO BAD it's almost entertaining.

There's a certain perverse pleasure to be had wading through line after line of risible, pidgin english drivel! In what seems a courageous move for publishing freedom Video Force have taken the spelling-error factor t undreamt of lengths. Never have I seen so many errors grouped together in one place at one time. Having defeated a 'Moster from the bouls of hell' I found myself in 'an earie graveyard guarded by two zombies'. It's a good job I didn't stop to drink at the well as the water tastes 'tearable'. And don't think I'm giving you the highlights here! This awesome level of literacy is maintained throughout the game.

What's more the layout is sloppy (would you believe 'press D to die'?), the scenario totally unoriginal and the challenge zero level! Oh yeah, it's also written in BASIC. The thing is so duff it could well become a cult hit! How they have the cheek to threaten us with a sequel I'll never know! Horrendous.