The Buyers Guide to Adventure and Strategy Games

Draw that sword and light your lamp and get ready for the lowdown on the adventure games which have lit up the CPC...

'Adventures? Nah - there just for freaks who can't play arcade games - give me Final Fight any day!'... *crunch* This is the sort of attitude that the Balg must disagree with... Adventures have come a long way since the early verb noun input (which, to be honest, was a real pain and was only really enjoyable to masochists!) and many of the adventures listed in this top 10 have very powerful parsers (the bit that understands what the player types). Adventures may be boring to some people but if you give them time they can be become very difficult - it's true that they take slightly longer to get into compared to an arcade blast, but your average adventure can take many weeks if not months to solve - how about that for value for money!

What is an adventure? Infocom used the term 'interactive fiction' and this is perhaps the best description of an adventure - the adventure game is like a book where you control the central character and dictate the plot of the book by typing your commands in plain English each time you see the prompt (usually something like 'What now?' or '>'). You decide the central characters actions and ultimately whether he or she succeeds in the story.

However, rather than just list the top 10 adventures, the Balg has included some of his favourite strategy games as well.

What makes these adventures good? This is a difficult question to answer - if the Balg knew the right answer I'd be writing adventure games for a living! However, I'll try! - Most of the best games are unfortunately disc only (sorry 464 owners!) - a disc allows a lot more game. Graphics can sometimes add to a game as in the case of Heroes of Karn but don't expect much from most games - many graphics are rubbish! A good parser is an important feature of a good adventure - the more words the game can understand, the more user friendly it will be. A good game also usually is big - they take a long time to solve as they have many puzzles and problems, however these puzzles should not be too hard - you don't want to put the player off. However, their are many other factors that make a game good including originality, atmosphere, interaction, puzzles and plot.

Finally a couple of notes about the top ten -

1) Many of the games listed are unfortunately no longer available. This is a shame but keep diligently scanning the small ads and car boot sales and you could be in luck!

2) Many brilliant games have been ommitted. Basically nearly all of the Infocom, Magnetic Scrolls or Level 9 games are very good and usuallly much better than the games available at present.

Adventure and Strategy TOP TEN

1. Lurking Horror
(Infocom) Disc only
The best Infocom game... Need I say more?
% AA27

2. Lords of Chaos
(Bladesoft)
Brilliant strategy game with up to four players fighting to become the Lord of Chaos. Lots of worlds to explore and loads of spells to cast.
% AA

3. Corruption
(Magnetic Scrolls) Disc only
Yuppie insider dealing and power struggles make this probably the best Magnetic Scrolls game around. Great graphics and clever puzzles.
% AA40

4. Bards Tale
(Electronic Arts)
Probably the best role playing game released on the Amstrad - You must destroy the evil Mangar to succeed but the road to this is long and dangerous - many days of fun await!
% AA39

5. Price of Magick
(Level 9)
One of the Balgs fave Level 9 games - a massive map, verbose text and lots of puzzles make this a winner. Although Level 9 improved their character interaction much in later games (such as Scapeghost) the Balg still feels that this was one of their best.
% AA10

6. Heroes of Karn
(Interceptor)
Brilliant graphics and a star appearance from yours truly is put off by a truly lousy parser. Still, if you don't mind battling with the vocabulary, it is a very enjoyable game.
% AA?? (not sure if ever reviewed - if not give it a 75%)

7. Magnetic Moon
(FSF) Disc only
Well written home-brew adventure with a massive map, impressive parser and very tricky puzzles! Not for the faint hearted but very good value for money. Text only.
(Have reviewed but not sure which issue... - think it was AA72 but that is the only issue I do not have so I cannot be sure)

8. The Spiro Legacy
(Guild Adventure Software) Disc only
PAW author extraordinaire, Ken Bond, with probably his best game - clever puzzles and great text make this a worthy holder of position 8. Text only.
88% AA69

9. Sim City
(Electronic Arts)
Strategy cum simulation game in which you must build, develop and manage a sprawling metropolos. Great effects and very well put together.
% AA

10. PAW
(Gilsoft) Disc only
Not strictly a game but you can have a lot of fun using it - PAW is perhaps the best adventure writer software available on the Amstrad. Limited only by the fact that it is disc only, it allows authors to write large games with the added bonus of being able to add their only little machine code routines to personalise the game. Far from easy to use at times but very powerful.
AA28


Best Adventure Game

Lurking Horror (Infocom)

In Lurking Horror, you are a student at G.U.E. Tech. You have braved a snowstorm to get to the Computer Centre and finish work on an assignment. But the snowstorm has turned into a raging blzzard, and has trapped you in a complex of buildings late at night. You are not alone, fortunately... or perhaps unfortunately. Thus you begin the story, unaware that anything may be wrong beneath or within the veneer of the quiet campus.

Written by Dave Lebling, co-author of the Zork trilogy and author of Suspect, Lurking Horror is one brilliant game! The game is based on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, a famous horror author who scares his readers not through gore but by building the suspense and atmosphere to such an extent that the reader becomes engrossed in the story. Lebling has this ability of engrossing the reader in Interactive Fiction and literally drags you fighting and kicking into the world of Lurking Horror.

The text only aspect of the game adds to the atmosphere of the game - rather than seeing some poor graphic of a horrible denizen, you have your imagination...

Addictive right from the start, the atmosphere is electric - in fact this is the only game where the Balg did not draw a map - the atmosphere was so good that the map burned itself on my brain

Lurking Horror rightly deserves the position of number one. Its shere size, atmosphere, character interaction, puzzles etc etc are all too good. If you get a chance to obtain it - get it.