Rescue The Rod | Objectives | In Play | Verdict | Rating
Computer: Oric 1
Price: £5.50 (Cassette)
Publisher: Audiogenic
Reviewer: David Janda
Rating: 1/5

Rescue The Rod

The Dungeons and Dragons theme is very much in evidence in Dungeons Of Intrigue from ASL.

Centuries ago, says the blurb, Zorroth the mystic managed to make his getaway from the evil elves of the land of El Galador. Zorroth hid in the dungeons of his castle, hotly pursued by the elves, but after days of wandering along the corridors, the elves finally caught up with him.

Thereupon, Zorroth uttered a magical spell and vanished - and with him disappeared the mighty Rod of Power.

Objectives

You must enter the dungeons and find the Rod of Power. Along the way, you will encounter many dangers which you must avoid, but you go armed with your own abilities.

You also have a sum of money with which to buy objects such as axes and lanterns, and you may choose what character you would like to be - Dwarf, Priest, Fighter and so forth.

In Play

After choosing my character and buying my equipment, I set off into the dungeons. So far, so good, but that was where the problems began. When the main program was run, the message: 'Setting up dungeons and monsters' appeared, along with a jumble of apparently random numbers.

Then the hash appeared, meaning that I could enter a command. So I entered 'W' for walk - and the machine immediately crashed!

That didn't seem to be the program's fault, but the playback level needs to be set carefully when LOADing.

I found that the screen layouts were really pretty poorly designed, with text sometimes overlapping, and worse still, when I encountered a new situation or character, the computer's description of what was happening would literally flash onto the screen, then the program would move on.

Battles with monsters were exciting, though. "Watch out!!! Monsters" is the only warning you get, then the battle for your life is on. After each move I made it would give me a blow-by-blow report.

Verdict

It's a real shame that the game's screen layouts are so messy.

Dungeons Of Intrigue has a good theme, and there are plenty of situations which should keep the player going for quite a while. But I hope that ASL will tidy up the games, since it deserves better.

Rating

Lasting Appeal 3/5
Playability 1/5
Use Of Machine 1/5
Overall Value 1/5

Rescue The Rod | Objectives | In Play | Verdict | Rating