Shades of Grey - on PD 535
               (AGT text adventure for PC)

                Reviewed by Alex McEwan

I was asked to review this game, and if it hadn't been for that
fact I would probably have taken a magnet across the diskette
within half an hour of starting to play it. I almost got stuck
right at the beginning, as the scene opens in a seemingly
impenetrable maze. I hate mazes of any type, and when they are
placed right at the start of a game I quickly lose interest in the
content, no matter how well written. Such was the case here.
Whenever I am totally stuck in a game, I have a list of
desperation actions which I try. I pray, shout, scream, say magic
words, clap hands, and stamp feet,... and then return to the
keyboard.  Thankfully one of those did the trick, but the damage
had been done, and it wouldn't have mattered how good the rest of
thing turned out to be, I would never forgive the authors for that
opening.

Things got worse. When I did finally break out of the opening
nightmare, I had only had time for the briefest look around before
a darkness which prevented any further progress descended upon me.
Nothing for it but to waste a few turns until this pointless
episode was over. When light did dawn I continued to look around
the rather bleak American city in which I found myself. All of a
sudden the scene changed and I found that where there had
previously been 'modern' locations there was now a range of
ancient settings from a rustic village to The Acropolis. It took a
while to realise that each of the initial locations equated to one
of the historic scenes, and that the reason for the constant
switching was that I had partaken of some hallucinogenic, which
caused me to suffer the change of perception in my surroundings.
To give some idea of the type of links used, in the modern setting
there is a nickel stuck down a drain, in the ancient this becomes
something down a well. You can retrieve the item in either case
and it switches appearance depending on your state of mind.

From here on the game becomes an episodic time travel adventure,
with the centre or key location being the premises of a fortune
teller with more than a passing resemblance to Mine Yiddishah
Mama. There is a lot of hokum about you needing to rediscover your
memory of things past, but I didn't feel it was worth the effort
of trying to follow this plot. The American fascination with the
Robin Hood legend rears its head once (or twice) again, and I
sometimes wish that they would pick on another character or era
from English History.

When Sue sent this AGT text adventure, to me she said she had
enjoyed it. If you are blessed with the same saintly patience
which she must have, this may be a game to interest you. I just
found it annoying.