Producer: Incentive Software
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.50
Author: R. A. McCormack

Temple of Vran is the second part of the Ket Trilogy from Incentive Software. Your mission in this part of the trilogy is to enter the temple and once there to put an end to all of its evil occupants.

You start the adventure with a sword, some armour, a ring and, of course, Edgar, your friendly assassin bug, who can be trusted to sink his poison fangs into your neck should you decide to shirk your quest. This is a classic style text-only adventure with a large number of locations and many problems to solve which could take weeks to complete.

Your travels will take you across the plains of Ket, into the depths of the Wart's Lair and ever forward in time to the years 1940 and 2300 before returning for your final confrontation in the Temple of Vran.

There is a good number of useful (and not so useful) objects scattered around. Care must be taken not to waste useful objects or leave them in another time zone.

The locations are lucidly described and are consistent in creating an exciting and credible atmosphere. Input consists of Verb/Noun couplings which is adequate although limiting when communicating with other characters. The vocabulary is quite flexible but there are a few annoying omissions and the use of the verb 'examine' is confined to those occasions when you are actually carrying an object.

Combat is much more sophisticated than in most other adventures, giving your statistics for Prowess, Energy and Luck. Prowess is your skill in combat. Energy indicates your state of health and Luck your fortune in combat. The tussles take place in rounds in which either you or your opponent is hit. If you are struck you are given the option of running or continuing to fight. Running can often prove to be the most dangerous as you can be struck from behind. All this adds up to make a more interesting game charged with atmosphere.

One small bug I encountered occurred during one moment of gratuitous violence. I was involved in a fracas with a mouse in the same location as an elephant. To my horror the combat status appeared with the mouse having an energy of 20 compared to my meagre 10. In the ensuing battle, which lasted nearly 20 rounds, I was knocked over and kicked several times and brought to the verge of death. Quite a blow to one's delusions of heroism.

Overall an excellent game which can be heartily recommended, particularly for novice adventurers as the problems are not too difficult.

On the eve of your execution, having been framed for murder, you're given the chance to either do or die. You're sent on a mission with an assassin bug called Edgar hanging on to your neck; he'll sink his fangs into you if you do a bunk.

Alex: This adventure is a follow up to the Mountains of Ket, and extends an originally good idea even further. The fact that it's text-only doesn't matter in the least, because the content is so good that it just makes you want to play on and on. However, you need to be a bit of an adventure nut and I suspect it could take a very long time indeed to succeed. Good game, very addictive, and should provide aeons of fun.

Alan G: It's full of the stuff adventures are made of, but tends to offer just a little bit more. Like having to battle against extremely vicious warts and having Edgar on your neck certainly prevents you from doing anything crafty. The actual aim is to find the Temple of Vran and destroy its evil inhabitants, a task for which you are suited - you're convicted of murder, remember? MISS

Alan H: It's the content of this game which makes it better than most of the other adventures and the idea of displaying your statistics at the start of the game is particularly useful when you go into battle later on. Another nice feature is the way the objects you are carrying are displayed in simple block graphics. Some adventures are better than others; this is a better one.

Memory: 48K
Price: £5.50

The perils and deep places of the magic mountain lie behind our reluctant adventurer in Temple of Vran, second of the programs in the Ket Trilogy from Incentive Software. The sound of running water and the scent of lush grasslands greets him as he emerges into daylight again. He has retained some useful items to see him through the troubles to follow and must now search for the temple of the mad sorcerer.

Those who have played Mountains of Ket will know that text adventures from Incentive are well-crafted and abound in tough puzzles. The combat routine in the first game has been modified and improved to allow a choice of weapons, thus giving more realism and variation.

Temple of Vran is ingenious and original in its design. The player can identify strongly with the central character and, through the provision of status indicators, the game can mirror at least some of the complexity of role-playing scenarios. Enjoy yourself, but remember, take care.

This is the second game in the Mountains of Ket trilogy and starts off on the far side of the mountain. To reach that point was (had you played it) your objective in Ket. However, it is not necessary to have played Mountains of Ket to be able to enjoy Vran.

Your aim here is to reach and enter the temple and put an end to its evil occupants. You start off endowed with the three items you were carrying as you reached the far side the mountain in the previous game.

One hazards encountered is a right nest of nasty warts - creatures who are in the habit of throwing acid at you without warning. As in Mountains of Ket, there is a combat mode, though this time the rules have been slightly altered.

Some of the things you may come across are an elephant, a huge pile of washing up, a kitten and a mouse. A small point of confusion arose when I tried feeding the elephant. Unless I was carrying a certain object, the reply came back WITH WHAT? and this was followed by WHAT NOW? It became apparent, when I had the right object, that the game assumed I meant to feed the elephant with the right thing and allowed me to, proving that WITH WHAT? was not really a question to the player, but a comment.

Trying to be kind to the little puss, I tried to feed it whilst carrying the mouse, only to be rebuffed. Kitty was one of those two out of every ten cats who don't prefer Whiskas - this one's scene is Go Cat!

Vran follows the same format as Ket, being a text only Adventure (if you exclude the mini-pictures of some of the objects). The problems did not seem too difficult.

Although I welcome a game that allows me to EXAMINE something, a feature I did not like was the fact that I was expected to be carrying it first.

That limited the use of EXAMINE to portable objects - it is somewhat difficult to carry an elephant or a hole in a wall!

Temple of Vran is from Incentive Software for 48k Spectrum, priced £5.50.

THE LAND OF KET

MICRO: Spectrum 48K
PRICE: £x.95
FORMAT: Cassette
SUPPLIER: Incentive Software

Mountains of Ket, Temple of Vran and a third adventure, entitled The Final Mission, comprise The Ket Trilogy, for which there is the incentive of £400 worth of video equipment. This prize is for the first adventurer to identify a message, a short part of which is revealed only on successful completion of each adventure.

Prizes for computer games are not new, but this time it would appear that the identification of a winner is a decided possibility. The ridiculously high rewards offered by Pimania and Krakit are protected by equally ridiculous and, to date, impossible to solve puzzles. The Ket Trilogy offers a more modest prize and, on the evidence of the first two adventures, a hope of eventual success. Mountains of Ket opens the trilogy as a modest challenge with several interesting features, followed by the more difficult Temple of Vran. It is to be expected that the final adventure will continue this progression but remain within the bounds of possibility.

In the trilogy you assume the role of a wrongly-convicted murderer, offered a reprieve in return for the destruction of Vran Verusbel and Delphia, the leader and priestess of a cult of mad monks who are terrorising the Land of Ket. In order to ensure your loyalty, a magic assassin bug accompanies you and also provides details of anything you may encounter.

Before you set out you are informed of the value of some vital attributes under the categories of Prowess, Strength and Luck. In any fight these attributes are compared with those of your opponent, over a series of rounds, in order to determine the victor. This combat feature injects a flavour of Dungeons and Dragons into basically standard two word input text adventures, and enhances the atmosphere of hidden danger.

With a sword in your possession, and this combat routine to be used, it is tempting to kill in order to obtain possession of vital objects. However, such indiscriminate use of your prowess is to be discouraged, unless there is no alternative.

RIDING ALONG

In part one, the objective is to find your way to, and finally through, the mountains. The action begins on a road leading into a small village. You are informed that the mountains are a short horse-ride to the east. From this information, it is logical to assume that you will never reach the mountains without a horse. A short stroll around the village soon identifies the presence of a stable where the stableman demands four coins for the purchase of a horse. But you have only two coins! An increase in your wealth can be obtained by considering the shopkeeper as a friendly trader and providing the cartographer with the means to fight off the cold. A nice gentle start to the task, but the response to SCORE indicates that this initial success has barely scratched the surface.

A short horse-ride does take you to the mountains and, once inside, the action gets more furious with many obstacles to overcome. In certain instances here, the sequence of commands is quite precise and in particular the problem of the hungry dog is inexorably tied to further progress.

The puzzles to be solved in the mountain caves are often inter-related, with some objects having a dual purpose. The empty bottle, for instance, can be filled with oil and magic elixir but what to do with either? Both have a purpose and the "spring in your step" after drinking the elixir wears off after a short time, making the choice of location for imbibing one plateau which must be scaled very precisely.

Bribery and gambling are both encountered and, although the former is quite newsworthy, the latter really is a gamble, so that before entering into the dice game it is wise to exercise the SAVE option.

Delphia eventually proves to be a rather tame opponent, disappearing in a cloud of green smoke, only to re-appear in Temple of Vran.

The exit from the mountains is eventually discovered by dressing up as a wizard and solving the final HELP clue that wizards are totally magical. The word totally is the clue here for an action foreign to all underground adventurers.

Mountains of Ket is an enjoyable, not too difficult adventure, which should certainly encourage successful adventurers to move on to Temple of Vran. This can be played independently of Mountains of Ket but it is possible to carry forward your attributes if you so wish. Now on the other side of the mountains, your objective is to seek out and kill the occupants of the castle. The format is substantially similar to the first part, and again it is important to preserve your vital strength and luck points.

Initial exploration reveals a large number of locations and strange objects with interesting possibilities. For instance, will the mouse waken the sleeping kitten or perhaps frighten the elephant into motion? Will the trampoline enable you to jump on to the elephant or up to a hole high in a wall? The kitten and mouse both ignore the offer of food but the elephant will follow you to the cliff top to get it.

As with Mountains of Ket, several items perform a dual purpose but after only a few false starts you should be swinging across a quicksand pit to meet the delightful Aphrodite. The reward of a key for the castle is offered for successful completion of tasks in two different time zones to which she sends you. The first is 1940 where you are subjected to exploding bombs and to the indignity of wearing a moustache (are all adventurers male?).

The second time zone is 2300 and, as with 1940, this should pose no serious problems as success is obtained by simply picking up, using, or wearing all of the easily found objects. However, it is imperative to return to the present time zone with any other objects for which there was no apparent use.

Rewarded with the key it only remains to find the castle. You know where it is and can see it across a stream of lava, but how to reach it? Once across the lava (no clues for how) you will discover one vital puzzle thrown at you. Final success depends on having eight objects with you but you can carry only seven and cannot re-cross the lava. Nice one.

A QUESTION OF LOGIC

As with most good adventures the solutions to all the puzzles are maddeningly logical when they are finally discovered, although the two time zone sections of Temple of Vran are not of the high standard of the rest of the adventures.

Two minor criticisms are perhaps worthy of mention. The noun vocabulary could be more extensive - it does not even recognise the existence of your travelling companion, Edgar, and on a few occasions the response to an input (always a fatal one) is only fleetingly displayed on screen.

Due to the prize on offer no HELP sheet is available yet from Incentive Software, but a careful re-read of this article may provide a few clues. The third part of the trilogy is due to appear in Autumn 1984. All those with the first two parts of the apparently meaningless message should be eager to explore The Final Mission.