Lost Eden - Cryo/Virgin RRP œ29.99
               (Graphic adventure for CD-ROM)

              Played on a P90 by Alex van Kaam

In Lost Eden you take on the role of prince Adam of Mo, heir to
the throne of Mashaar.  While the kingdom of Mashaar is a peaceful
place the rest of the world in under attack by the tyrant Moorkus
Rex and his hordes of Tyrannosaurs.  Your father king Gregor is
old and doesn't have the fighting spirit to oppose Moorkus Rex, he
doesn't even leave the citadel.  This citadel is the only reason
why Moorkus Rex doesn't attack this kingdom, it is so gigantic
that it just can't be taken.  But unfortunately the plans for how
to build more of these citadels are lost and therefore the rest of
the world can't build any citadels to protect themselves from
Moorkus Rex.

The story starts on the day that you 'Adam' come of age, from
there on you first have to find the plans of the citadel and then
go to other valleys and persuade the people who live there to
build these citadels, after this is done Moorkus Rex will send his
Tyrannosaurs to attack the building sites and you have to find a
way to drive them back so that the building can continue.

Now onto the game:

- Installing, it is a breeze, just click on automatic installation
and the program does the rest.

- The graphics, well from the moment you typed Eden at your DOS
prompt to the moment you reach the end you will be amazed by them,
it is so colourful, smooth and the dinosaurs move so nicely in the
plains, mountains and jungles, I don't think that there are many
games in this point in time that can even get close to these
graphics.  As you move through the game the graphics scroll so
very fluidly and fast, even though it is full screen.

- The sound/music, again this is great, the music is a bit strange
when you first hear it but you will soon notice that it just fits
great with the game.  As for the speech, the voices fit great with
the characters and are very clear, you can even replay
conversations.

- The control system, some games have several pages on how
their system works, with left clicks here and double right clicks
there and so on, well you can start Lost Eden without looking at
the manual, the cursor is a large rotating cube, if you move it to
a door or an exit a large black arrow comes onto it and points to
the direction the exit or door leads, if you move onto a character
a black image of a person comes onto it.  So to be short, if you
can hold a mouse you can control this game like it is second
nature.

- Difficulty, well as you could have seen all the above points
scored a great so it's a real shame that this drops the whole
game, it is so very easy, the most difficult puzzle is how to
enter into Graa's tomb, after that it just goes down hill.  You
have to build about 6 citadels in 6 different valleys, but they
are all built in the same way, you have to do the same thing in
each valley, and to make things even worse each valley has the
same things, from gold to birds' nests.  Once you solved in the
first valley how to get help from Velociraptors you can use the
same solution in each valley, okay they do need a magical item,
and you do get 2 of these at once but a quick save and try is
enough to solve this puzzle.

So to finish the review, the game oozes quality, the graphics, the
music and the voices, you will definitely watch the intro a few
times just to be amazed.  But it is just such a shame that it is
so very very easy, it took me just 8 hours to finish, but don't
get me wrong, I loved every single minute of it and I didn't feel
the same disappointment I had with Ecstatica.

The only people I can really recommend it to are those that just
bought a PC, after weeks of asking their non computering
wife/husband/mother/friend and now want something to show them
that it was the right choice and let them play their first game.
If you are a average adventure player and you want a good
challenge leave this game on the shelf.
                              - o -