Curse of the Azure Bonds - SSI RRP œ24.95-29.99
           (RPG on ST, Amiga, PC - ST version reviewed)

The plans of a band of adventurers to make their fortune by 
rescuing the missing Princess Nacacia of Cormyr turn into
a nightmare in Curse of the Azure Bonds when they are waylaid on
their way to the town of Tilverton where she had last been 
seen. Awakening in an inn at Tilverton, they discover a full
month has passed and each of them has on his (or her) arm a
series of strange blue sigils.

Enquiries made in the town show that the markings are the symbols
of five different organisations. But what is their purpose? The
adventurers get a vague idea when the King's coach passes - the
markings blaze and a strange compulsion to attack the coach
comes over them and they find they cannot fight it! Surrendering
to the royal guard afterwards, they are incarcerated in a dungeon
to await their fate. But a miracle of sorts occurs when a wall
slides back and a thief enters to rescue them and take them to


the Thieves' Guild. There they learn that the Princess is being
held by the Fire Knives (one of the organisations involved with
the sigils) and after a furious fight when the Knives attack the
Guild, they set off to rescue her, planning also to discover the
true meaning of the Azure Bonds and get them removed, one by one.

Curse of the Azure Bonds is the second game in the AD&D series of
games from SSI - I guess they don't count Hillsfar which was more
of a training module even though you can import characters from
Hillsfar or Pool of Radiance, the first game, into Bonds. Pool
still isn't out on the ST. If you don't want to import characters,
you can create your own party using a neat collection of 
exchangeable body parts and weapons which can be coloured to suit.
I found this great fun though I did inadvertently give one of my
female characters a beard ...

As for the game itself, it comes on 2 double-sided disks which
necessitates much disk-swapping on my part as I have one single-


and one double-sided drive. As the game autoboots, I wouldn't
imagine it would work on systems with a s/s A drive and d/s B
drive, unless you have a B-boot program, so check before you part
with your cash. You play with backups of the disks (copy
protection is by means of a code-wheel) and though a special
diskcopy program is provided, I found it most unreliable, the
copies crashing persistently so I used an ordinary copy program
and that worked fine.

The game itself seems fairly easy to play as RPGs go, in that
copious hints for what to do/where to go next are given in
the form of overheard gossip, remarks made by allies, tavern
tales or journal notes. The last two of these are given in the
package in book form and you're prompted to read the appropriate
section when the time comes. In some ways this disrupts the flow
of play as you search for entry 37 and it also makes the game a
bit unrealistic but, on the other hand, it means you get a lot
of detail which otherwise might have been cut back for the sake

of space. This method has been used in other games, not only in
the SSI series but also in Dragon Wars and (I believe) Wasteland.

But the major feature of the game is its graphic display and the
combat which takes up a heck of a lot of time, even in so-called
"quick" mode where you give control to the computer. For instance
the fight in the Thieves' Guild takes a massive 36 minutes in
quick mode! Obviously it is better to play the fights yourself
but until you get used to the system, you can make some massive
mistakes. Several times I managed to cast "hold person" on my
own spellcaster! Oops.

The display varies from a Bard's Tale type display when exploring
to a full-blown isometric 3D detailed combat display with
excellent animation - the fighting dogs are especially good as
they move in for the kill.  Further displays are available at
other times (area and overhead for outdoor travel).

As always I was unable to get far enough into the game to suit
my liking so I'll be very interested to hear from anyone who has
got a fair distance into it - why not send in a second opinion?
Until I get the chance to go back to it, I'll have to content
myself with reading the paperback the game is based on, which, I
must say, so far seems to bear little resemblance to the game
apart from the fact the azure bonds are in it and seem to have the
same disastrous effects on people's behaviour!
                                                  Sue