Bloodwych - Image Works/Mirrorsoft RRP œ24.95

                    Reviewed by Roy Sims

Bloodwych is a secret order of psychic mages, and the castle 
belonging to the Bloodwych is unwanted host to a dormant but 
powerful demon. Only the unification of the Crystals of Sanguis 
will secure the behemoth  in his lair for all eternity. Should 
they remain separate, then he shall rise to bring darkness to 
the world.

The game has been obviously influenced by Dungeon  Master, which
was distributed by  Mirrorsoft in the U.K. The novel twist  lies 
in the communication feature and in the two player option, which
allows two parties  of four to wander around independently, each 
controlled by  a different player. There is also a one player 
option for those without a willing friend.

Comparisons with Dungeon Master are inevitable and at first 
glance  it comes out favourably. A number of the communication 
features are mostly made  redundant during play but sometimes 
they can yield  results, and it's nice to be able to talk to 
other characters unlike in DM. However, the stock phrase answers
soon become tiresome and the AI soon begins to feel like a 
random answer generator.

The spell system is well implemented. You each have a spell book
and only those highlighted on the pages can be cast. Other 
spells are 'bought' whilst  you are sleeping to restore your 
strength etc. The animation employed whilst turning the pages is 
nice, but it's annoying that the last page referred to is not 
remembered when you next open  up the book. Perhaps a book mark
feature would have made it  better. The variety of spells is at 
first daunting, but some are only actually needed once in the 
entire game!

However, Bloodwych is ultimately let down by the graphics and 
the similarity to DM. The graphics are smaller and far inferior 
to DM. There are only a few monster types, just differently 
coloured in an attempt to make them look different. The 
animation is naff, with attacking people, monsters etc waving 
their arms about in a very silly-looking  manner. Some monsters
from DM pop up in slightly disguised appearances, but visually 
they're not half as good.

The worst thing about Bloodwych is that one level (and there are
about 38-40  in all) looks the same as any other. Grey walled 
dungeons that looked  new  and  fresh in DM are dead boring  
second  time  around  in Bloodwych.  Coupled with the lack of 
different monsters and the lack of real new puzzle types other 
than those found in DM, Bloodwych turns out to be boring and 
tedious.  On the surface it has lots of added features that DM 
lacked, but underneath it fails to keep the interest.