Hillsfar - SSI/US Gold RRP œ24.99

Hillsfar is a city, originally created for the Forgotten Realms
series of RPGs from TSR and now one of the AD&D series of
computer games becoming available (very slowly) for the ST.

It is a combination of RPG and arcade game. You can choose to
start the game as a fighter, mage, cleric or thief, by using the
pre-rolled characters on the disk or by creating your own (which
can be a mixed-class character) or by transferring an existing
character from one of the other games in the series - more on
that later!

Whichever method you choose, the game starts in your camp (the
only place where you can save your game), just outside the city
of Hillsfar itself and you must ride your horse into the city
before you can do anything else. The road isn't very
well-maintained, being strewn with old logs, bales of hay and
crossed by small rivers so you must jump your horse over these
obstacles to avoid a fall. You must also duck any owls or arrows
that come along the track towards you.  Too many falls and you
will start to lose hit points; even more and your horse will be
spooked and run off, leaving you to walk the rest of the way,
unless you can get a lift from a kind traveller.

Once in the city, some mapping is necessary to find your way
round the maze of streets. A map is provided in the packaging
with certain buildings numbered. It is up to you to work out what
the numbers mean; pub, guild, cemetery etc. Once you have found
your own guild, entering it and talking to the master (which
entails a small amount of copy protection in the from of a code
wheel) will get you an invitation to join the guild, on condition
that you fulfil certain requirements.

In the case of a fighter, the initial instruction given to you
will be to prove your worth, firstly by showing that you have
mastered the art of archery and then by knocking the stuffing out
of several opponents in the Arena to show you are a true fighter.
A mage, cleric or thief will have to make use of other talents by
undertaking a quest for their respective masters - getting a
missing ingredient for a new ink, finding some stolen holy
scriptures or a poison fungus. Succeeding at the task you have
been set will lead on to a new one, and so on.

Thus there are four separate games within the package, one for
each class of character and they will not only take you around
various buildings within the city itself but also the surrounding
district which includes a hermit's house, trading post, dragon's
skeleton on a beach and wizard's labyrinth.

Each of these locations (and, indeed, the buildings in Hillsfar)
is a maze containing various chests (sometimes locked) which
will, if opened, contain anything from old clothes or garbage to
healing potions or the vital evidence you need to progress in
your quest. Thieves have the option to pick the lock of locked
chests using a set of ten double-ended picks. The other classes
may be offered the services of a rogue during their travels round
Hillsfar and this will give them the use of a set of picks in
exchange for a half-share of any gold discovered. Other methods
of opening locked chest include picking a lock with a small
object (I never found this worked), brute force (very
satisfying!) or one of several magical objects eg a knock ring.

Sometimes you will have to pick a lock to get into a building in
the first place, such as if you go there outside opening hours.
Some locks are very easy, others are unbelievably complicated
and, naturally, there is a risk of setting off a trap or breaking
a pick - either by using the wrong one, which I did a lot at
first, or if the tumbler jams. All this is done against the clock
too!

The remaining unnumbered buildings within Hillsfar can also be
entered but their purpose is purely to give you a chance to steal
the belongings of the occupants, be they healing potions, gold,
knock rings or whatever for future use.

All the mazes are explored against the clock and you are
initially free to wander round unhindered. But after a certain
amount of time, guards will appear and try to apprehend you.

If they capture you, you will either have all your booty
confiscated, or be sent to fight in the Arena or both!

I thought that fighting in the Arena would be my downfall but,
surprisingly, I didn't find it too difficult. All the arcade
sequences are pretty simple so long as you don't panic.

So, essentially, Hillsfar is a collection of four linear games,
each of which frequently involves the sequence of riding
your horse from A to B, entering a maze, finding a particular
item or getting a clue, escaping and then riding to the next
maze. I found no depth to the game or proper puzzles - it's just
the case of being in the right place at the right time.

Where the game would come into its own is with the facility
mentioned earlier for transferring characters from one AD&D game
into Hillsfar, undertaking the quests relevant to that
character's class while building up the character's experience
etc, and then transferring him/her back into the other game. You
can transfer from Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds
into Hillsfar but only transfer back from Hillsfar to Curse of
the Azure Bonds, not Pool of Radiance; strange, that seems to
defeat the purpose somewhat.

The whole question is academic anyway since Pool and Bonds are
not yet out for the ST. In the manual it says "no one ever said
adventuring was easy" - very true. Having the software available
for your machine would be a nice start!

                                           Sue