Gory Story - Author Phil Richmond
        (Text adventure for Amiga on Syntax PD 772)

                   Reviewed by Steve Clay

In Gory Story, a text only adventure, you're on a trip doing your
favourite thing, studying butterflies and gazing on their
magnificent beauty and no doubt later on gassing them and pinning
them to a board.  Anyway if you go any direction bar east from the
start you end up in a maze so go east. That's my first tip! Having
moved in the above mentioned direction you find a circle of stones
and before long something happens.

At this point it is worth mentioning that you have some items in
your rucksack and a couple of these should help you into a hole
and also in dealing with some deranged bats. Having got past these
you get the feeling that this is going to be a linear game but
only the opening puzzles follow a straight path and later puzzles
can be solved with a degree of freedom.

So having got past the bats you arrive at a platform and before
very long you'll meet a chap in a robe, Oltec, who in the time
honoured tradition takes you to his leader.  Oltec takes you to
Azzan the ruler of an underground race. He tells you that the
Great God Shingala has chosen you to save their people. Apparently
the underground race fled a dying star system and moved to Earth
because it was nearer the shops.  However once in residence they
found that the gentle warming rays of the sun was slowly frying
them and they fled once more. This time beneath the Earth's crust.
The dangerous conditions beneath the ground wiped out most of
their number and now only a single colony remains.

You have to go above ground and trace one of their number,
Ogrivil, who has created a serum that allows him and his race to
move about in sunlight. However he got a gob on when they refused
that in return for the secret of his serum he would become ruler.
Azzan will teleport you to where they think Ogrivil is and also
they give you a staff of office that glows when you are near
Ogrivil. Personally I'd prefer a staff that zaps Ogrivil when I am
near him. Having presented you with this little gift you are
teleported to the outskirts of Little Zorning. It would seem that
Ogrivil has taken up residence hereabouts.

Before you can enter the village you will need to fend off the
Bumpkin. How to do this is obvious as there is only one other
object nearby that can be used. Once in the village you can go
about solving the puzzles. Talking to people and listening to
their replies is a fairly useful course to follow. Doing this will
tell you what they want or want done.  Eventually you will need to
get into the manor having first disposed of Julia a woman who is
after one thing... steady now it's your blood! Yes Julia is a
vampire which is nothing to do with star signs.

It was here, having scored 25/100, I got stuck twice in a few
moves! Both problems I had relied on the wording of an input and
on both occasions I was on the right lines.  The second puzzle
allowed me inside the manor grounds where I was promptly bitten by
a guard dog. This is the beginning of a 'treasure' hunt in which
the treasure was four ingredients that would cure me of the dog
bite.  The ingredients are given by Oltec who appears in a vision
and spouts out a riddle that points to the cure.  Why he didn't
just tell me I don't know, after all I am playing for his side.
You now have a set number of moves to find and consume the four
items. This is well thought out and adds a nice bit of excitement.
While searching for the four items it is worth avoiding the
gardener as he, like Julia, is none too keen on steak with garlic
sauce.

The game is in the traditional text mode and I would say it is
suitable for beginners with a knack of picking out the correct
input occasionally. The timed section will please more advanced
players but the limit isn't so tight as to be frustrating. The
plot is a little hackneyed and doesn't seem to know where it's
going at the beginning but soon settles down once you reach Little
Zorning.

Gory Story was written using The Creative Adventure Toolkit (CAT),
Philip Richmond being the author of both these products. This game
is an example of what CAT can do without the soundtracks and Iff
graphics that CAT supports. The only drawbacks I found involved
the slow printing of text on screen and the slight delay before
the cursor appears after you receive the what next message, so you
will forever be typing things like 'et rope' or ' rop gun'. The
way to avoid this is to say 'elephant, elephant' to yourself when
asked for your input.  Gory Story is a nice gentle game and well
worth spending a few hours on. If you are thinking of buying CAT
then have a look at this game to see what CAT is capable of.












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