Ishar 2:Messenger Of Doom - Silmarils
                  Available for ST, Amiga and PC
         Around œ30 but shop around for the best bargain

                Reviewed on an STe by James Judge

OK, first let us say that this game won't work on anything under a
megabyte of memory and to get anything that is similar to speed
you need a hard disk. This does have a few drawbacks on the ST as,
from what I've heard, it is very unreliable to get working on the
ol' hard disk.

OK, this is the third game in the Prince Jarel series. It started
of with Princey boy and a group of friends wandering around an
island in a terrible game that was completed in about three hours
by me. The second game was Ishar - Legend Of The Fortress, where
you had to wander around another island to conquer the fortress
Ishar.  Now Ishar 2 puts you in charge of the fortress which is
under threat by an evil. It's always like that, innit? You start
off on an island (this game has got six of 'em, already an
improvement on the first two) with only yourself for company. If
you were that kind of person you may find that enjoyable, but you
need friends so it is a matter of recruiting your crew - be they
elven, dwarven or barbarian.

Before your eyes you see a murder committed and this is the first
part of a huge quest that awaits you. If, once you've got a party,
you can kill the murderers you then get a necklace, but to the
east of the island is a huge orc with another one! Oh well, try
and give them both to someone of importance...

The game is controlled with the standard directional arrows, and
in this game, at last, you can use the numeric pad to move around.
Below the arrows are the fight icons for your five party members
and below that, in a strip along the bottom of the screen, are the
portraits of your characters. You can change these pictures to
show what their strength is like, what they've got in their hands
or the magic screen. Also you can enter their backpack, which is
much the same as other RPG games of these type.

Along the top of the screen is the island that you are on and the
current time and day of the quest. There is no time limit, but it
does give you an idea of how long you have been wandering through
Kyrandia. The game, like the first one, uses a day and night
system where you can't get into some shops at night and some
places during the day. Also it is harder to see at night, giving
the monsters a distinct advantage.

In the centre of the screen is what you see, and what a sight.
With 32 colours on an ST they are truly something to look at. I
don't know whether there are 64 colours on an Amiga, but I know it
is standard VGA graphics on the PC.

The game sprawls over six massive islands, each one about the same
size as Ishar so there is a lot of walking involved. Luckily there
are maps included in the game and they show you where you are on
the island, so that is alright (you wish).  The islands vary
greatly, from a tree island to a city and an icy wasteland where
you need certain protection to stop hypothermia and untimely
plummeting off cliffs.

As well as puzzles etc. to get you going you can nip into taverns
to change your party or listen to rumours (a massive source of
hints), nip into the local armoury to get the much needed
battleaxe or buy yourself a monkey to keep yourself company. Or
you may want to live a life of luxury and buy yourself some
evening clothes or pop into the night club (if you can get past
the bouncer). You could, of course, go into the library and see
what you can dredge up there or go and see the mayor. And all of
that is just in the city!

As with all games like this there are monsters a-plenty and
fighting is very much DM style with attack buttons for each of
your characters. All of the monsters have got different graphics
and are animated well.

The whole game is set out nicely with one thing leading to another
and the difficulty level aimed at the more advanced player. If
you've played Ishar or a similar game you should be able to take
control quite easily. If you haven't you may find yourself losing
the drift of the game as yet another section is loaded into the
computer and you just can't find the bloomin' library.

With the best graphics of any game on the ST and the best sound
(which differs from island to island. Country sounds in the first
island and wolves howling on the ice island) as well it looks
excellent. The actual game play is enthralling and intriguing, and
the game is only let down by its speed. If you can live with that
though, you've got a game to keep you satisfied for weeks (yes,
weeks) to come.

Another excellent game from Silmarils - the only company to truly
support the ST and Falcon for great RPGs and Strategies.