@~It's - yes - double review time. I like to have at least one of
@~these each issue. This time, the reviewers are Julian Gregory
@~and James Judge and the game is ...

     Castle of the Winds Part 1:A Question of Vengeance
                                - Epic Mega Games
       (Shareware RPG for Windows on SynTax PD 692)

1. Reviewed by Julian Gregory on a PC

This is the second RPG I have seen recently played via Windows.
(I hope Sue prints these reviews in the right order!)

Castle of the Winds is a two part graphical adventure (part 2 is
not shareware) which is stated to be loosely based on fantasy
role playing games and owes much to Norse mythology. In part 1
you take the part of a character seeking to avenge the murder of
his godparents.  My first impression is that this is an attempt at
a graphical Dungeon 'n' Dragons game. Before starting out you can
set various attributes as is normal in these types of adventures.

As you explore there is an auto-mapping facility which gradually
shows more of the area around you as you explore further.

There are 4 grades of play, from beginner to expert. The only
difference is the number of enemies and the amount of treasure
and helpful articles you will find. I played the beginner level
in order to complete it in time for this article.

You start out in your village and can explore various huts in
order to buy weapons, armour and spells. You do not start out
with much money, but can return when you find more, normally by
collecting any left behind after killing foes you will no doubt
find later.

The game is fairly linear in that you cannot go west from the
village until you have explored the abandoned mine to the north.
There are 4 levels to explore to recover a parchment which then
directs you to the fortress in the west. There are a further 12
levels there before you come across your ultimate enemy.

The game is well served for help and instructions as in most
Windows applications. It is possible to print out these screens
which can be helpful.

I always try and leap into such games using past experience to
get started. If some time is spent is reading the documentation
the game would have been much easier at the start. I had to find
out what I was supposed to be doing almost by trial and error,
when the Overview of the game and the Help file would have been
most useful if I had bothered to use them. Some people never
learn!!

I found this to be a good DnD style adventure. However I have
found that it will only appeal to dedicated DnDers. As part 1
is shareware it is certainly worth trying, you may be surprised.

------------------------------------------------------------------


2. Reviewed by James Judge on a 486sx

Kids are hard to keep under control - take them anywhere and they
just wander off, looking at all of the different sites and
fiddling with what they are not meant to fiddle with. Just imagine
an inquisitive kid growing up on a farm - acres and acres of barn,
outhouses, huts, field and such to explore and to fiddle with.

Well, it just so happens that you were once an inquisitive kid who
grew up on a farm with his/her godparents. One day, on the look
out for something to fiddle with you come across one of the old
barns and in there, under some eaves, you came across an ornately
carved wooden box which has a small lock in the front.  Despite
your small hands, you can't pick that small lock so you replace
the box and go on the search for dead mice, bird nests and other
such things to fiddle with.

One night, when your godparents are both sitting by a roaring fire
you ask your godfather (who is now called grandfather in the
intro) just what is in the box.

'Well, if ye be old enough to be askin', I guess ye be old enough
to know,' says he and you go and fetch the box that you had been
dying to fiddle with.

Grandfather then produces a fine chain from underneath his tunic
on which dangles a small key, small enough for the small lock on
the box. After unlocking the box your grandfather produces a
magnificent golden chain with, suspended on the bottom, a circular
pendant.

'What is it?' you ask (you haven't got the hang of asking 'What be
it?' yet...).  According to your grandfather it was a gift from
your true father who, on the night if his death, came stumbling to
their front door, bleeding from many cuts, with a bundle under one
arm (you). On his death bed he spoke only once, asking for the two
kindly people (now your godparents) to raise you and give you the
pendant on your eighteenth birthday.


That is the introduction to this game which is an RPG for Windows.
So far so good, but for most people I feel this game will
represent only boredom.

How many of you can remember games such as Moria, Larn and DDST?
If you can, you will be right at home with this game as it uses
exactly the same formula but in a Windows format with better
graphics.

Gone are the ASCII characters and in are sparse Windows-esque
graphics that do their job pretty well. Gone are the lists for
inventories and in is a picture of your guy/gal with slots to
place different pieces of equipment.

For those of you who can't remember those games let me just give
you a brief idea of what games such as these entail:

You guide a lone character into a multi-level dungeon (normally
50+ levels) where you must explore each level for pieces of
equipment and monsters to fight, both of which increase your
character's potency. By the end of the game you hope that your
character has become powerful enough to defeat the end of game
monster and if so you can complete the game.

There are no puzzles, lots of random monsters and treasure and
plenty of invisible traps so saving very, very often is advisable.
All commands are entered via the keyboard (numeric pad for moving,
<r> for rest and so on) and fighting is easy - just try to move
into the square the enemy is on.

The action is presented in a bird's eye view and everything on
that map is generated using ASCII characters so that it can be
played over a modem.

After all is considered it is jut a hack and slash romp that lasts
for about two days and then gets consigned to the 'useless' box.

Castle Of The Winds is no different from what I have seen - I
haven't got all that far into the game as it is, to be brutally
honest, boring - there is little variation, no quests and has
nothing to keep my mind occupied for very long.  This said, there
are a few people who enjoy delving into these kinds of games when
they have nothing else to do and as this is a Windows game, it
excels at being a dip in and out type game, a game you can,
literally, play for about 5 minutes while some files copy away in
the background and then you can come back whenever you feel the
need (or have more files to copy). This is a big factor in its
favour, as most games of this type make you quit all other
games/applications, revert to DOS and then make a special boot-up
of it.

Again, as it is Windows, here is the potential for some pretty
good graphics and while the graphics in COTW aren't wonderful
(obvious home-made stuff) they do their job well and are a fine
replacement for the old ASCII characters.

There are also a few other options that are available because of
it being Windows - a good help file is one and menu selection
(using a mouse!) for actions is another. Also, now that we have
got a mouse, we can control our little character around using it
by left-clicking on him/her and dragging them where we want them
to go. This does, though, lead to a few snag-ups near corners.

Also there are small pieces of animation - for spells, dragon's
breath and such. Not much, but enough to add that final piece of
finesse to the whole affair.

Still, no matter how much paint you put on a Robin Reliant it
still remains a Robin Reliant and, no matter how thickly you apply
the paint, it will never become the Purrsche 1100 of your dreams.
And so it is with this game. While at first glance you seem to
have gotten more than your old Moria game you have, in reality,
got Moria but with a couple of coats of thick paint.

So, to round up. Unless you actually like this game instead of
modern day RPGs then you'll probably like this one quite a bit.
There are plenty of kit, monsters and spells, a few shops and
different scenery, there are hidden doors and traps and loads of
randomness. If, on the other hand, you prefer something more
in-depth (but with less potential life) stay away from it unless
you plan to dabble during HDD back-ups or something. If the
boredom doesn't get to you traipsing around the dungeon definitely
will and nipping back to the top every time you need something
that is unfound as yet will drive you (and the Robin Reliant) up
the wall, across the ceiling and down the other wall.

Not wonderful but a good example of the genre.












                              - o -