Riders of Rohan - PSS/Mirrorsoft RRP œ35.99
 (Strategy/action wargame for PC (reviewed), ST/Amiga due soon)

Riders of Rohan takes you through the events in the first section
of the second book of JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings saga, The
Two Towers. The Fellowship of the Ring had been broken and Frodo
and Sam were heading towards Mordor, aiming to destroy The Ring.
Boromir had been killed and Pippin and Merry, the other two
Hobbits, abducted by Orcs. Aragorn aka Strider, Gimli the Dwarf and
Legolas the Elf set off in pursuit, chasing the Orcs and their two
captives on foot.

Meanwhile the forces of Saruman, Orcs, Wargs and Dunlendings, were
gathering in massive numbers, determined to destroy the men of
Rohan, the Rohirrim. Theoden, King of Rohan, has virtually hidden
himself away in his stronghold at Edoras in the east of Rohan, but
forces have been mobilised near the Fords of Isen in the west
under the leadership of his son Theodred and more men are
garrisoned in Helm's Deep, another fortress not far from Isen.
Furthermore, a small army under the leadership of Eomer is
somewhere north of Edoras. To the north of Isen is Saruman's
headquarters at Isengard and northeast is the mysterious Forest of
Fangorn.

Under a long-standing arrangement, the men of Rohan have vowed to
help the men of Gondor if and when they are needed. The game
starts on 27th February, TA 3019, and (unknown to the Rohirrim) in
about 10 days a messenger will bring the Red Arrow, the symbol
which means the Rohirrim must send aid to Gondor. When this
happens, you have just one game-day left to win the game, and to
do this you must have defeated Saruman's forces to such an extent
that sufficient men can be send to Gondor, and also have kept
enough of the major characters alive.

At the beginning of the game, you only control Theodred's forces
at the Fords of Isen. As it progresses, more armies and characters
will come under your control as Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli enter
Rohan and you convince other people to join your cause. Armies and
characters, represented by shield icons or little character icons,
are moved about an overhead map of Rohan which covers two screen
widths. You can examine them, march them at normal speed or quick
time (armies only) or divide or join them into different size
forces.

When two opposing armies meet, you have the option for quick,
computer-controlled combat or to fight the battle yourself. The
results may be quite different! If you select a DIY battle, the
view changes from the overall map of Rohan to a close-up of the
battlefield with Saruman's men travelling north to south and yours
moving north to meet them. The controls available to you are move
(obvious), posture (manoeuvre, attack, defend, charge to
withdraw) and fire (when appropriate).

There are a few arcade sequences too, sometimes before a battle,
sometimes when characters are spotted by one of Saruman's forces.
These can take the form of one-to-one hack 'n' slash fights, a
display of archery skills by Legolas or a magic duel between
Gandalf and one of the Nazgul. All arcade sequences can be
practised outside the main game and most can be avoided during the
game - not all though!

There are also several cut scenes during the game when one of your
characters meets up with one of the others in the game (Eomer,
Theoden etc). During these you will often be given a choice of
responses and your reply can make a great difference to the final
result of the game.

The graphics for the main game are pretty basic and the battle
scenes cartoonish with some very jerky movements from the
opposing forces, especially the horses. The cut scene graphics
are excellent but the cut scenes themselves can be quite long
and tedious to replay. The graphics for the arcade sequences are
also very well done, especially the one-on-one combat.

I've read Lord of the Rings several times but within a few hours
I'd dug the book out again to refresh my memory of the events and
characters. It certainly helped as your responses during some of
the sequences are vital to your success, as are having your armies
in the right place at the right time. My first few battles were
disastrous with my armies being flattened but soon I got the hang
of it and also learnt which ones I should fight myself and which I
should leave to the computer. I also found that whereas magic
duels and single combat were quite easy (even for someone like me
who is usually useless at such arcade sequences), the archery
sections were hard - if Legolas hit one Orc without getting
skewered by a spear, he was doing well - so again I let the
computer handle these and then I always won.

The game follows the book closely. The battle for the Fords of
Isen takes place almost immediately but if you control the armies
yourself it is quite possible for Theodred to survive and not die
as he did in the book. After a short time, Aragorn, Legolas and
Gimli will enter Rohan and meet Eomer; later Pippin and Merry will
encounter Treebeard in Fangorn (so long as you say "yes" when they
have the choice to enter the forest or not). Gandalf will also
re-appear, changed into Gandalf the White after his "death"
following his fight with the Balrog. Of course, if you think you
have better ideas for beating Saruman, you're at liberty to try
out your own plans for the campaign.

I completed the game twice while doing this review. The first time
was a marginal defeat but the second was a decisive victory with
all the main characters surviving and 6,000 men being sent to help
Gondor. I must be honest and say that I wouldn't have done as well
if I hadn't checked the story again but keen wargamers would
probably have no difficulty playing the game cold. I liked the
opportunity for quick combat and being able to avoid some of the
arcade sequences though obviously it would be more satisfying to
do the whole thing yourself .. so long as you won!

My main moans revolve around certain illogicalities of the game
and some of the controls, plus an odd bug. Eomer once had a leader
status of 2.548430e+1 (whatever that means!). During one battle,
all my troops were routed by Saruman's forces but when I checked
they all had excellent morale and the next minute Saruman's men
retreated - very odd. I would have liked an option to change from
a full battle to quick combat during the fight because sometimes
the whole thing seemed to seize up but the only way to end a fight
before it's won by one side or the other is to retreat. Checking
the status of enemy troops is almost impossible when they're
partially obscured by your own men. My final moan would be the
Americanisms in the spelling of the program (neighbor, for
example). It's an English book, dammit, why can't they use the
correct spelling! Other than that, though, a surprisingly
enjoyable game and it looks like there'll be a sequel as you have
the option to save your final status at the end.
                                                   Sue