Chrono Quest II - Psygnosis/Infomedia RRP œ24.95
         (Graphic adventure with mouse/icon control)

              A review by John R. Barnsley

After the end of Chrono Quest I, you were all set to return to
1922 aboard your father's time machine, Explora. However, for
the purposes of this sequel, the machine develops a severe
malfunction and you crash-land upon the deck of an unknown ship
in an unfamiliar environment. The fuel tank of Explora is empty and
so the scene is set for your next adventure.

The machine is fuelled by metal and certain metals will take you
to a particular time zone. Examining the metal object will cause
the time indicator - at the top of the screen - to move and so you
have a little insight into what particular time zone you will
arrive in should you use that one metal object. However, you have
absolutely no idea in which order you must explore the time zones,

so it is very much a matter of trial and error. Be warned, though,
some metal objects have to be actually 'used' in your quest before
they are 'burned' in Explora's fuel system!

The adventure is totally icon-controlled with options such as TALK,
LISTEN, GIVE, GET, DROP, USE and EXAMINE. A novel method of
directional movement is the use of ADVANCE and RETREAT icons as
opposed to compass directions. Again, you will have to experiment
at length and there are several 'sudden death' situations for the
unwary, so SAVE often.

A monitor is highly recommended to view Chrono II as the use of an
ordinary television makes it extremely difficult to locate the
pointer exactly; the graphics are very pleasing with spot-sound
effects but the player must be VERY PRECISE in selecting the
required action. In fact, if you miss the correct spot by as little
as a millimetre in some cases, then the program response can be
quite confusing! EXPERIMENTATION and PATIENCE are the key words
when playing this one.


My overall verdict is if you enjoyed the first Chrono Quest then
you won't be disappointed but traditional adventure players may
be put off by the awkward control system and lack of text
description.