Uphill Struggle | Objectives | First Impressions | In Play | Verdict | Rating
Computer: Dragon 32
Price: £6.50 (Cassette)
Publisher: Richard Shepherd
Reviewer: Ralph Bancroft
Rating: 5/5

Uphill Struggle

Everest Ascent is described as an adventure-type game, but this is perhaps an overstatement. It lacks the complexities of a true Dungeons & Dragons adventure, and it relatively easy to crack. But it will still provide hours of entertainment and frustration.

Objectives

The object of the game is to climb Everest. You have an initial £1,000 to finance your expedition, and you can buy equipment and supplies, hire sherpas to carry it and build up to three base camps.

First Impressions

It takes twenty days to scale the mountain, and play takes the form of two moves a day. There are numerous hazards to overcome, such as crevasses, rockfalls, thin ice, avalanches, and an abominable snowman. Different equipment is needed to deal with the hazards and you will find that above certain heights you need oxygen and heat pads.

As play progresses, your expedition gains international recognition and donations come flooding in. The snag is that you have to return to the sherpas' village to collect the cash. But this does give you the cash. But this does give you the chance to recruit more sherpas and buy more supplies.

Your strength rating is the key to the game. Too low and you could find a message flashing up telling you that the expedition is exhausted because of your dynamic leadership. You can increase your strength rating by hiring additional sherpas - some have higher ratings, but they expect to be paid more.

As seems typical for low cost games software, the cassette comes with the minimum of explanation. One irritating problem was the LOADing instructions, which were inadequate.

In Play

Once loaded, the program draws an animated picture of Everest with snow falling. I don't know what falling snow should sound like, but I'm sure it's nothing like the clicking coming out of the Spectrum's speaker.

Pressing any key takes you through a couple of pages of brief instructions. There then follow three pages that allow you to fire sherpas, buy equipment and buy supplies.

This takes you to the morning of the first day. Throughout the rest of the game, any response to a question leads to a graphic superimposed with text offering four options of what to do next.

My first expedition came to a grinding halt at the end of the first day. I forgot to buy a tent. Returning to the village I tried to buy a tent only to be told that I had no money left! End of the first game, and a dawning realisation that careful planning was essential to success.

The next expedition fared a little better. At the start of the second day I ran into the first hazard. Needless to say I didn't have the required piece of equipment. Returning to the village I bought it and had carefully calculated that I should have £86 left. As I left the village, a message flashed up on the screen to say that I had run out of money.

In fact this problem was to happen again - on several occasions. This was no fault of mine, and I can only conclude that there was a fault in the program.

The other annoying problem I came across also lay with the way the program was written. I found that it was possible to get trapped by a hazard that appears where it should not be.

To give an example, I discovered that above a certain height, heat pads were required. In a subsequent game, I planned to build a base camp immediately below this height, and carry the heat pads up to it before returning to the village.

Everything went well. I reached the predetermined overnight point, and went through the procedure for setting up a base camp. The following morning I attempted to retrace my steps back down the mountain only to be confronted by a message 'heat pads required above this height'.

The aforementioned heat pads had of course been left at the base camp, so I tried going back, only to be told 'heat pads required above this point'. No matter whether I tried going up or down the mountain, the same message flashed up on the screen. In the end that expedition collapsed exhausted "because of my dynamic leadership".

Further expeditions suggested alternative strategies, and eventually I stormed up the mountain accompanied by virtually all the sherpas available and carrying all the equipment I could buy. Incidentally, because of the international recognition, the expedition ended up with a nice £7,000 profit!

Having done it once I tried different permutations to do it quicker and more cheaply. It absorbed many happy hours of frustration as I tried to unravel the logic of the programmers. My only lasting disappointment was that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find a way of climbing the mountain single-handed without oxygen!

Verdict

The game is based on the challenge of climbing Everest using a big support team. It's easy to master the basic technique of playing the game while you're thinking out the winning strategy. Having found a solution the game could, for some people, lose its appeal, but you may enjoy trying to find different ways to reach the top.

A lot of thought has gone into the game, so it's a shame it's partially spoiled by some quirky features.

Rating

Lasting Appeal 3/5
Playability 4/5
Use Of Machine 4/5
Overall Value 5/5

Uphill Struggle | Objectives | First Impressions | In Play | Verdict | Rating