Producer: Beyond
Retail Price: £9.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Nick Eatock & Simon Welland

Sorderon's Shadow describes itself as a new type of adventure game combining landscaping, first seen in Mike Singleton's Lords of Midnight, with the ability to input sentences and to talk with other characters. To be more precise, it is the first landscaping text adventure (although Runestone, reviewed here in June but yet to be released by Firebird, featured text input and very impressive vistas).

As with the Midnight series this game is accompanied by a story within which lie one or two clues to the game's solution. What is a little different about this game, and I must be honest, is not an altogether welcome departure from the norm, is its insistence upon spilling the beans as regards finding your way about the Land of Elindor. You, the un-named one, must tackle the nine tasks set you by Karavor the far-seeing. These tasks appear toward the end of the now familiar Beyond glossy booklet, just after the map of the Land of Elindor, and at a point when all the instructions seemed to augur well for a fine adventure game.

However, loading the game coincided with my reading these nine tasks and I began to become just that bit circumspect as I began play. The point is (and there seems little reason to beat around the bush any longer) these nine tasks take you stage by stage through the whole adventure, right up to the assault on Sorderon's Lair and to the Scroll of Immortality which bears the words that spell Sorderon's doom. You might ask, what's so wrong with that? Well, the impression it gives me is that this information was deemed essential as the game is so difficult to play, that without it play would have been impossible. Of course, first impressions can be misleading, but in this case playing the adventure only served to strengthen my reservations on this game rather than banish them.

Let's have a look at the story. Out of the east came a surly hedge-wizard going by the name of Sorderon. He teamed up with another no-good named Caradach the Watcher with the intention of turning the good king Ba. When Sorderon tired of feeding the king lies he slew the sleeping king and stole away into the night with the fabled scroll of Dorian, a key to immortality. Having learned the scroll's secrets he lodged the scroll in forgotten Baramund. Not being one to forget old friends, Sorderon decided to call on Caradach and unceremoniously slew him. No one was safe now. Of lords he made Kremen and soldiers, Krillan. Lord Plavor escaped to his shelter beyond the lava lakes to the north while Karavor and Aravor hid in the forest of Balinor. Needless to say, in Elindor the fields fell barren and men wept for good king Ba. All who were free awaited the coming of the un-named one.

You'll see what I mean about being lead by the nose through this adventure by telling you about what you have to do first. 'As you awake in Elindor a guide will go before you. Follow him north, stay close and pay heed to his words'. The guide then goes on 'Bear greetings to the headman. Shirk not the task he sets you', and on: 'Summon the Balord with Lonar's help'. Now, I don't know about you, but I find part of the fun in adventuring, especially landscaped adventuring, is to wander freely about the environs and discover for myself what I have to do and in what order I might have to do it. It spoils the fun somewhat, and indeed makes it something of a school exercise, to be hounded into following a set path of puzzles in this manner.

Now, before you get the impression this review is no more than a vicious assault on a game which has had tremendous reviews in other magazines, let me say now that this game is graphically stunning with some great art and design work by the Denton Designs team. Time is a major theme of the game with real time character movements going on all the while. During the day a bright sun burns across the sky in realistic procession while at night it is the moon which transcends the heavens. Flames flicker atop candles burning to either side of the display area which houses the characters in your present location. A drop of something which looks like blood constantly drips down to form a skull rising above flames. When the skull is clear of the flames it is night and the krillan zombie warriors are abroad.

Through the landscaping window can be seen stunning vistas of Elindor, too cluttered to be quite as impressive or effective as those in Midnight, but entertaining enough. In the landscapes can be seen hillocks, trees and distant mountains with drifting clouds above. Representations of characters can be seen some distance ahead. However, these figures are much cruder than those superb drawings seen in Midnight. Some compensation lies in the graphics below the landscape window which depict the characters in your location in true Denton Design style. The game has not just gone for stunning graphics though, it has also tackled the thorny problem of vocabulary. A 3 line editor allows the manipulation of three stored input commands which can be summoned and subsequently altered. Any word not understood by the program is clearly pointed out in the error message slot.

The apparently finished copy of Sorderon's Shadow sent to me was, to be honest, somewhat of a disappointment. Some of the keys did not function as the manual (or keyboard aid) suggested, and many of the abbreviations mentioned were not accepted by the program. These minor niggles, sadly, were symptomatic of a deeper flaw to this game: its play design has not worked out so well and it can take a considerable effort at times to muster sufficient will to carry on. What the game can offer is good graphics and a stiff challenge to any adventurer. It's early days yet but how much money on this game being compared to Valhalla?

COMMENTS

Difficulty: difficult to get into
Graphics: rather good
Presentation: superb
Input: sentences, command store
Response: reasonable

Sorderon's Shadow is a major new epic, complete with a cast of thousands and glorious landscaped sets.Peter Freebrey becomes the un-named one and prepares for an adventure...

Beyond's latest saga is not a game to be trifled with. Over 4,000 locations and a claimed 30,000 graphics screens - remind you of anything? That's right - it uses the landscaping techniques pioneered by Mike Singleton in Lords of Midnight. Only this time, it's also a full blooded adventure which understands complex text commands and has all manner of people and creatures in it - both good and bad - all doing their own thing. And of course, there's a hefty storyline for you to digest before you stand a chance of playing the game.

Sorderon, not content with being an evil wizard, has discovered the secret of immortality, slain the rightful king of Elindor and now rules the land with fear and torment. All those faithful to the king have been slain or transformed. All who are known to him risk his terrible vengeance - fear stalks the day and death follows by night (Calm down! Ed). Under his rule, Elindor is dying.

But there's hope. One of the Lords of Elindor has for years been calling across the cosmos for an 'unknown warrior' who'll rid the land of Sorderon's evil shadow. All pretty standard stuff and nothing to thrill you to death. Until you discover that the unknown warrior is you! Your job is to singlehandedly rid Elindor of its tyrant. To do this, you must complete, in order, nine separate tasks which lead to his downfall. This might seem a bit steep but it does at least give you some chance of succeeding in an otherwise strange and deadly land.

The 14-page manual is a great help and will be essential to complete the game - as is a speech in the early stages that was omitted from our review copy! The manual sets out the tasks and describes the major characters and objects. There's also a complete map of Elindor which is crucial even though some of the windmills and igloos have been replaced by huts. P'raps the climate changed or maybe the programmers ran out of memory...

Keep a close watch on where you are and what's in front of you or you may well find yourself dead! Bogs and marshes are no place for the newcomer. You'll also come across many different creatures on your travels, mostly hostile. Pay careful attention to that part of the instructions dealing with 'the nine tasks of the un-named one', 'characters' and 'objects'. You'd be wise to remember the names of the goodies and baddies 'cos if you kill the wrong one... you're done for!

Talking about 'the nine tasks' - these lead you through the adventure and without them you won't stand a snowball's chance in hell. As the hero you must complete these nine tasks, seven in the correct order and the other two at any time.

Cryptic verse and character speech will appear throughout play. These clues should aid you in your quest and the instruction booklet will provide you with further information when you're really stuck!

The range of gruesome creatures in Sorderon's Shadow is truly amazing and their graphical representation brilliant. You'll meet anything from a manic treeblower (eh?) to a healer called Morkoth. These two characters are actually quite useful but you'll meet a lot of nasties too, such as the Thornman, Sandman, Krillan and the Dunecrawlers.

Elindor is a large land and it'll take quite a bit of time to trek across from one side to another. If some evil doer puts the boot in and you die you'll have to repeat that journey again - unless of course you've saved your position onto tape.

Should you meet with death the computer appears to 'hang' and none of the keys work. It's actually waiting for you to load in a saved position, though it doesn't actually tell you this in the instructions. You did save as you travelled didn't you?

Don't be too surprised when some of the creatures you meet don't want to go away - this happens a lot and not only does it slow the game but if you can't satisfy their wishes you may find they decide to dispense with your services. Nasty eh? It's a good idea to move through the night though you must watch your strength as well as where you walk - you may not see that marsh up ahead...

Sorderon's Shadow is one complex adventure, so if you like 'em big - get out your trusty sword, don your hiking boots and don't forget to leave a note for the milkman...

THE HAUNTED HOUSE

Richard Price finds himself in limbo as he looks for a time machine.

Most months the games sent in for review tend to be a mixed bag and usually only one or two stand out from the general run of average productions. This month is exceptional as all five programs reviewed are either excellent, value for money, break new ground or restate old values. Whatever the depth of your pocket you should find at least one that suits you or your wallet.

SORDERON'S SHADOW - THE LEGEND OF ELINDOR
Publisher: Beyond Software
Memory: 48K
Price: £9.95

Sorderon's Shadow - The Legend of Elindor is the most innovative of this month's selection. Beyond has consistently tried to push out the frontiers of games software and this latest program is no exception. In fact the scope of the game is so wide that it would be difficult to explain all its facets in such a small space.

The setting is the land of Elindor, much troubled by the evil of the sorcerer Sorderon. That wicked magus has blighted the land by his spells and the country is wasted by his minions and creatures. Krillan zombie warriors terrorise the people and other half-human things haunt the landscape.

You are cast as the Un-named One, foretold in legend as the saviour of Elindor. To defeat Sorderon you must successfully accomplish nine major quests, all of which are subdivided into lesser tasks. Most of those tasks involve the enlisting of other characters, many of whom are hostile or indifferent to you. At other points you will need to reconstruct magical artifacts such as the Staff of Power, or trade items of power for others necessary to your purpose. The overthrow of Sorderon is no straightforward matter.

Your journey takes place in a landscape familiar to addicts of Lords of Midnight or Doomdark's Revenge. As you move from location to location the features shift in perspective and size on the screen. You can view the country from all eight major compass directions before deciding where you want to go. There are mountains, plains, lakes and forests. Within those you will discover tombs, huts, caves and other man-made places. Beyond claim over 4,000 locations and a staggering 33,000 screen views.

Commands are given in a variety of ways. By pressing Symbol Shift you can access a range of single key instructions. With those you can move, get an inventory, count your money, identify other characters, and carry out a number of other functions like scoring, saving and so on. There is also a full text interpreter which allows you to play the game as a text adventure too. That takes the program beyond the systems used in Lords of Midnight and provides a wide variety of choice for your approach to the game.

The interpreter shows the results of your actions on a scroll above the landscape and informs you of any problems in your input with an error message buffer. The screen also displays your strength - you'll need to find food - and shows small graphics of the characters who are with you in the location.

There are many other inhabitants of Elindor living their own lives around you in real time. You can speak to them and get them to help or do your bidding. You may, of course, need to fight them so you will have to be quick on the uptake.

Before you begin you will need to familiarise yourself with the very complex game format. There is a vast wodge of documentation with the cassette and I advise you to spend a fair bit of time taking it all in. The quests and sub-quests are very involved.

The first quest is to follow your companion Morrin to the cave where a magical um is secreted. The inscription on it will provide more clues to your task and Morrin then vanishes - you're on your own. My own first priority was to get used to the landscape - it took me a while to realise that wandering unprepared and unarmed was perilous, and I found myself being slaughtered regularly. Make sure you Save a position early on as you cannot simply quit and begin again - you have to load in a prepared set of data.

My review copy was a pre-production version and I ran into a few glitches in the program. At one point I typed 'Wait' - everything crashed and I couldn't get the game going again. The text interpreter kept telling me that my sentence lacked a verb when it clearly didn't. Fortunately, that did not affect the play much and it's worth remembering that there are very few other games which even possess that sort of error-trapping function.

Sorderon's Shadow is a heady blend of text adventure and strategy, and is a true successor to the realms of Midnight. I am sure that it will have a strong appeal to those who have clashed with Doomdark, and it should pull in many other text players who may have shied away from the military bias of those previous programs. In some ways it is experimental, but definitely shows the way forward for mixed format games. Good luck and don't talk to any strange lizards.

Beyond pushed back the frontiers of adventure games with Lords of Midnight and Doomdark's Revenge. Sorderon's Shadow represents a further innovative onslaught, discarding the military elements of the earlier games in favour of traditional text input coupled with multi-directional graphics.

The plot is scarcely exceptional. The land of Elindor is blighted by the evil of the sorceror Sorderon. You play the Clint Eastwood character-the Un-named On - who frees the terrorised citizens by accomplishing a series of quests. The inhabitants of the land pursue their independent lives in real time and can be-enlisted or fought depending on circumstance.

Beyond produce games that are expertly programmed but tend to be complex to play. This makes them just that bit cleverer than those of their competitors.

They also go in for trendy medieval-type names for characters and objects. In Sorderon's Shadow, in addition to learning the controls, you have such forgettable names as Aurrican, Borak, Hydral, Kerral, Morlcoth, Plavor and Xirith to bone up on. Each has his own characteristics and uses.

For example, Morkoth has something which will help you speak to Kerral. Why should you want to speak to Kerral? Because he will carry you across the lakes by Plavor's Castle, if you did but know it!

There is also a list of objects to learn all about.

Play involves killing Sorderon, but you must also complete nine sub-tasks on the way. To begin to get anywhere at all, you must first master the screen layout and game controls.

In play you will require food, weapons for fighting, gold and other objects, and will come across friends and enemies. To help you on your way, a 'Midnight/Doomdark' type map is provided showing features of the land of Ellindor, which consists of mountains, impassable mountains, forests, lakes, igloos, towers, pits, churches, castles, windmills ...

There is no doubt that this is an extremely clever and sophisticated piece of programming, but to operate the game effectively, you need an in-depth study of the instruction book, plus plenty of practice.

This time I think Beyond has overdone it. My own opinion is that it is pretentious rubbish, one long yawn from beginning to...