@~This issue we have not one ... not two ... but THREE reviews of @~Legend of Kyrandia. The first review is on the Amiga, the second @~on the PC and the third on IBM CD-ROM. The Legend of Kyrandia - Westwood Studios/Virgin Games RRP œ35.99 (Amiga/PC), œ44.99 (CD-ROM) (Animated graphic adventure for Amiga, PC disk and CD-ROM) ------------------------------------------------------------------ (1) Amiga review from Steve McLaren The Legend of Kyrandia is a first from Westwood Studios who are the makers of Eye of the Beholder 1 and 2. This is their first ever attempt at an adventure. It comes on 9 disks so a hard drive is essential, or two external drives to cut down on disk swapping which is not too bad at all. The instructions for hard disk installation are non-existent really, which is a bit of a let down, but I am sure the people with hard disks will know what to do. You play the part of young Brandon who lives with your Grandad since your parents have died. But what is this? You learn of an evil Jester who escaped form the castle and is turning Kyrandia into evil. The land is being destroyed by Malcolm the Jester. I would have thought Westwood could have come up with a better name for the Jester - what a name, Malcolm. While you are watching the intro you get the drift of the story. The Jester is causing havoc everywhere. He even turns your grandfather to stone to get his own back. It is a very magical adventure along the lines of the King's Quest series. The graphics are really outstanding, the mood of the music is quite atmospheric and the animation is quite fluid and realistic in movement, not slow at all. So as the story unfolds you find out that you are a prince and the court Jester had killed your parents to get the Kyragem, the most powerful gem of all. With this he can rule Kyrandia as he wants so it is your job to get the Kyragem back and restore the land of Kyrandia to peace and tranquillity and to rid it of the court Jester Malcolm once and for all. The puzzles are quite logical at times, I thought. The only part which was a bit frustrating was at the marble altar. The first and last gem are always the same but the two middle gems are different every game but with a bit of working out you should get there. Also I think mapping is essential especially in the cave part. You can soon get lost without mapping. A nice touch to this game is the Amulet. You have to find items to get the gem on the Amulet to work so that you can use it either on yourself or on items. You have to collect four different gems for the Amulet. Sometimes Malcolm is a pain, he will pop up in the most awkward places at times. Just when you think you are on a roll, he decides to mess up your adventure in more ways than you could think of. At times I just wanted to jab him out. You have to meet different people to help you on your quest. There is a really good Dragon who helps his master to help you. The wizard is a bit hard of hearing. It has its funny moments like in Monkey Island and some parts are quite amusing. All in all I think Westwood have done a very fine adventure and remember, this is Book One. I do believe there are four more of this kind to come so watch out for them. I really enjoyed this adventure. Go on, treat yourself. Go and have some fun and a magical time in The Legend of Kyrandia. ------------------------------------------------------------------ (2) PC disk review by Joan Dunn The opening screen shot of The Legend of Kyrandia shows a very colourful view of this magic land. Bright blue, shimmering waves dash against high grey cliffs with large areas of green forest. Then you notice that one by one, the trees are being felled ... cut down by an invisible hand. The next scene shows an old man sitting at a table writing a letter. Dear Brynn Malcolm has broken free. Soon he will come for me. Please help Brandon... The old man is Kallak, a magician, and Brandon is his grandson who lives with him. Then Malcolm appears, a comical figure dressed as a jester, but his intent is evil and belies his appearance. He now controls the magic in the land and uses it for his own evil means. After a short conversation with Kallak, Malcolm uses a magic bolt and turns the old man to stone. "But not your eyes" he says. "I have no tears to shed for Kyrandia, but I shall leave you yours." ... A really nasty piece of work! Outside the tree house Brandon stands on a root to be transported up to the room above, where he discovers his Grandfather. Before you leave the house, you can pick up a few useful items and have a talk to a face that emerges from the tangle of branches. This talking head tells you that he is of the other kingdom and magic spells have upset the balance of nature. He appeals to you for help. You pick up the note and take it to Brynn who, using a magic spell, allows you to read it and explains what you need to do to defeat Malcolm, save the land of Kyrandia and your Grandfather. Playing the game is very simple. Using the mouse you click on objects to examine them and pick them up. They can then be placed in a box at the bottom of the screen until needed. To the left of this inventory box is an option icon, which allows you to Load\Save\Quit and controls for sound, music and speed. The manual gives an extensive history of the magical land of Kyrandia, the various characters, and how Malcolm, the jester at court, murdered the King and Queen so that he could possess the Kyragem. As Brandon you wander through the land several times encountering Malcolm and managing to outwit him until the final and fatal meeting when, using your magic, you kill him. The graphics are colourful and there are numerous objects to find to help you in your quest. Several scenes are especially good, for instance, where you change into a flying horse and fly to the dark island, also when you become a will-o-wisp. One of the gems makes you invisible and this was very well done with just a faint shadow as you move. It is worth while using the gem by the misty grave (not the right place) but worth it to see the leaves on the ground moving as you walk on them. There were rather too many locations that were "Dark Forest"... I counted about 30, and most of them just a way to get from A to B. You need to collect jewels and they are not hidden, just lying on the ground. They are randomly placed and I spent a lot of time looking for an essential Topaz, nearly giving up, and then suddenly ... there it was! Some of the animation was not as good as the Sierra games. Brandon's head bobbed up and down as he talked and when he was looking down as well, I thought his head would drop off! Opening a trap door, he didn't move his arms or bend down, it just came up on its own ... not very natural. Malcolm too was rather puppet like, talking into his beard and not looking at Brandon when he spoke to him. But these are small points and do not detract from an excellent game. So visit Kyrandia and enjoy its magic. (3) IBM CD-ROM review by Roy Sims The Legend of Kyrandia was originally released on the PC and Amiga at the end of last year. Now we have an enhanced CD-ROM version. 'Kyrandia' is a graphic adventure in a similar mould to the Sierra titles or Monkey Island series. It is the first in a proposed series known as 'Fables & Fiends' (it is referred to as 'Book One', although Chapter One might have been more apt). The graphics in the game are well drawn and very colourful. The game system is easy to use and the in game music is quite enjoyable. However, all this equally applies to the original floppy version so what has been enhanced? Well, the only real addition is tons of clear digitised speech which you can have play instead of (or accompanying) the on screen text that was featured in the floppy version. There are a number of different voices employed to portray the characters and apart from a slight roughness around the edges the speech is very clean. Installing the game takes up just 386k on your hard disk, and this is where the advantage of CD-ROM comes to light. No longer do you have to remove lots of other stuff off your hard disk to play the latest adventure. The bulk of the game remains on the CD. So, is it any good? Well, it's surprising how much difference having the game acted out by real voices adds to the atmosphere of the game. However, it also highlights a few weaknesses. Text meant for reading off a screen doesn't always seem as well written when it is spoken and unfortunately the voices used don't put much (if any) real emotion into the story. If ever anyone sounded like they were reading off an autocue, this is it. I doubt if the people employed for this task knew much about the game or the plot when they recorded the dialogue and it shows (or rather sounds!) like it. I've also noticed that one of the characters suffers from a complete change of accent during the game! Talking of accents, all of the voices are American and whilst I don't want to sound anti American, it would have been nice if the CD-ROM version had an English cast version as well as an American. The actual game is a bit on the easy side but its size makes this an enjoyable ramble never the less. The quality of the graphics is very high but the puzzles aren't too taxing. Malcolm makes an interesting adversary but Brandon is far too much of a boring wimp. Let's have a reluctant hero who has a bit more character next time please. To conclude, this CD-ROM version isn't 'shovelware' (where the floppy game is just dumped onto CD-ROM with no real advancements) but neither is it a proper CD-ROM game. Apparently, the early CD-ROM Sierra games suffered from a similar problem with flat dialogue but the more recent versions are supposed to use real actors to put real emotion into the story. It's a nice enough game if you haven't got the floppy version, but the speech is not a big enough incentive to splash out the extra cash to buy the same game again. (Fortunately, I borrowed it for the purpose of this review as I have already played the floppy version). I'm sure when CD-ROM really takes off (when it becomes less expensive to buy the drives) games like this will be looked on in the future as a primitive use of a technology that can do much better. One last point - the CD-ROM comes with an extra self running demo of Westwood's other Virgin release 'Dune II'. Whether this game is destined for a CD-ROM release isn't clear.