Robin Hood - Millenium - RRP œ25.99-œ30.99
       (Strategy-type game for PC, ST and Amiga)

Millenium's Robin Hood, like Gremlin's Utopia (also reviewed this
issue) is another game that started out with quite a different
scenario - in this case it was going to be a wild west adventure
called Outlands. However, Robin Hood fever has struck and now,
after watching the Kevin Costner film, you can load up your
computer and take the part of the green-clad hero yourself.

The game begins just after the wicked Sheriff of Nottingham has
ousted Robin of Loxley from his castle. Deserted by his so-called
friends, Robin sits disconsolately outside what was once his home,
wondering what to do. Wandering round the area he encounters
peasants going about their work, collecting sticks for the fire,
tending the crops. 'Ha, there goes Robin Hood. What a useless hero
he was' they say. It's time to show them how wrong they can be.
Vowing to get back his castle and help his people too (despite
their ingratitude), he sets off to 'do good deeds'. The area to
explore is quite large, containing several collections of huts as
well as a monastery with a church and graveyard and a few
individual buildings.

It's hard to work alone, as Robin soon finds out, and true to the
legends he sets about collecting his band of Merry Men. Love is
also on his mind and the sight of any pretty girl walking past
quite turns his head. When the girl is the beautiful Maid Marian,
daughter of the Sheriff (a slight change of legend here), Robin
goes all out to impress her with flattery and words of love, the
smooth-talking old devil. What girl could resist? Certainly not
young Marian, charmingly dressed in a flowing white robe, who
blushes prettily. Even her arms turn red!

The Merry Men are more difficult to get on side. Friar Tuck, the
cowardly and portly priest, would rather not be involved. John
Little (aka Little John) jealously guards the entrance to his home
and threatens to flatten anyone who tries to enter. As for Will
Scarlett, he turns up a little way into the game, in dire straits,
and Robin will have to be pretty nippy if Will is to join his band
rather than leave the game in a little wooden box, six feet down.

Help is also at hand in the shape of Helfstan, a priest of the
Sacred Grove of Herne the Hunter, who tends the holy spring to the
far northwest of the castle. He will help Robin (or 'Robyn' as he
calls him) with a useful gift. This gift will make moving around
the area much easier and collecting it was the first thing I did
each time I played. Generally the Merry Men (and Marian) will
also provide useful objects as well as their help. Believe me,
you'll need both if you're to retain your life, regain the castle
and affection of the local populace and win the hand of Marian
into the bargain!

Meanwhile the seasons change and the people go about their work,
pausing only to berate you or praise you according to how well
you're doing at the time, in their estimation. Take care too of
the fire-breathing dragon who terrorises the neighbourhood,
crunching the peasants like Maltesers but complaining that he only
acts like that because he has a thorn caught in his paw and no-one
will help him remove it ... I ask you!

With a display looking very much like Populous (and Utopia),
Robin Hood shows a small section of the playing area in 3D
isometric graphics. This scrolls as Robin wanders about on his
missions of goodwill. A series of icons down the left-hand side
allow him to fight (sword or bow and arrow), talk to people, run
(rather than his normal plodding walk), take from the rich and
give to the poor. A bar shows how well he's doing in the hero
stakes, blue means he's doing well but if it goes red ... oh dear.
Further icons will be gained as the game progresses and Robin
collects other objects through his adventures.

Further information can be gleaned by pressing the p(ause) key.
This shows his strength, amount of cash and how he rates in a
scale of cowardly/brave, pessimistic/optimistic, villain/hero.
When the game starts, he's pretty much an all-out villain (hard to
understand why, really) but each helpful deed pushes him a little
bit further into the 'good guy' class.

Instructions with the game are minimal despite a 67 page manual.
This is because the manual is provided in English, Italian, German
and French. 16 pages are in English and only 3 deal with the game;
the rest give background info on Robin Hood, the history of the
longbow, Forest Law and the like (yawn). Copy protection requires
you to type in a word from the manual and this may frequently be
from one of the foreign paragraphs - luckily they always pick
short words!

By far the worst documented section is that on saving and loading
the game. I may be being thick (it wouldn't be the first time)
but, as far as I can tell, you can only save your game (on the PC
at least) when you quit. There are two methods of quitting; one
saves your game so that next time you play the game restarts from
your saved position, not from the normal start (F1). The other
method quits without saving (F2). Once in the game, you can't
restore a save and, should you get killed, the game ignores your
save and so when you restart the game you have to go all the way
back to the beginning yet again. This makes one unlikely to try
dangerous actions that are likely to get you killed should they
fail. The ST and Amiga use different methods according to the
manual - F1 saves, F2 loads. 'Why not on the PC?' I moaned many
times when poor Robin was hanging from a gallows, or skewered on
the end of some soldier's sword.

There's a fair amount of humour in the game, mostly from people's
comments. Conversation plays a large part and Robin will chat away
to people like crazy, despite getting insults in return.

I haven't managed to complete the game yet though I seem to have
got close several times. Once I managed to kill the Sheriff but,
surprisingly, the villagers seemed to turn against me. In fact
several aspects of the game are confusing and it isn't helped by
the fact that, though the game is nice to look at with good
graphics and reasonable sound effects, Robin himself is so hard to
control. Movement can be via the mouse or arrows on the screen or
by following people (click on them with the mouse) but it's quite
tricky to select the right person when there are a gang of them
moving about. Once he accidentally followed someone into the
castle and that was the end of that game! Characters get trapped
behind buildings and are hard to select (Friar Tuck is very good
at doing that). Plus Robin has far too much free will! You've got
him moving from A to B quite happily and all of a sudden he dashes
off on his own, either because he says he's heard someone in
distress, or because he 'wants a rest' or because he's 'fed up
with walking in circles' - when he isn't. I wouldn't have minded
so much if he'd heard someone needing help and gone and helped but
frequently he gets lost or decides he's too late and just stops.

Despite these moans about the controls, Robin Hood is strangely
compulsive. If I could have sorted out my problems with the
save/load, I would have enjoyed it a lot more. As it was, I still
found myself having 'just one more go' .... and another .... and
another.
                                               Sue