Producer: Ocean
Retail Price: £7.95
Author: Ian Weatherburn, Simon Butler

As you might expect from a firm like OCEAN this is a step above the usual adventure game in terms of presentation. In many other respects, however, it is pretty run-of-the-mill stuff with the usual blend of objects and problems to be tied up together (although the first part of this three part adventure has more objects than problems). The game follows in the footsteps of its arcade namesakes, but this offering has more in common with Never Ending Story, what with its 'events' window on the left of the picture and up to six objects displayed on the right. These are laid on top of a tableaux depicting Notre Dame cathedral and can go as far as cartoon-like Biffs and Bops emanating from the scene where you, the hunchback, take on one of the many guards. As with Never Ending Story, I think the trendy display and atmospheric redesigned character set go a long way in compensating for any flat-footedness in plot.

In short Quasimodo has to find and rescue Esmerelda. This entails completing the three parts in the correct order. Firstly hunchback must escape from the cathedral set in the heart of Paris, made famous by the Victor Hugo novel of 1831. This involves side-stepping or disposing of the guards sent to harass you by the evil cardinal and his spineless lackey the Bishop of Notre Dame. If you survive that ordeal you then make your way under the city of Paris until you reach the cardinal's mansion. Finally you challenge the Cardinal and rescue your sweetheart Esmerelda.

Not only is the game itself polished but the instructions on the cassette inlay are truly superb. The story-telling and gamesplay is related in a much more professional way than is often the case with adventures, and useful details like acceptable verbs are included making it easier to make a proper attempt at the game.

Not all gamesplay is sweetness and light though; the silent key entry is error prone. This is in some way countered by the DELETE not needing the CAPS SHIFT depression, but not entirely. Another irritant is the lack of an EXAMINE command without which much of the interaction with the adventure is lost.

By the far the greatest offering Hunchback has as an adventure is its humour. Take these two location descriptions in the first part: 'Standing in the front aisle you can see to the east the altar and to the west the centre aisle which is pretty impressive considering you have only got one eye' and 'You find yourself in a bedroom that is decorated in early gothic tack. The wallpaper is garish and clashes with the duvet, and the fluffy slippers are just too passe!... Lying on the ground is a strange tattered book entitled Evil Worshipping for Beginners'. Even the Inventory list, which complements the picture tokens above, shows some good turns as in 'An old music book entitled Bell Ringing for the Deaf' and how about Zen and the Art of Guillotine Maintenance, a book which no doubt predates the one all about flowers and motorbikes and how to link them by going loopy.

Hunchback the Adventure is an attractive, stylised adventure with much humour and a great amount to play, what with it coming in three parts. It won't enthral adventure freaks but it will keep many a novice chuckling before they get the hump.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: not difficult
Graphics: unusual, very attractive
Presentation: very pleasant
Input facility: verb/noun
Response: fast

FAX BOX
Game: Hunchback The Adventure
Publisher: Ocean
Price: £7.95

With dozens of reviewers all ready to unleash comments along the lines of 'a load of bells', 'goes like the clappers' and 'gives me the hump', here comes Ocean's adventure follow-up to its two successful arcade games. What I want to know, though, is how could they resist the temptation to call it The Hump Strikes Back?

The game comes in three parts, plus a core program which has to be loaded first. And naturally enough you need to solve each part in succession before going on to the others.

They've gone all out to make the text as jokey as possible, a sort of Humpstead, and you begin part one chez Quasi, a semi-detached hovel with all the charm of a sewage farm. Quasimodo's quest is to rescue Esmerelda, and you're told that first you must escape from Notre Dame itself, then part two will see if you can find your way underneath Paris (obviously a sewer-side mission) to the Cardinal's mansion, where part three takes place.

The graphics window at the top of the screen promises much - it has pictures of the objects you pick up added to it, and the occasional change of picture within a location, but with no clearly defined area for each part of the picture the overall result is just a mess. Some of the fight sequence illustrations are quite amusing, though.

Those fight sequences are my first niggle though. As you map out the first part, you continually encounter guards who attack you. Your part in the proceedings is to type ATTACK GUARD or STAB GUARD several times in succession, till eventually the guard pegs out. Combat sequences are all very well, but the program doesn't respond to SCORE, STRENGTH or STATUS, so you have no idea what your own strength is - if indeed there's a counter for strength in the program at all. After a few plays, no guard had managed to kill me, though when I tried STAB GUARD one time I did get the interesting response "Your attack fails! You have killed the guard!" Pardon? This bit is really tedious, and when I came across the third guard in three successive locations I thought it was time to check the swear-word routine (but it doesn't have one.)

Nor does it have a help routine, as typing HELP results in "There's no verb in that sentence." Funny, I thought help was a verb. After so long in production, it's annoying to see so many faults in the game. Some exits that exist in the text don't exist in reality, such as the blacksmith's showroom where you're told "Exits are down and southwest." Type DOWN and "You can't go in that direction."

Major drawback to me, though, was when, after about thirty minutes' play (twenty-nine of them spent typing ATTACK GUARD) I discovered I'd finished the first part! There I was, thinking I'd actually found my first real problem at last, how to deal with the bishop in the library, and when I solved it I was on my way to part two! On an action replay I managed to get the solution time down to five minutes! The guards are always in the same places and you can easily avoid more of them.

Part two takes you straight into a maze, and you're not allowed to take enough objects through from part one to enable you to map it properly, so your time here is spent shifting things about to work out which exits lead where. Tedious. This is where I pulled the plug on the game, deciding my Spectrum had done nothing to deserve being treated so badly. Give me the arcade version any day.

Label: Ocean
Price: £7.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Gary Rook

It's not much fun, being a hunchback in medieval Paris. Especially when dastardly Cardinals keep on kidnapping your girlfriend.

Hunchback - The Adventure is the third game from Ocean to feature the exploits of Quasimodo. If you managed to jump, duck and weave enough in the last two arcade efforts, you might be forgiven for thinking that rescuing Esmeralda was going to be simply a matter of joystick control and superb timing.

You'd be wrong. This is a proper text and graphics adventure.

It isn't small either. Over 100K of code and data. That massive programming feat is divided into three separate parts, each of which needs a Load to itself.

Part 1 finds you, as Quasimodo, desperately lurching your way through the gothic surroundings of the cathedral of Notre Dame, trying to avoid the guards the Cardinal has out hunting for you.

Part 2, which you can't get to until you've finished Part 1, involves a little trip through the underworld - under Paris - to the Cardinal's mansion. And in Part 3 you have to beat the Cardinal, rescue Esmeralda, and escape.

As I have yet to finish Part 1, I can't give you any first hand information on what the other two parts entail, but I'll tell you what I have managed to do.

The top third or so of the screen is a graphics window which shows you, at first, a general view of the location you are presently in.

Superimposed on the right-hand side of the graphics window, you will see the various objects you are carrying.

The effect looks a bit like an advent calendar with only a few windows opened, and a rather odd choice of icons behind. There is space for up to six objects in this area of the graphics window. This is all you can carry.

On the left-hand side of the graphics, you get an event window. When something interesting happens, like an evil guard attacks you, you get an appropriate picture. For example, if you get into a fight with a guard, you see a little strip cartoon fight, all flailing arms and legs, and suitable 'sound effect' words like Biff, Bop and Bite.

The graphics are unexpectedly effective and quite unusual to look at.

Below the graphics window, you have the text. Orders are of the by now familiar two-word verb/noun sort, or you can shorten to n, s, nw etc for movement.

On the whole the location descriptions are pretty good, and are supplemented by the graphics. There is also a considerable amount of humour.

The Spectrum's character set has been redesigned for the game, and is suitably Gothic. Unfortunately, while it looks great, it is sometimes very difficult to read.

So far I have mapped about 30 locations, although I've been to at least another half dozen. I've made my way from 'Chez Quasimodo', down through the belfry (taking in a side trip on the roof where I found a sharp object), wandered round the catwalks spanning the roof of the Cathedral, then down the main staircase to the high altar. I've rolled in the aisles, peeked in the choir stalls, visited two chapels and unearthed the Bishop in his library.

I've also killed innumerable guards - the first with the dagger I found on the roof, the rest with the short sword I took off the body. With a dagger you have to get in two good blows before guards drop, but with the sword you only need one. It can get a bit dull, squaring off against the fifth guard. While I've been wounded countless times (well, at least six) I don't seem to have fallen over yet.

I haven't been able to find that many problems yet - at least, none of the classic locked door, monster that won't let you pass, falling portcullis type. I can't help feeling that I must be missing something obvious.

The thing that's really taxing my brain right at the moment is how to kill the Bishop - nothing seems to touch him!

I've found enough books to stock a small library (and don't drop them around the Bishop - he'll put them on the shelves and you'll never find them again), including a bible, a book on bellringing for the deaf, a black magic treatise and a cook-book. None of them have proved to be any use to me, as every time I try to read them I'm told I'm not smart enough! I've also nicked a crucifix, a candle, a lantern and a net and I haven't been able to work out what the heck to do with them either.

The problem with Hunchback - the Adventure is that there doesn't seem to be enough to do. I suspect that I should be using the book on black magic to raise a demon, which at some point I'll probably have to get rid of using the old exorcism routine of bell, book and candle. I'm also pretty certain that the way out of Part 1 is via the crypt and into the catacombs, but I haven't been able to find any steps down yet.

One difficulty with the game, incidentally, is that it doesn't always tell you about all the exists available from a location. In the library, for example, you aren't told any exits yet you can go north and east. Nor is this the only time this happens. If it's deliberate, then it's laziness - a good adventure writer creates problems according to the rules, not by cheating on what he tells the player.

What I have seen is a fairly decent introductory adventure, and I'm sure that those people who buy it on the strength of the first two Hunchback arcade games, and who haven't played adventure games before, will enjoy it.

For the hardened adventurer, the other two parts are going to have to be a lot better. Not that I didn't enjoy it - the graphics, with their comicbook feel, hold your interest and there's plenty to explore.

SUPPLIER: Ocean
MACHINE: Spectrum 48K, Amstrad, 64
PRICE: £7.95 (Spec), £8.95 (C64, Amstrad)

On the outskirts of Paris, mischief is afoot. Two evil characters, the Cardinal and his sidekick Bishop, have captured Esmeralda, and are holding her captive somewhere in the area. You, as Quasimodo, must rescue Esmerelda.

After an apparent age, Hunchback - The Adventure, has finally arrived. As you begin, some very colourful (if not particularly clear) graphics will pop onto the screen, and some pretty, redefined text will tell you what has happened so far.

The graphics are quite small, taking up the top region of the screen. There is a large strip, stretching from one side to the other. On top of this background, a small picture of the current location appears, and on the other side, each object you have picked up (six is the maximum) is shown too.

This pictorial representation is quite a good idea, but the pictures are too small. Everything on the screen becomes cluttered, and I had to read everything twice to make sure I hadn't missed a vital point.

The descriptions are very well written, and always witty. Although there are some errors, such as Paris being spelled with a lower case 'p', everything sails along with lots of jokes, all in keeping with the period.

On your travels in the early stages of the game, you encounter a number of uncouth and very violent guards. Should you have come across a weapon, you can throw your soul into battle.

During the fight, you are given a running commentary, and as this happens, cartoon strip style pictures take the place of the location graphics.

The most popular objects in the game seem to be books. Zen and the Art of Guillotine Maintenance is a personal favourite. Wandering around in the cathedral, you will come across a number of locations which serve little purpose other than to help the game along.

Finding a thoroughly vandalised area, you investigate and discover it is the choirboys' stalls! A dodgy lot, these choirboys...

As in Never Ending Story there are three parts and no SAVE facility, and the same maddening programming slips. THROW KEY produces the mind-boggling THERE IS NO VERB IN THAT SENTENCE.

Despite its shortcomings, Hunchback is a great game. It is well assembled, fun to play, and offers a reasonable challenge.

Ocean
£7.95

Ocean aren't exactly renowned for adventure products, and for them to release a second one following last year's Never Ending Story is significant. Obviously they feel the market exists, since the company is always commercially motivated.

I'm sure you will have worked out yourself who you play; your task is to rescue Esmerelda from the evil Cardinal. To do this you must battle past the guards and the Bishop in Notre Dame, escape through the Paris sewer network, then confront the Cardinal at his mansion and rescue your sweetheart.

The whole product is polished in a way only Ocean could manage. On loading a pleasant, full blown musical piece plays while you read the credits. Then you notice the slick presentation - split screen graphics, good use of colour and a redesigned font.

The graphics system is unusual. An attractive Parisian scene remains on screen constantly as a background, whilst small pictures of any objects you are holding are printed on top of this together with either an illustration of the current location, or a picture of the humped hero himself. The problem with this overlaying is that the smaller graphics have only thin black borders and tend to merge into the backdrop. Still, you eventually learn to pick out the relevant areas, and what you see is good: high quality and worth the effort, unlike in many adventures. The pics frequently capture cartoon style; a similar atmosphere pervades the whole game.

By keeping the graphics small, there's enough room for reasonably lengthy text. Although this is not particularly descriptive, it provides all the relevant information and is stylish and sometimes witty. I liked the constant references to your character: you stand "in your own inimitable way", and can see east and west, "which is pretty impressive considering you've only got one eye." It can be sell mocking, and occasionally parodies general adventuring. The balance between text and graphics is just right. Shame the author doesn't know that proper nouns have capital letters.

Gameplay is disappointing. I expected Ocean's technical capability to produce a more sophisticated parser; instead we have an under fifty verb vocabulary, with no EXAMINE, although fortunately the words understood are listed in the instructions. You are unable to do much.

Not that there seems much to be done. Although I haven't yet made much progress (not least due to the infuriating vocabulary), there are few apparent problems to be solved - certainly this was the case with Never Ending Story. Much of the game would seem to be moving around, and finding a use for the objects. But I will reserve full judgment on this until I at least reach part two.

This adventure is similar in many respects to Ocean's arcade games. It's slick, looks impressive, has pretty graphics, and is technically competent; but underneath the gloss, it lacks substance. This game is thus not for the purist, but occasional adventurers may enjoy it - and that's probably the market Ocean are aiming at.