Scapeghost - Level 9 RRP œ19.95 Reviewed by Roy Sims Scapeghost is Level 9's 15th original text entry adventure, and it is also their last. The game uses the same system which Level 9 employed in writing Knight Orc, Gnome Ranger, Ingrid's Back! and Lancelot - and it shows. The plot (what there is of it) has you playing the ghost of a dead policeman, who was about to expose a gang involved with drugs when he met his fate. You are falsely blamed for your own death whilst the real killer remains safely anonymous, and the gang has escaped with a hostage. As with all of their recent games, Scapeghost is split up into 3 separate parts, and you can play them in whatever order you wish, although to get a full score you have to play them in chronological order. Completing one part will automatically load up the next part and carry the score over. Part One (November Graveyard) occurs within the confines of the cemetery where you were buried. You must learn to become 'stronger' and more 'solid' so that you can manipulate objects etc. To do this, you must employ the help of the other resident ghosts. Part Two has you trying to expose the gang's hideout, and Part Three has you rescuing the hostage. So, what is the game itself like? Well, it plays in exactly the same way as Level 9's previous four releases. The majority of problems require you to befriend another character and get them to help you in some way, which usually involves you all performing a specific action in the same turn. Players of Knight Orc, Gnome Rangers I and II and the awful Lancelot will know what I mean. It makes the game feel EXACTLY the same as their previous efforts and thus makes the game tedious and linear in its solving. The graphics aren't bad in places and even a few of the jokes managed to raise a faint smile at times, but the truth of the matter is that this is another boring, illogical and mostly naff effort from a team who used to be able to produce miracles in less than 48k, before the 16-bit revolution occurred. Thankfully, (in Part One anyway) I could find no trace of any bugs. Perhaps they actually got the game play tested this time round, unlike certain versions of Lancelot! To sum up then, Level 9 have once again produced an awful adventure using a system which creates production line adventure games. They all look, feel and play the same. The puzzles are the same, the solutions are the same and there isn't a suggestion of the atmosphere or involvement their Middle Earth or Silicon Dreams Trilogies contained. This may sound harsh, but I'm glad they're abandoning the text entry adventure scene. Despite the apparent fall in interest of such games, Level 9 only have themselves to blame for producing such rubbish over the last two years.