WEEN : THE PROPHECY - Coktel Vision / Digital Integration RRP œ34.99 (PC) œ29.99 (ST/Amiga) (Graphic adventure puzzle game) Reviewed by Neil Shipman (PC version) On that day evil omens were carried in on the storm. The rumbling of the thunder seemed to predict the end of the Kingdom of the Blue Rocks. Three days before the great eclipse OHKRAM, my grandfather and chief wizard knocked at my door: The Kingdom of the Blue Rocks was in danger. WEEN, my magic is deserting me. My powers are no longer strong enough to keep the Kingdom from falling under KRAAL'S shadow. KRAAL is an ambitious wizard whose dream is to reign over the Blue Rocks. Ten years ago I banished him and his desire for vengeance stirs up his hatred... I know that he plans to return on the day of the great eclipse and I'm too weak to stop him. It's up to you, WEEN, to prevent him. KRAAL is a powerful wizard but you can eliminate him with the help of the REVUSS, the hour-glass of power, by fulfilling the prophecy... The introduction continues to explain what you, WEEN, must do to fulfil the prophecy. Your task involves acquiring three grains of sand which must be placed in the REVUSS. You will be rewarded with a grain for successfully completing each of the following tasks: Opening the stele which seals the entrance to the cave where the Temple stands; vanquishing the Dragon with a hundred faces; and convincing the guardian to open the Sanctuary. After a video clip showing you leaving for OHKRAM'S home (and the colour-code copy protection) you gain control and your adventure begins. In the usual Coktel Vision style the screen is divided into four zones: an information panel which appears if you move the cursor up to the top of the screen; the main display where the adventure unfolds and which usually occupies about 70% of the screen; a dialogue window; and a line which appears at the bottom of the screen to describe items and your actions upon them. Certain places and objects appear enlarged in their own windows so that you can interact further with them and often with their contents. These windows are closed by moving the cursor to the top left-hand corner and clicking on the lock symbol which then appears. At the start you find yourself in the front room of OHKRAM'S house with immediate access, via two on-screen door icons, to the front porch and the back room. But first click on all the special objects and interesting places whose names appear at the bottom of the screen as you move the cursor around. Clicking on something you want changes it into the cursor. You will quickly get a copper ball which proves to be extremely useful throughout your journey to find the REVUSS. This is because it reacts with a ring, a tiara and a necklace which you will find later on, changing them to and from a cauldron, a pipe and a sword. These transformations are displayed in a little box of their own which pops up in the centre of the screen. The seemingly continual changing back and forth, particularly during the later stages of the game, can get a bit wearisome but it does have the effect of increasing the number of items available without your having to scroll through a long list. Thus, unlike previous Coktel Vision titles, it is possible to use one item from your inventory with another from that same inventory. This is done by selecting the first object, clicking with it on the inventory icon in the information panel at the top of the screen to show what you're carrying, then clicking on the second object of your choice. As well as your inventory this panel shows six other symbols: game management (allowing up to 15 save positions), joker (giving help in various places), notepad (for recording useful clues), characters (enabling personal use of objects or allowing you to show them to others), movement (for direct access to places you have already visited) and adjustments (text font and background music). Neither joker nor movement is active on the PC version of the game. The other characters include PETROY, a wise old man who accompanies you and can help to decipher ancient text written in unknown languages, and URM, a fruit-eating bat. It is far too easy to know when to summon URM - just find anything with a hint of fruit to it! He does, however, especially have a taste for strawberries and greets you when he arrives with phrases like "Fiddlededum! Fiddlededee! Where can the strawberries be?" or "Iron and steel! I'm always ready for a delicious meal!" By far the strangest characters to keep appearing on your travels are UBI and ORBI, identical twins who you first meet on the porch and whose sole function is to carry your bag. They seem to have been included simply to show off the programmers' expertise at incorporating video sequences in the adventure as they are far from static. This full motion video - which is not restricted to just the twins - is most impressive. Clips are shown at fairly regular intervals and they have obviously been done by filming real actors. At present they are not in full colour but I wonder how long it will be before we are getting used to this too. Apart from the video the 256 colour VGA graphics in the game are truly excellent. The adventure is made up of a number of mini- gameworlds of one to four screens and different palettes predominate in each one - browns and golds one minute, greens and mauves the next. There are a few brighter scenes but generally a dark and sombre atmosphere is maintained, reflecting the seriousness of your task. There is none of the wacky humour and bold, bright colours of the Goblins games here, but the graphics are still all luxuriously rich. Background animation and detail are good too. In fact there is so much going on in a couple of screens that the refresh rate of my bog-standard Trident video card wasn't fast enough to cope with it all. Consequently I found I had to slow down my gameplay and be rather more conservative with my movements of the mouse until I was past these. Perhaps the weakest aspects of the whole production are the music and sound effects. When the top information panel is accessed the sounds cease although the music continues. Neither, however, come close to the quality of the graphics. But this is just me being picky and I must confess to being a convert to the Coktel Vision style of game. If you're the sort of player who likes exploration over and above everything else then this sort of thing isn't for you. But if, like me, you enjoy the puzzle-solving aspect of adventuring then I would definitely recommend that you take a look at one of this French software developer's titles.