Chaos Strikes Back - FTL/Mirrorsoft RRP œ24.99

                    Reviewed by Roy Sims

The sequel to Dungeon Master is finally here. Dust off your save
game disk and prepare to do battle once again, as Chaos Strikes 
Back!

As  your courageous party edged closer and closer to Chaos in the 
original dungeons, the evil lord foretold his demise and was
ready to unleash his revenge. He forged the Corbum ore, which has
the ability to draw mana from the world. Once he has enough mana
he will be able to separate himself from the Grey Lord once and
for all. Chaos split the ore into four and placed each piece 
around a central pillar. 

Each piece could be reached by battling through a maze, and Chaos
saw the best way to gain his revenge was to challenge the 
warriors who defeated him to survive the new dungeon and destroy
each piece of ore by throwing it into the Ful Ya pit.

To be honest, the scenario doesn't really matter much when the
game is as challenging and atmospheric as Chaos is. The game
comes on 2 single sided ST disks. The first disk is the Utility
disk which allows you to load in your party from DM, change 
their portraits and save them out again in a new Chaos-compatible
save game file, ready to load into the game disk. 

The utility disk also contains a graphical introduction (which 
you probably won't look at again after having seen it once), and
a clever hint feature called the Oracle. What this does is 
examine your Chaos save game file and will only give clues on
problems relevant to where you are in the game. If only the 
recent Infocom Hint feature worked like this!

Graphically, Chaos is very similar to Dungeon Master. Each level
is set in the grey walled dungeons we know so well. However,
they still ooze with atmosphere unlike the dungeon backdrops
found in the disappointing Bloodwych (by Imageworks). There are
lots of new monsters and the return of a few old ones, although
some of them appear to have mutated a bit since I last fought
them! The new monsters include some very tough elemental/ghost
beings, some club wielding blue ants (?) and some strange 
two-headed red monsters that seem to hunt in packs of a dozen 
or so at a time.

You are thrown into the thick of the action from the word go,
appearing in a dark room surrounded by some very tough yellow 
worms. These worms can be dispatched with a few strong fireballs
but beware, they regenerate in the room and one of the first
things to do is to learn how and where this happens. Once you've
cracked that problem, there are two ways out of the room and 
each one leads deeper into the  maze. The only  problem is, each
time I've done the start section I've ended  up somewhere 
different no matter which route I chose! Mapping Chaos looks 
like it's going to be a nightmare!

Ideally you need really strong characters from DM to survive 
(health in the mid 300's, and at Adept level or above for 
Fighter, Ninja, Priest and Wizard abilities). However, there is
a Prison section at the start of Chaos where you can recruit 
some brand new characters (most of which seem  to  be birds) 
who seem strong enough to be  getting  along  with. Personally
speaking, I grew an emotional attachment to my successful 
champions from DM so I've continued with them. 

Players who have not played or seen DM before might be at a 
disadvantage as the game does not include any instructions on how
the game system works. My best advice would be to buy both DM and
Chaos at the same time. 

To summarise, Chaos is more of the same with some harder old and
new monsters and some very tough puzzles too. The game once again
is full of atmosphere and I for one am looking forward to the 
prospect of getting deeper and deeper into the dungeons. An
essential purchase for adventurers everywhere. Great stuff!