REVIEWS COURTESY OF ZXSR

Loads of Midnight
by HO, Keith Hughes
CRL Group PLC
1987
Crash Issue 51, Apr 1988   page(s) 43

CRL
£9.95

Beyond the lands of Midnight, the age of technology has caught up with the world of role playing and adventure. The magical crown of the old king Ludwig has become a much-coveted object in the battles for sales and software success. At present Ludo, owner of a small company and Ludwig's son, is in possession of the crown. He must prevent it from falling into the hands of the wicked Gloompork at all costs. Unscrupulous and proud, Gloompork is driven by an overwhelming desire to use the crown's power to become the ultimate software giant. Ludo and any followers he can recruit must gain the cooperation of other inhabitants of the land, before finally taking the crown north to the rower of Doom, and destroying it.

The world through which you pass hears all the characteristics of the parodied Beyond game, irreverently recreated. The graphics, with their bleak outlines of peaks and hills against even bleaker skylines, are almost indistinguishable from the originals. On-screen messages appear to inform you of the passage of time, and wolves, more indifferent than hostile, occasionally appear to stare piercingly into your eyes.

As a spoof it's very slick, but this slickness ultimately lets the game down. The scene is carefully set at the expense of the puzzles and replay. Travelling through the recognisable landscape is fun at first but interest soon wanes as it becomes clear there's little else to do. The parser is quite flexible and the phrase, 'Tell me about your problems' occasionally gleans interesting replies but could have been developed further. There is a RAMSAVE option and graphics can he switched off for extra speed.

All the elements of a competent game are there; unfortunately they don't quite get into a good one.


REVIEW BY: Kati Hamza (as Samara)

Overall55%
Transcript by Chris Bourne

Sinclair User Issue 73, Apr 1988   page(s) 95

Label: CRL
Author: Keith Hughes (Penna Productions)
Price: £7.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Tony Dillon

A spoof on Lords of Midnight sounds like a brilliant idea for an adventure, so where does this one go wrong?

It comes in three parts and was written using the Quill, Illustrator and Patch. Your quest is to seek out your companions and go to Cigarash to destroy the frozen crown.

The graphics are simple, very repetitive and take quite a while to draw. The text descriptions are brief, consisting mainly of available exits. Spelling mistakes start to appear with increasing regularity and the messages are disjointed and badly constructed.

The author is obviously an admirer of Fergus McNeil and has used a similar style in writing this adventure but, where this worked for Fergus, it doesn't work for Keith Hughes of Penna Productions.

The playing area is quite large but there is hardly anything to do. You can't examine much and the parser is very limited. In one location you find a bench. If you input "sit on bench", the response comes up, "Rudely ignoring the location description, Ludo decided to be seated on the bench." Input "Stand", response "Ludo, however did not understand a word of that." Try again, input "Stand", response, "Ludo, however did not understand a word of that." Try again, input, "Stand up", response, "In this direction Ludo could not travel."

Surely if you're going to allow the player to sit you should also allow him to stand?

Your travelling companions may as well be cardboard cutouts for the companionship they offer; you can't even examine them.

As far as gameplay goes, there isn't any. The puzzles are totally contrived and the humour is very unfunny.

You seem to spend the whole game travelling from one side of your map to the other to perform one action then it's about turn and trudge back to the other side of the map.

The one thing I thought was OK in this adventure was the use of sound. Used in a very simple way, but very effectively indeed.

I didn't enjoy playing this adventure at all and can't find anything in its favour that would make me recommend it to anyone.


REVIEW BY: Tony Dillon

Overall3/10
Summary: A good idea for a text and graphics adventure that just doesn't come off.

Transcript by Chris Bourne

ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment) Issue 7, Apr 1988   page(s) 92

Epic satire from CRL?

Excellent idea this - to do a take-off of Mike Singleton's epic release. CRLs Quillustrated program features the adventures of Ludo Morbid, Cordless, and Rorthorn as they attempt to destroy the Crown at the Tower of Doom and win the War of the Franchise against the hideous Gloompork.

So, great idea. But not much of a game, unfortunately. Loading up the game raises the interest to begin with, especially when you see some subtly familiar graphics and realise that - in the early stages at least - the program manages to be quite clever at imitating its famous predecessor. The map layout is also disturbingly reminiscent of the lands of Midnight and anyone familiar with the various citadels and plains of that domain should have a few laughs.

Naturally one of the best features of the original Lords of Midnight was the strategy element. It would have been nice to see some attempt to introduce a take-off of this in Loads of Midnight, but it doesn't appear.

And that's about all, really. The humour seems to weaken as you move further into the game and any serious take-off of Mike Singleton's game becomes a more and more remote possibility as you discover a space-station and find that a disturbing number of simple commands are not accepted by the program. Spelling mistakes that are initially amusing ("horrorifically", for example) soon become nothing but a symptom of poor game-testing and faulty execution.

Software companies that publish Quilled and GACed games need to remember that many of these games are written by people with little experience. A good company will give the programmer help, advice, and back-up that ensures the absence of simple grammatical errors and sharpens game-design. Then you can end up with some good products. Without it, you get something like this, which very few people will want to add to their collection.

RELEASE BOX
Spec, £9.99cs, Reviewed
No other versions planned.


System500/1000
Challenge580/1000
Encounters250/1000
Landscape600/1000
Ace Rating490/1000
Transcript by Chris Bourne

The Games Machine Issue 6, May 1988   page(s) 89,90

Spectrum Cassette: £9.95

Adventures written to be humorous usually fail miserably as all they do is send up the more serious side of genre. Taking a product and mocking it to try to be amusing is easy and shows a lack of imagination on the part of the author. Loads Of Midnight is one such game.

The Land of Midnight is the setting, a place where the computer age has recently dawned and sales of software are booming. It transpires that Gloompork the evil one, banished to the Northern wastes some years before, is bent on conquest. He has learned of the mind control properties of a certain black gem to be found embedded in a golden crown, and he wants it. With the gem in his possession people would do his bidding and he could build a software industry all his own - power and recognition would be his. However, many small companies still thrive, one such being owned by Ludo, who just happens presently to be in possession of the golden crown (although being good of mind, he would not use it for personal gain).

Fortunately he hears of Gloompork's avaricious interest and decides he must destroy the crown by casting it away from the top of the Tower of Doom. Only by doing this will the Land of Midnight be safe from Gloompork's dire threat.

A LOAD OF...

Written using the Quill, Illustrator and Patch, Loads Of Midnight lacks atmosphere. The graphics are good and nicely reminiscent of Lords Of Midnight but the text descriptions let them down badly. Most of the writing is taken up with what exits are available, which soon becomes tedious. Admittedly I did not get very far, mostly because I couldn't be bothered. There is nothing in the game to warrant perseverance, and the attempts at humour are childish, often irritating. It would be nice to see some original humour injected into some of these utility-created adventures.


REVIEW BY: Rob Steel

Atmosphere28%
Interaction22%
Overall26%
Transcript by Chris Bourne

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