Producer: Rainbird
Retail Price: £14.95 (three tapes)
Author: Level 9

We're always ready to express our sympathy for the persecuted and the exiled, and in the three-part Knight Orc you can take on the role of a persecuted and exiled orc, wandering helplessly around Middle Earth, running the risk of being injured or killed by almost anyone you meet.

As Level 9's text-only adventure begins you are lanced by a knight on his horse. You do survive, but the landscape you find yourself in is far from encouraging. There is a dismal fairground, a hideous-looking castle, and a gallows on the skyline.

And when you set out on foot it's a lonely journey. Ask any of the characters on the road for help, and they all say 'Get lost buster'.

There's no comfort to be found in the Orc's Head Inn, either. It has an 'atmosphere of gloom and depression', and the licensee certainly doesn't serve beer to orcs. If you linger in the pub long enough, violent incidents arise.

But being killed isn't so much a setback as you might have feared. You are promptly carted off to Paradise for is it Valhalla?), and you can get booted out by a rather stuck-up Valkyrie equally promptly. Your stay in Paradise may not last more than a few seconds - enjoy it while you can, before you resume the trials and tribulations of the game.

The three subgames Loosed Orc, A Kind Of Magic and Hordes Of The Mountain King are each on a different tape and together make up the Knight Orc world.

It's a world of magic, with 21 spells to learn, but also a world of woods, glades, spinneys and groves of all kinds of trees, and you can spend much time wandering around them (or through the 36-page handbook and novella). In some parts of the woodland there are golden objects to be found; other areas have nothing at all to offer. Probe every nook and cranny you can, though the program will never tire of telling you that 'that's probably just scenery'. It's an orc's life.

COMMENTS

Graphics: text only
Atmosphere: beautifully-crafted descriptions bring the game to life, and the text-only display allows you to visualize exactly what you want (as gory or as simple as your imagination allows!)

Never has so much been packed on so few chips for so many. Knight Orc is so complex it's an absolute pleasure to play - not so much a game, more of a book in which you can write your own ending. The text is beautifully-written, both interesting and informative story; the vocabulary is extremely user-friendly and 'real' sentences or even paragraphs can be constructed. But what makes Knight Orc so atmospheric is the number of characters roaming about the place - they don't just exist as in most adventures, they actually have lives all of their own, just as much as the player. The price is hardly high for a game that will supply such long-lasting entertainment and involvement.
PAUL [93%]

In Knight Orc I'm most impressed by Rainbird's masterly grasp of what even the non-adventurer wants. One of the best features is the ability to examine almost everything within reach; examining the various sorts of trees is an experience in itself! The only problem is the speed with which you can die; if you happen to fall into a fight, then hours of careful adventuring can be gone in a flash. Still, in a game of this complexity, these are the things you have to look out for. Knight Orc is an atmospheric, intriguing, absorbing (time-consuming) and thoroughly worthwhile adventure. Together with the excellent novella, Level 9's achievement more than justifies the high price.
MIKE [94%]

Knight Orc is a highly complex fantasy adventure, full of murder, mystery and suspense - and the odd piece of wit! A few graphics would have gone down well, but the program is easy to use and the puzzles are challenging.
NICK [90%]

Label: Rainbird
Author: Austin Bros, John Jones Steele
Price: £14.95 (£19.95 disc)
Memory: 48K/128K (enhanced)
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Tony Dillon

A Level 9 adventure is always a delight to play, so it was with glee that I loaded the first part of Knight Orc.

I say the first part because KO is big. Not just big, but very big.

Held on three cassettes no less, each containing a full 128K load on one side and a 48K cut-down version of the same program on the other.

Like most adventures of this sort you have to finish one part before you can start the next.

Right! Spot IQ test! Who can guess what creature you play in the game? That's right, you play the Orc. You start by being woken up in a tent, but you can't for the life of you remember how you got there, or how another one of your teeth has gone missing. When fully awake you find you are tied to a horse and have been selected as Orc champion in a joust. Unfortunately, this is unavoidable and you inevitably lose to the human champion. You are then taken for dead and are thrown away 'with all the other rubbish'. And, the rest, as they say, is history.

Knight Orc is no ordinary adventure. Oh no, this is a multi-user adventure, in the genre of Mud, only the other players are simulated. One nice touch is the little bits that are added on the end of descriptions which tell you what the other players are doing such as 'Somewhere, a male voice cries out "Has anyone got any spare treasure".' A lot of the time what they say actually bears some reference to where you are.

What other wonderful things can I tell you about? The location descriptions are exquisite and more than make up for the absence of graphics. For the most part, they are very long, sometimes taking more than a screen and are very informative telling you graphically what you can see and where exactly you are. The humour worked into the text is like something out of a Douglas Adams novel, quick-fire and very enjoyable. Never droll. For instance, when you enter the pub in Part 1, the description is of a typical country inn, but it's also a clever parody of all the long descriptions in such books as Lord of the Rings or Hobbit. Also, the changes that have been made from human culture to the culture of the little folk is surprisingly laughable, with such mentions as 'Hobbit and Westron Music' in the inn and so on.

But the high spot of the game is the interactive characters. With such original names as Genghis and the Phantom of the Opera. All have their own character and their own goal to complete. And, the one thing they all have in common is that they all hate Orcs. Every time they meet you, they either give you a dirty look, steal from you or fight you, all stating such comments as 'Ugh, a vile Orc' or 'I'm stealing from a vile Orc', and for some reason, once they see you, they all want to follow you. Odd, but you can follow them. Yes Follow is just one of the multitude of extra commands alloted, which include the now almost standard Ram Save and Ram Load, plus commands like Find object, which will take you to the location of the object you want, if it exists, and then there's Go To Location, which takes you to wherever you want to go via the quickest route.

All these add up to make it one of the best adventures I have played. Technically The Pawn may be superior, but in plot, enjoyment and atmosphere Knight Orc wins hands down.

Mike Gerrard looks at Knight Orc, a Level 9 super-trilogy from Rainbird, and decides that it is a game of two halves.

Although when I started the Your Computer adventure pages I promised that the column itself would not be cluttered up with reviews of the latest games, I hope readers will understand that just occasionally a game comes along which simply cannot be reviewed in 500 or 1,000 words if we are to do it justice. It doesn't follow that I think the adventure is stunning and wonderful in every way but, as with The Guild of Thieves in the August issue, there are some adventures so complex and likely to cause so much interest that a detailed look is definitely needed.

The latest to qualify for this treatment is the long-awaited Level 9 super-trilogy, Knight Orc, available from Rainbird now for lucky ST and Amiga owners, with versions following at varying intervals for the Spectrum, CBM64, Amstrad CPC/PCW, Atari 800, Apple II, PC, Macintosh and MSX computers. All cost £19.95 and come complete with the usual novella and playguide, plus a poster-sized map of the Knight Orc lands.

The inclusion of a map is tied in with the addition of powerful new features in the Level 9 parser, similar to Guild of Thieves, such as GOTO or RUN TO (any location), FIND (any object or person) and FOLLOW (any character). For this reason, you're actively encouraged not to make a map. Now I'm not convinced about this as yet but at the time of review I haven't seen the poster/map that is going to be included.

You obviously cannot use a command like GOTO THE CASTLE until you know that there is a castle to GOTO: part of the reason for mapping is to mark the routes you haven't taken as much as the ones that you have, therefore enabling you to be sure you're covering all the ground. Similarly, if you want to FIND THE SILVER SIXPENCE, it may help if you know where you left it in case there's an obstacle in the way that you'd rather not face just at the moment. Maps are fun and also necessary when you're unable to play a game for a while and need to be reminded of the locations and characters before you start again. If the poster that is provided with Knight Orc is sufficiently detailed, maybe you can throw your own maps out of the window after all.

PLAY GUIDE

Other than the poster, there are no Infocom-type goodies in the box, just the usual novella and play guide that also acts as a copy-protection device by asking you to find and type in a particular word from the text each time you want to RESTORE a saved game. The play guide is essential reading as this is one of those games where you will actually have to use aspects of the complex parser in order to solve the game - it isn't just for show in this case.

The FOLLOW command enables you to tag along with a particular character around the game. This is useful if you want to get some idea or what their movements are and it can also provide you with little pleasing extras that you're not meant to have but which give you a feeling of being one-up on those devious Austin programmers. In one part of the game I wandered into a few dark locations with no source of light but a little later I decided to FOLLOW THE MOUSE. The mouse obligingly went into the dark locations, with me treading on its tail the whole way till eventually it ran under a bed that I didn't know was there - looking under the bed in the dark enabled me to find a hidden object! Ha! Adventurers 1 Programmers 0.

GOTO will take you to a location step-by-step, although RUN TO can be a better option since it can take you there instantly. I discovered the usefulness of running the hard way. Having encountered that old friend the troll toll bridge that was manned, or in this case womanned, by a troll demanding money, I eventually unearthed a bit of hard cash and thought 'Ah-ha, now I can get past the troll!' GOTO THE TROLL. Half-way there I was robbed of my money.

You can interrupt lengthy commands by pressing the space bar, when you are asked if you wish to continue or not. You are not therefore necessarily programmed to continue till you reach the troll but travelling through these lands is a hazardous experience. Having lost an object to another character, it isn't always easy to get it back again without risking a visit to Orc's heaven. Mind you, a visit there is interesting as it opens up speculation as to what may be going on in the game.

INPUTS

The program will cope with lengthy inputs along the lines of DROP EVERYTHING EXCEPT THE RED KNICKERS AND EXAMINE THE SWORD THEN GIVE THE AARDVARK TO THE INKEEPER AND ASK HIM FOR A BOTTLE OF OLD FLATULENCE BITTER. Perhaps of slightly more relevance than that is the ability to communicate with the other characters. This goes beyond the usual 'realistic' adventure response of:

What Now: TELL TROLL TO SOD OFF

"The troll greets you and informs you that the King of Belgravia is seeking the holder of..." and so on for three screens.

In Knight Orc, you'll be able to ask them for information as in an Infocom mystery story (MOUSE, TELL ME ABOUT THE TROLL), ask them to follow you, recruit them to your cause if you've worked out how, and basically ask them to do anything that you yourself might try to do (MOUSE, FIND THE DRAGON THEN ATTACK IT WITH THE HALF-BRICK AND THEN FIND THE WELL AND GO DOWN THE WELL AND GET EVERYTHING AND THEN FIND ME AND GIVE EVERYTHING EXCEPT THE POISON TOADSTOOL TO ME). It might help if you're a bit more sensible about your inputs than the examples given - talking to humans, or even sub-humans like Denzyl (is this the one from Only Fools and Horses, I wonder?) might give you a bit more information than talking to mice and frogs.

But never mind reviewing the parser, what about the game? As you probably know by now, it's based on the idea of the Orc striking back. That lowly creature which has been attacked and killed so many times in so many adventures and generally had a pretty bad press has decided to wreak its revenge and escape this mad world of vicious adventurers. The trouble is that this is something of an uphill task as virtually everyone you meet seems to have it in for a poor smelly old Orc.

As with several recent Level 9 adventures, there is a goodly element of magic involved which requires you to learn spells and cast them at the right place. There is also an element of mystery involved in that you are not totally sure about what's going on. Your visits to heaven, for instance, which will certainly be regular, indicate that there's someone up there who is controlling your destiny - will they be part of the later stages of the game?

When you begin part two you will be wearing a visor, which you're advised not to remove. The curious adventurer will naturally only pause long enough to save the game before doing this and then you discover that you seem to be in some kind of parallel universe set very much in the future - the locations are similar but changed, in that fields have become green carpets and the troll is now robotic. What is going on?

What is going on is that you play an Orc with the charming name of Grindleguts, and at the start of the first of the three parts you wake up groaning piteously. Well you might, considering that your mouth tastes like a Hobbit's armpit and one of your favourite activities is eating people's pets. As you come to what senses you have, you discover that you're tied to a horse... and that a knight is bearing down on you with a lance. Then WALLOP! You're sitting in a pile or garbage alongside a putty knife and a hooded cloak.

STATUE

Disguising yourself with a cloak, you can then wander round and hope to escape these rather dangerous lands. Various bits of gold statue are lying around, like fingers and so on, and I happened across a hermit in a cave. He had some gold leaf and wondered if I'd any curios to trade. I gave him the finger (knowing Level 9's liking for puns, I thought they'd appreciate that) but he just took it and locked it in his trophy cabinet. Oops! Or literally OOPS, as this program allows you to go back a move by typing in OOPS. In fact it seems to work by taking you back not by a single input but by a physical movement, so my OOPS took me to outside the hermit's cave with my finger intact, ready to try a different tack. A combination of subterfuge and violence eventually worked on the hermit, so hooray for OOPS and RAMSAVE.

In time I found myself with a halyard and a hawser, so thank goodness as well for the EXAMINE command which could tell me what these were. In order to tackle one problem I tried tying them together and then, as if by magic, they were joined ... and I'd scored 20 out of 1,000 points. What an achievement! Escaping from the first part, which is simpler than the others in order to give you a feel for the game, involves boosting your score to 100 points by similar means and crossing a rather large gap. I shall leave it at that.

As with Magnetic Scrolls, this new improved super-intelligent complex parser can prove rather dumb when it comes to coping with the simpler tasks. A note outside the castle draw bridge advises you to knock very carefully. So what would you type in?

KNOCK VERY CAREFULLY
You don't need the word very'
KNOCK CAREFULY
You can't knock that
KNOCK
You can't knock that
KNOCK ON DRAWBRIDGE

The last input got a response, but it wasn't very nice! I didn't really mean to criticise your parser like that! I tried to get Fungus the Boggit-man to knock on the drawbridge for me, but he wasn't having any. Then I found Denzyl and asked him and he agreed, the fool! Mind you, having followed him all the way to the draw bridge he took one look and changed his mind. Not so foolish after all. I asked the passing innkeeper to have a go but all he did was reclaim the cask I'd pinched from his cellar when he wasn't looking earlier on.

Changing tactics got me into the castle by a more devious route but the knight in white satin (and very nice he looked) was none too pleased that I'd sneaked in without knocking. I found and opened a chest and got an interesting response to PUT ALL IN CHEST as "It is open" was printed eleven times in succession down the screen. I suppose it could have been something to do with the fact that I was carrying eleven objects, although one of those was the chest itself, which could have tied the program in knots.

DISAPPOINTING

Although part one has been kepi deliberately simple, I must say that I found it rather disappointing. The way out has you searching for ten items to link together, most of which are fairly obvious, and I don't really see the point of creating a vast network of well over 100 locations all with simple one-line descriptions that are variations on the theme of 'You are in an alder forest', 'You are in an oak forest', 'You are in an oak spinney'. Some of the descriptions are in fact nonsense, I mean what on earth is 'A holly scrubland' for heaven's sake? Why bother to create all these locations with their identical graphics when you give the player the option to GOTO anywhere or FIND anything - and by getting up high in part of the game you can spot the places and objects you need to get to.

Part two begins with a poetic inscription, which may or may not have been written by Adrian Mole (Poet). As you move around your new locations you'll meet many more characters, also all wandering about. For instance you'll meet the Prophet of Greater Manchester, a tall bearded figure who does all but say "Hello, hello, hello" to you. I did find the intrusion of all these characters completely ruined any sense of atmosphere that was being built up, and all for the sake of a slight joke - very slight in some cases, as with Amazon Grace or the Rainbird that appears.

KILL THE RAINBIRD

The Rainbird was on a perch and out of reach so I was unable to get at it or attempt to wring its neck or anything like that. Later I found a pebble with the one word JUMP inscribed on it, so I hurried back to the Rainbird and tried to jump on to a nearby pedestal (containing a handy reference book) to see if I could reach it that way. No such luck. Never one to flinch from violence I tried to THROW PEBBLE AT RAINBIRD. 'It hits the Rainbird. You hit the smooth pebble the Rainbird. The Rainbird's head vanishes and it immediately grows a new one.' Well I got the drift of the first and third sentences but the middle one baffled me a little, I have to admit.

I also have to admit to very mixed feelings about the game. As a program I think that it's brilliant, apart from a few little bugs - I've mentioned some so presumably there are more. I've been playing a preproduction version in which case some may have been ironed out but Level 9 can usually be relied on to leave one or two trivial little bugs for us to find for ourselves.

The graphics are among the best I've ever seen - with Magnetic Scrolls you admire the detail, but these take a different and more impressionistic approach. Based on paintings by Godfrey Dowson, they are simply beautiful. I also think it's going to give anyone who gets into it terrific value for money. But overall I didn't really find it as engrossing as I had hoped. The humour isn't as outrageously funny as that from Delta 4 and therefore spoils the feeling of the game.

Where Infocom scores over both Knight Orc and the Magnetic Scrolls games is that it chooses a subject and sticks to it, be it a sci-fi game, a mystery or just plain funny, whereas these British games are a bit of a mish-mash, meandering around with everything thrown in, from Jerry Lee Lewis in The Pawn to jokes about James Anderton in Knight Orc.

Every Infocom game has humour too, but it arises from the plot or the inputs you try. I'll certainly be loading up Knight Orc again, as there is lots to enjoy about it and lots more I've still to find out about it, but I doubt it, after the initial novelty has worn off, I'll feel compelled to want to play it through to the bitter end.