Shadowlands - Domark RRP œ27.99-œ29.99
                (RPG for ST, Amiga and PC)

            A second opinion by G.L. Wheeler on ST

I read Roy Sims' review of Shadowlands in issue 19 of Syntax and
whilst I agree with much of what he had to say about the game I
felt that as I had progressed a little further than he had at the
time of the review I had several things to say which might be of
interest to anyone still considering purchasing it.

Before going on to the later parts of the game I would like to
refer to a few points that were raised by Roy in his review. He
mentioned that because the screen 'bump' scrolled it was possible
to walk straight into a monster without much warning. Well, there
is a command which will stop this happening; all you have to do is
press the right hand mouse button near the edge of the screen in
whichever way you are moving and the screen will scroll before you
reach the edge (this isn't in the instructions, I stumbled on it
by inadvertently pressing the wrong mouse button!).

Also mentioned in the review was the fact that the monsters move
in a set pattern. Now this is more or less true of the first two
levels but later on you will find that they will head straight for
you (about now you will be wishing that they would follow a set
pattern ... believe me!). It is at this point in the game that it
really brings it home to you just how poor the combat system is,
especially as you will find that on most occasions you are not
given the opportunity to run away and even if you were there is
quite often nowhere to run to (at one point you are in a small
room with up to six VERY strong monsters!).

As I have already said, I thought that the combat system was very
poor but it was a delight to use compared to the magic system. You
obtain your first scroll at the end of dungeon level 1 and putting
it in your combat hand (while on the inventory screen) will reveal
what type of spell is on the scroll. The first one you get is a
'Light' spell which you will more than likely not use as there are
plenty of torches around (this is a mistake as you will soon find
out).

On dungeon level 3 you will find a scroll which when put
into your combat hand does not reveal what type of spell it is,
seeing that you need to use this spell almost immediately
(although you are not aware of this at the time) it is a bit
disconcerting that you cannot tell what spell it is and so cannot
cast it! (it is in fact a 'Waterball' spell).

After a lot of lateral thinking and more than a fair amount of
luck I found the answer to the problem, the magician needs to have
reached at least magic level 4 before he can even read the spell
let alone cast it (which is the reason casting 'Light' spells
should have been used instead of torches). To create a magician
with enough strength and health to survive in 'Shadowlands' the
highest magic level he is likely to start with is 2, so even
casting 'Light' spells and 'Fireball' spells etc. as soon as you
get them is still not going to put your magician up to magic level
4 by the time you need to use the 'Waterball' spell (although it
will help of course). The reason being that there are not enough
monsters to kill to allow for this (soon after you have used it
there are too many!), so the best answer seems to be casting
numerous 'Light' spells on the other characters until the magician
achieves magic level 4.

You should by this time be getting a teensy weensy bit
dis-Enchanted (pun intended!) with the magic system but when the
time comes to use it in combat with monsters coming at you from
all directions, it shouldn't take more than a few seconds to come
to the conclusion that the magic system is useless in this type of
situation. The reason why using magic is not a viable option
unless you have an unlimited amount of time will become obvious
(hopefully) after I have described the way the magic system works
(or to be more precise fails to!).

All spells have a certain amount of magic force which needs to be
replenished every time a spell is cast, I will now describe the
lengthy procedure involved in doing this!.

After you have cast a spell you must change to the inventory
screen to recharge the scroll, this is done by using the magic
force of the magician. Naturally the magic force taken from the
magician must be replaced so you have to remove the scroll from
his hand and put it back in his inventory, then you must select
another item from his inventory to put in his hand so that you can
take its magic force to replenish that which was taken from him
(taking the magic force out of any item will render it useless).
All you have to do now is put the item back into the inventory and
get the scroll that you have recharged (you did make a mental note
of which one it was, didn't you, as they all look the same?) then
put it back into his combat hand, switch back to the combat screen
click on his arm and you are ready to cast the spell again
(phew!).

I am sorry to have to tell you that hardly any of this paragraph
is really relevant as he will be dead by the time it takes to
change to the inventory screen after using the spell the first
time. On top of this the spells have a nasty habit of missing
their target.


In most RPGs it is preferable to have your fighters at the
front of the party and the magic users at the rear during combat,
unfortunately you cannot do this in 'Shadowlands' as the spells
will kill your party members just as easily as it will the
monsters.

There is another aspect of this game which to my mind is
ridiculous and belongs more to a platform type of game rather than
a RPG, it is the very nasty rats which infest the dungeons. You
could be excused for not even noticing them because they are so
small, but they can and do (if you are not very careful) kill the
members of your party very quickly. I can imagine you thinking
"well that seems fair, after all it is an RPG", but what I
haven't mentioned yet is the fact that you have to avoid them as
they cannot be killed! Avoiding them is easy if the party is all
together and on the move, however on occasions the party has to
split up in order to solve certain puzzles.  When this happens you
will find yourself continually switching between the characters in
an effort to keep them alive as the rats will keep attacking them.
The character's magic force is the first thing to be drained but
as this is not shown on the main screen you will not be aware that
your characters are being attacked until they have lost all of
their magic force and start losing vital health points. The good
news is that as you progress further in the game the rats cease to
exist, the bad news is their place is taken by snakes and
scorpions!.

Later on in 'Shadowlands' you will encounter the obligatory maze a
pyramid with four levels and also your final destination the
temple. Whether the graphics of these will be different from the
dungeons I don't know as I gave up playing this game after I
failed many times to defeat a group of six monsters fairly early
on in the game.

It really is a pity that Domark failed to make this RPG more
user friendly, if they had it would have been an excellent
game, but in its present form I wouldn't recommend it.