Chaos by Jean (They're coming to take me away ha-ha) Childs There was a very good review of this game in the September issue of SynTax by the 48-hour-a-day reviewer James Judge. There was another very good review in the October issue of Red Herring by James Jillians. I am not going to review this game. I am going to give a very brief outline of it, and then I'm going to play it. (If I don't play it at least once a day I get withdrawal symptoms.) The game is about wizards casting spells and destroying each other. You can select up to 8 wizards to be controlled by players or by the computer. You take it in turns to select a spell, cast it, and then move and fight. (There, I told you it would be brief. For more information read the reviews mentioned above.) Right, now to playing it. I think two computer wizards, and me, and anyone else want to play? No? Okay, you can watch. Wizard 1, we'll call Atari and make him computer level 1, represented by graphic 1. Wizard 2, we'll call Oz and make him computer level 3, represented by graphic 2. Wizard 3, that's me and I'll be represented by graphic 5 (because I like that one). First we'll take a look at what spells have been randomly chosen for me. To save space I'm only mentioning some of the given attributes for the creature spells, i.e. combat level and amount of movement per go. All spells have a successful casting chance shown as a percentage. CHAOS SPELLS:- FAWN - combat 3, movement 1, 80%. GOBLIN - combat 2, movement 1, 90%. GIANT BAT - combat 1, movement 6, 90%. CHAOS SPELL (that will improve my chaos rating) - 80%. LAW SPELLS:- DWARF - combat 2, movement 1, 100%. LION - combat 6, movement 3, 60%. GOLDEN DRAGON - combat 9, movement 3, 10%. MAGIC KNIFE - 70%. LAW 1 - (that will improve my law rating by 1) - 80%. LAW 2 - (guess!) - 60%. DECREE (this can dispel other wizards' spells) - 50%. NEUTRAL SPELLS:- GIANT RAT - combat 1, movement 3, 100%. MAGIC WINGS - 50%. DISBELIEVE SPELL - 100%. A brief explanation - creatures can be real or an illusion. If you chose an illusion, the casting chance doesn't matter as they always work, but they can be dispelled with the Disbelieve spell. Spells can only be used once, except the Disbelieve spell which is always available. The wizards themselves have a movement of 1, unless they ride on one of their creatures. Unfortunately, in the above selection, I have nothing to ride on. However, I do have magic wings. Let's hope they are castable when the time comes. A good chaos rating improves the percentages of the chaos spells, and likewise with law. 1st GO I select DWARF, a real one. Now let's have a look at the screen. Atari is in the middle of the top of the screen, Oz is bottom right, and I'm bottom left. Atari casts a successful MAGIC SHIELD spell, Oz casts a CHAOS spell (what's he up to?), and my DWARF is cast successfully. Atari moves up screen 1 space, and Oz moves up also. I'm staying where I am. (Come and get me!) 2nd GO I think I'll improve my law rating and select LAW 1. Atari casts a MAGIC WOOD. These are good because you can hide in the trees and also collect extra spells. Oz casts a UNICORN which the lucky devil can ride on, and my LAW spell works. Atari moves into a tree, Oz moves onto his unicorn, and again I stay where I am. 3rd GO I now have a rating of Law 1. My MAGIC KNIFE is now 80%, my LION 70%, but my DECREE spell has not changed. (I need a rating of Law 2 before that will increase.) Guess what I'm going to select? Atari casts a CROCODILE. Oz, having selected the DISBELIEVE spell, casts this at Atari's crocodile. Nope! It's real. My MAGIC KNIFE works. Atari sends his crocodile down one space, but he himself stays hidden in the tree. Oz, on his unicorn, moves up 3 spaces (I think it was 3). He's now 2 moves from the crocodile, with a tree between them. I bide my time. 4th GO My rating is now Law 2, as it is not just LAW 1 & 2 spells that increase it. Successfully casting other Law category spells also increases it, and unsuccessful spells decrease it. Likewise with chaos spells, and if your Law rating drops to below zero you then have a chaos rating. You can only have one or the other. Anyway, my LION is now 80%, my DECREE 60% and my DRAGON 20%. As I appear to be well out of the other wizards' way for now, I select LAW 2. From out of Atari's hiding place comes a LIGHTNING spell which kills Oz's unicorn. Oz DISBELIEVES my dwarf (well, he tries to) and again my LAW spell works. Atari's tree (that he's hiding in) disappears, which means he has gained a new spell. He moves diagonally up/right one space. Oz moves down/right and I (um) twiddle my thumbs. 5th GO I'm now Law 4 with my LION at 100%, DECREE 80% and DRAGON 40%. I select DECREE with the intention of using it on Atari to hopefully dispel his crocodile and all those trees. Atari casts a ZOMBIE spell, but it fails. That's good because they are one of the `undead' and cannot be killed except by other `undeads' or by special powers. Oz does nothing, I wonder why! My DECREE spell also failed. Atari moves into another tree, and moves his crocodile down one. Oz moves down/right and me? I'm not a coward, I'm just taking a temporary back seat. 6th GO Time to select my LION I think. Atari produces a FAWN, and again Oz uses his DISBELIEVE spell. This time he was right as Atari's fawn was an illusion, and it disappears. My LION, with 100% casting chance, works. Atari stays in his tree and sends his crocodile towards me. Oz moves left/up. I move my lion right/up and with its 3 moves it reaches, attacks and kills Atari's crocodile. I move both my wizard and my fawn right/up one space each. I'm getting brave now. 7th GO This time I chose the DISBELIEVE spell just in case someone produces a nasty illusion. The nastiest creatures are often illusions as their casting chances are so low. Atari chooses an OGRE, Oz DISBELIEVES my lion and I DISBELIEVE Atari's ogre. Like my lion, the ogre is real. Atari stays in his tree and moves his ogre left/down. Oz moves up one space and we're all quite close now. Things are hotting up. I move my lion to attack the ogre, but he survives. I move my wizard and dwarf up, and in case one of them tries a LIGHTNING spell, I keep the dwarf between my wizard and the others. 8th GO My Law rating has now dropped to 3, with my DRAGON only 30%. I'm going to go for it, but make him an illusion. That is the benefit of being last to cast. I can create an illusionary character, who can cause damage before anyone gets a chance to dispel him with a DISBELIEVE spell. Atari casts a HARPY spell, which Oz DISBELIEVES. But it's real. I then cast my DRAGON illusion. Atari's tree disappears and he sends his ogre to attack my lion. There, to my horror, lies my poor dead lion. His harpy, who I think has a movement of 6, attacks my dwarf. Goodbye lion, goodbye dwarf. Oz stays still, he's probably enjoying watching my poor creatures get beaten up. Do you think a computer character can be sadistic? I use my dragon to attack and kill the harpy. Now a dragon, having moved next to and attacked a character, also has an added bonus of then breathing fire. With a range of 4 he can't reach Atari, so I make him burn up one of the trees instead. Then I kick myself as I had forgotten the ogre. I could have tried to singe his beard. That's what happens when you get carried away. I move my wizard up one, away from the ogre. 9th GO I need to move faster now, so I select the MAGIC WINGS even though the casting chance is only 50%. (May the force be with you!) Atari DISBELIEVES my dragon and I have no creatures left on the board. Oz does nothing. This is strange as since he lost his unicorn, he has only used the DISBELIEVE spell. Maybe he's a pacifist. Brilliant, my MAGIC WINGS spell works. Atari moves down one and moves his ogre towards me. Oz moves down one, but now with wings I move up 3 and disappear into a tree. You can use other wizards' trees and hopefully gain new spells. 10th GO I now decide to select my GIANT RAT (real), as I don't want to use any Chaos spells yet as that would drop my Law rating. With the possibility of obtaining a Law spell from the tree, I don't want to reduce its casting chance. Atari casts a LAW spell, and again Oz does nothing. My GIANT RAT spell works. My tree disappears and I can hardly wait to see what spell I received. Atari moves into another tree and moves his ogre towards me. Oz moves down one, I think he feels vulnerable. I move my wizard into another tree, and my rat down/right 3 places to attack the ogre, but he doesn't kill him. 11th GO I'm now Law 5 and my new spell is a MAGIC BOW 100%. That will be my next choice. I looked away from the screen at the time Atari was casting and then heard the familiar word "disappointed". So whatever he hoped for, he didn't get. Oz tries to DISBELIEVE my mouse, and I am the proud owner of a MAGIC BOW. Atari's tree disappears. He moves his ogre up one and Oz also moves up one. Again I attack the ogre with my rat and again he doesn't kill him. I close my turn, forgetting to try my new weapon. 12th GO Now, at Law 6, I select my GIANT BAT. Atari produces a UNICORN, and Oz TELEPORTS down to the bottom/right of the screen. (Wow! Movement!) My BAT spell works. Atari climbs onto his unicorn and attacks my rat with his ogre. One dead rat. Oz stays where he is, not because he wants to but because you forfeit your movement turn when you use a TELEPORT spell. I attack Atari's ogre with my bat, unsuccessfully, and my wizard stays in his tree. 13th GO I'm now Law 7, but all I have left is a FAWN and a GOBLIN, As far as combat is concerned, they're okayish. (My spellchecker didn't like that word!) I'll choose the GOBLIN. Atari tries to DISBELIEVE my bat, Oz uses DISBELIEVE on Atari's unicorn. Both, of course, are real. My GOBLIN spell works. Atari, on his unicorn, moves up/right away from the action. Oz moves 1 space left. I attack Atari's ogre with both my goblin and my bat, but neither can kill him. 14th GO Now I'm Law 6 as my previous spell was a Chaos spell. So I'll try to reduce my Law rating again by using my CHAOS spell. Atari tries to DISBELIEVE my goblin, Oz does nothing, and my CHAOS spell works. My tree disappears. Atari moves further up/right, but leaves his ogre where it was. No movement from Oz, while my guy moves up/right following Atari. Again I attack the ogre with my goblin and my bat, but still unsuccessfully. Unfortunately I can't use my bow on Atari, as I planned my movement wrong and there is a tree between him and my wizard. 15th GO My new spell is a RED DRAGON, but at 10% he'll have to be an illusion. Neither Atari nor Oz cast a spell, but I produce this monster of monsters (albeit an illusion). The ogre kills my goblin, and Oz moves up/left. My bat kills the ogre, so I send my dragon to attack Atari's unicorn. He survives and I gracefully make my exit into the nearest tree. 16th GO I choose not to cast a spell this time. My dragon gets DISBELIEVED by Atari, and my tree disappears. Both Atari and Oz move right, while I move into the last tree. I've done well out of these trees and they weren't even of my casting. I move my bat towards Atari's unicorn. 17th GO My new spell is a CROCODILE, Neutral, 90%. This one has to be real. Atari does not cast a spell, but Oz tries a SUBVERSION on my bat. A SUBVERSION spell is a handy one to have as, when a creature gets too close, instead of trying to kill it you can use this and, if successful, convert the creature over to your side. Oz just wasn't successful, but my CROCODILE spell was. Atari, on his unicorn, moves around but ends up where he started. (Pointless gesture!) I do a bat-attack on his unicorn, and send my crocodile towards him. 18th GO I select my last spell (other than DISBELIEVE), a real FAWN. Atari tries to DISBELIEVE my crocodile, Oz still does nothing, and I have my FAWN. Atari does his pointless bit of movement again, Oz moves right, and I attack the unicorn again with my bat. Success! He's as dead as a `unicorn'. I move my crocodile further towards Atari. 19th GO This time I select DISBELIEVE. I have no other spells, and it's always handy to have a DISBELIEVE spell up your sleeve. Atari tries to DISBELIEVE my fawn, but as there are no other new creatures I cancel my spell. My tree disappears and Atari and Oz both move down 1 space. My bat attacks and kills Atari. With one down and one to go, I move my crocodile towards Oz. 20th GO Hey! I didn't get a new spell! No spell to cast, and Oz doesn't cast one either. He moves down (he's right at the bottom of the screen now) and I move my bat down within 2 spaces of him, but the crocodile can only move 1 space at a time. I move my wizard down, he's about 8 spaces away and the bow has a range of 6. (Next time mate, next time.) 21st GO No spells and Oz moves right 1 space. I attack with my bat. Nothing! I fire my magic bow ............................. YES! T H E R E C A N B E O N L Y O N E !