Hero Quest - Gremlin Graphics RRP œ24.99
            (3D RPG for ST (reviewed) and Amiga)

Games Workshop came into existence 13 years ago, producing board
games such as Warhammer and Talisman and the miniature figures to
use with them. Their collaboration with the board game firm Milton
Bradley to produce Hero Quest has brought them to the attention of
the public at large, rather than just the people who frequented
their own shops, as Hero Quest has been sold through large high
street stores such as W H Smith. Now Gremlin have converted the
game to the ST and Amiga, making it available to those of us who
would like to play the game but can't rustle up enough extra
players to play the table top version.

Not unexpectedly the background to the game is the fight between
the forces of good and evil, the evil being represented by the
sorcerer Morcar. He had originally been the pupil of the good guy
Mentor but, wanting to learn more than Mentor taught him, took to
sneaking into Mentor's study and reading the wizard's books in
secret. Having gained all the knowledge he could, he fled and
allied himself with the powers of Chaos (major bad guys). Mentor
and Morcar met and a battle ensued. Though not ultimately
defeated, Morcar retreated into the Northern Chaos Wastes where he
plotted his revenge ... and now he's ready to take it.

Whereas in his previous confrontation with Morcar, Mentor had been
aided by a group of good guys, Rogar the Barbarian, Durgin the
Dwarf, Ladril the Elven mage and Telor the Wizard, he needs a new
set of heroes. Guess who's been chosen?

In the computer version of Hero Quest, Morcar and his underlings
are controlled by the computer. If you want, up to four people can
play each of the four heroes, but if you're playing a solo game, as
I was, you can control as many or few of them as you want. The
game itself is made up of a series of quests, 14 in all, starting
easy and getting harder as you progress from your first quest,
escaping from a small maze of rooms, through intermediate quests
such as rescuing a kidnapped knight or killing a Fire Mage in his
mountain lair, until your final confrontation with Morcar. By

searching rooms and completing the quests you'll pick up gold to
buy better equipment, potions to improve your abilities and
various valuable magical items to aid you in your adventures.

Each quest is played out in a series of rooms and corridors seen
in 3D. An optional overhead map of the whole area can be accessed
and the game is mostly mouse-controlled with an occasional tap of
the space bar. Each turn starts with a throw of a dice to
determine how many moves you have and before or after moving you
can search for secret doors, traps or treasure. During searching a
monster may sneak up on you or you may encounter them during your
general explorations and this will also bring up an option for
combat. The result of combat is also determined by a dice throw.
You throw skulls to attack and shields to defend and so does your
enemy and these are cancelled out to give an end result eg if you
throw two attacking skulls and the monster throws one defending
shield, he loses one hit point.  Wizards and Elves can also cast
spells from four types of magic (earth, fire, water and air).
Again these must be cast before or after moving. After the heroes
have completed their moves, Morcar takes his move and can attack
you if he has a monster near enough, combat being decided as
before.

Though I haven't played the board game, I gather than the computer
version is a faithful conversion, and I certainly found it very
enjoyable to play. The graphics are nice and crisp and the
atmosphere is good. Combat is decided quickly with the dice system
and doesn't need any detailed rules. The large number of quests on
the disk means the game won't be completed in hours and the
production of data disks with more quests, one of which is already
out, will extend the life of the game even further.

Even those who would say they are not fans of RPGs will probably
find Hero Quest fun to play and the addition of on-screen mapping
means you don't need to produce your own maps unless you want to.
No dexterity is needed as in an arcade game (which suits me) but
the game is as visually appealing as an arcade game and you don't
need to think quickly to survive. A good game all round which has
something for everyone.
                                            Sue