WILDERNESS SURVIVAL 2.0
            "The case of the Rugglestone Ripper"
                    PC XT-AT/CGA/512K
                      Wasteware Inc.
               Dwarfed on a PC by Grimwold

     (Available on SynTax PD 746 with Drear Cliff Mansion)

It's a little hard to categorize this game, it's not an adventure
in the traditional sense, nor is it a true RPG. The author
describes it as an outdoor exploration, which is probably the
closest description you could get.  The basic scenario is simply
that you are lost in Rugglestone Park and must find the Ranger's
cabin to get safety.

So what actually happens then? Not a great deal, truth be told.
You start off as an asterisk placed randomly on a 10 by 10 grid.
You then use your arrow keys, or N,S,E,W etc to move to an
adjoining square where you are given a menu full of options. These
are usually:
   F - Find Food. (Useful as your strength fades all the time)
   H - Hint (Only get two of these per game)
   I - Item List (Inventory)
   L - Look Item (Look around to see if there's anything exciting
       to be had)
   Q - Quit game (No second chance, so be careful with this key)
   Y - Yell (If you're near the Ranger's Cabin, he will rescue
       you

Now and again, depending on the objects you may have already
found, you will be given an extra choice. Logical actions, such as
you lighting a torch if you have the equipment to make one when it
gets dark, are carried out automatically, which is useful as it
gets dark often.

You start off with a Swiss-army knife, which is fairly useless as
a weapon, so repeated `L' is necessary if you're to survive. Every
now and again, you will stumble into a location with a bear, which
you can either fight, try to calm, or run away from. Fighting with
anything is to be avoided unless you have a decent weapon as it
will suck your strength right away. Also, at seemingly random
times, another person will come up to you and will challenge you
to a fight or a race. The results of these also seem to be random,
though occasionally, the person who's just asked for a fight turns
out to be the Rugglestone Ripper who promptly pulls out a knife
and kills you. The other people though, if beaten, will give you
useful items.

If you ever do find the Ranger's cabin, then in the registered
game you will be taken to another map and dumped. If the shareware
version, however, this will mean the end of the game and a strong
hint that you should register.

This is a nice game, nice and simple, though perhaps a little too
easy to get killed off at the beginning. It shows what a good idea
can come to if programmed well and resisting the urge to flash it
up. There are no graphics used in the game, everything on the map
being shown as ASCII symbols. Colour is used well in highlighting
the text, making an attractive and intuitive menu. I'm not sure
what the memory requirements are, though it runs perfectly on my
386 through Protext's command line with Protext still resident,
giving 299K of free memory, so it might even work with 256K and
CGA.  The longevity of the game would be limited due to its
somewhat simplistic menu interface, but this also makes it easy to
get into.  Definitely worth getting for an afternoon's easy
enjoyment.

The registered price is $12, or $15 on 3.5" disks.

Grimwold's ratings:
                           Graphics        -  N/A
                           Sound           -  N/A
                           Puzzles         -  N/A
                           Atmosphere      -  7/10
                           'Grabability'   -  7/10
                           VFM             -  7/10
                           Overall         -  7/10


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