Death Gate - Legend RRP œ39.99
                 (CD-ROM graphic adventure)

                      Reviewed by Sue

The Death Gate series of novels by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
has just reached their finale with the publication of book seven.
Like the books on which it is based, Death Gate is built around an
on-going, long term confrontation between two races of magic
users, the Sartan and the Patryn. Their magic is constructed from
runes which are built up, rune by rune, into spells of varying
complexity. Millennia ago, gaining the upper hand, the Sartan cast
a complex spell and split the world into five realms. Four of
these were based around a particular element - fire, stone, air
and water. These were inhabited by so-called mensch races; human,
elf and dwarf.

The fifth was a prison, maybe the most violent sort of confinement
that could be devised or imagined. Into this region, known as The
Labyrinth, were thrown the Patryn.  The Labyrinth was full of
plants and creatures whose only purpose was to kill the Patryn.
There was only one exit that many tried in vain to reach.

The idea was that once the Patryn had been 'rehabilitated', they
would be released into a city built especially for them, called
the Nexus. But something went wrong, their release never came. The
Patryn, understandably blaming their captors for the slaughter
which went on day after day, year after year, in the Labyrinth,
grew understandably more and more bitter towards the Sartan and
vowed revenge. It was often the only thing that gave them the
strength to keep going.

Finally, one Patryn escaped, Xar. He dedicated his life to
re-entering the Labyrinth and rescuing as many more of his fellow
Patryn as he could. Going back into the Labyrinth was the hardest
thing he could do, but do it, he did ... time and time again. One
of those he rescued was you, Haplo, and now you would do anything
that you could to aid Xar.  This is where the game starts, at the
Nexus, where Xar sets you a task. He explains that he wants to
reform the world and to do this he needs the four Seal Pieces, one
of which went to each realm when the world was split. To travel
from realm, you must go through the Death Gate having cast the
rune for your destination on the steering stone of a dragon ship
which will be your method of transportation. He has the rune for
the first world, Arianus, and the Nexus Seal Piece, all the others
are for you to discover.

But there's more. It is important for the Patryn to re-learn
magic, so you must discover more runes and spells, either from
seeing them written down or watching someone cast them. Finally,
Xar wants to know where the Sartan have gone, so you must also
search for traces of them.

So your journey begins, through four very different worlds,
dealing with all manner of people and creatures, both friendly and
hostile, helpful or hindering, sometimes amusing, always
intriguing. And as your trip progresses, your arsenal of spells
slowly growing, you start to question your Lord's reasons for
finding the Sartan. Are they still the bad guys, or is there a
bigger evil to deal with?

The interface used is the same as in Companions of Xanth but,
unlike Companions, Death Gate is a good game and the control
system works well. Because it is a CD-ROM only game, there is full
speech and sound effects with excellent graphics including two
Silicon Graphics sequences as the intro and finale. System
requirements are fairly hefty - a 386-33 upwards, 4 meg of RAM,
VESA or VGA and one of the major sound cards.

The puzzles are harder than Xanth but not (too) difficult.  Some
are very inventive and a few use a graphical interface for
manipulating dials etc. The spell casting system of constructing
spells from runes is exceptionally well designed. In one of these
on-screen puzzles there is a hint system which will take you, step
by step, through the puzzle if the game senses you are struggling.
But apart from that, there aren't built-in hints or a hint booklet
- thank goodness. Those are TOO tempting some times!

The game nicely recreates the Death Gate game world, sticking
closely to the areas in the series, their characters and some
situations. But, and it's a big but, there are some big
differences which jarred for me. I think it was a mistake to cast
the player as Haplo, the main character in the books. In the books
he isn't an especially nice person, he trusts no-one, except Xar,
and thinks of himself first, second and third. In the game, he
does favours for people at the drop of a hat. That isn't Haplo as
I think of him.

Another character who isn't recreated realistically is the leader
of the Sartan Council, Samah.  Again, in the books, he and Haplo
are, naturally, sworn enemies. In the game it's "How can I help
you, Patryn?" Nope, it doesn't gel for me.

Then there's the dog. He is a major part of the books, travelling
everywhere with Haplo. In the game he is a minor character, though
vital to Haplo's success, and appears for only a small part of
the action.

One of the best characters in both the books and the game is
Zifnab, a wizard with a difference ... and a dragon.  The dragon
is strangely silent in the game, unlike the books, but Zifnab is
vocal enough for both of them and a real hoot. The voice used for
him is excellent. When I originally wrote this review I added
"though maybe not quite old enough". But since then I have gone
back to book 6 of the series and, as I read it, I 'hear' Zifnab's
voice from the game when he speaks in the book.  The dwarves are
pretty good too.

All the major characters have full speech and Death Gate has the
multiple choice conversation that we have come to expect from
games of this type. Some of these conversations are very long
winded and you can never be sure which options will be important
and give you a clue.  Also, and very strangely, full text is
printed on the screen during these dialogues. Nope, you can't
switch them off and, worse, the on-screen text includes supposedly
atmospheric comments such as 'Xar laughs' - these don't add to the
atmosphere, far from it.

In conclusion, Death Gate is an excellent game, I would say it is
my favourite Legend game so far. Certainly a must-play for any
Weis and Hickman fans. Incidentally, the AGT adventure, Deadly
Labyrinth was also inspired by the series but there any similarity
in playability ends!
















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