The Land
            (RPG available on PD 541 for the PC)

             Reviewed by James Judge on a 486sx

When I first loaded this game I thought that I'd hate it. Not only
was it based on a trilogy of books I have bought, have yet to read
(as I read the first few chapters and found the author's style too
flowery) and have had a few raging rows with a friend over, it
looked, sounded and played, well, not very well.  Planning on
playing it for a couple of hours and then reviewing it (as I did
with Dragon Hunt) I read the documentation (which is very brief)
and reloaded the game (now knowing how to make the game look
respectable by using EGA graphics instead of CGA). I was then
strangely drawn into the game.

Let's just get the boring stuff out of the way first. To begin
with I think this is a pretty old game. I can't find an exact
date, but one around 1988/1989 wouldn't surprise me. What makes
me feel this is that the quality (graphics and sound) are very
poor by today's standards and, secondly, the offer that goes with
registration. You can register the game by sending the author $25
(which gets you the latest version and the full documentation and
instructions). Also you can add another $10 to get the full
trilogy on which the game is based. I know that America is cheap
compared to the UK, but I don't think it would be quite THAT cheap
these days (approx $3 a 400+ page book doesn't sound right,
somehow).

To run the game you need 384K of base RAM and you can run it from
a low density disk (but a HDD is recommended). You also need
either EGA or CGA graphics and, so, even a lowly 286 would be able
to handle the pace of this game. There is no sound apart from a
few squawks coming from the internal speaker and all control is
done via the keyboard.

Right, now that's over with, onto the game itself.

The game is based on the Rogue class of games that were pretty
popular during the mid to late eighties. These games weren't
brilliant as they were just a 'go down into the dungeon to get
treasure and increase your character's level ad infinitum' affair.
This doesn't bode well for this game (see my RPG set of articles
for my feelings towards this particular sub-genre), but just stay
with me.

As it is a Rogue there are lots of controls all accessed by a
single keypress ie 'i' for inventory. Unfortunately, the
programmers have decided to make the controls slightly more
innovative. So, you can have 'i' for inventory, but 'I' is to
identify friendly characters. This may make remembering what each
key does easier, but it makes using them a bit more long winded
and sometimes the two can be mistaken.

Also, due to its Roguishness, the graphics are a throwback to the
old Ultima 1 and 2 days where you were given a bird's eye view of
the country/town and move step by step.

There is no real goal for the game set down in the documentation,
but there is meant to be one that will reveal itself to you as you
play. As far as I have got I've been able to find one quest so
far, that is proving to be harder than it sounds. What I've got to
do is to get the First Ward of Kevin's Lore from Coerci. I've
found Coerci and the place where the Lores originated from, but
Coerci is bathed in darkness and my torches don't seem to
function. And being a warrior means I can't use and magical
methods or use any artifacts. Oh well, I'll solve it one day...

This may be the only goal in the game (as it does take me over
most of the map and to all three of the cities) but there may be
others. Finding other quests is proving to be a bit of a problem
too.  The reason for this is that there are literally loads and
loads of people to whom you can speak and they will either give
you some information, or act as a walking shop. The info is along
the lines of 'Coerci is SW of such and such' but not knowing where
such and such is makes the info virtually useless. I haven't noted
down any of the info as I don't know whether it will be of any use
- the land isn't all that big, and I don't mind a bit of random
wandering. Also there is so much - I'd have filled a good few
pages with notes that ultimately (I feel) will be useless.

Due to this info overkill it is very difficult to actually get the
quests. It was pure luck that I talked to someone who said 'Go get
the First Ward of Kevin's Lore at Coerci'. There were three or
four people in the room at the same time as me and they all looked
the same. Also they were moving around and milling as if this were
some kind of party, not aiding me at all.

Other than wandering around trying to solve this one problem the
game is pretty empty. People throw (meaningless) info at you, you
fight a few monsters, sell and buy some kit and go up in level and
that is that. There are no riddles, problems, mini-quests,
pitfalls, traps or evil movements. No chance to have an
interactive talk (even of the 'JOB? warrior', 'NAME? bob',
'WARRIOR? none of your business' type would have been better) and
very little interaction with your surroundings.

That said, I feel that it's a pretty good example of its genre.
True, it may be simple and easy, but at least you do get SOME
variety of surroundings (unlike in Moria, Hack and Larn) and there
are people you can talk to. I should imagine that if you have read
the trilogy you may be able to get more out of the game than I
did. You'll be able to understand what the different professions
do EXACTLY and what the significance of places, rituals and
artifacts are.

Of course, just because it is a good example of its sub-genre
doesn't mean to say that it is all that good in the great scheme
of things, and to be honest this game will only really prove
interesting to anyone who has read the book. Even then its
shallowness (the inheritance of being part of the Rogue class)
will put even a few Stephen Donaldson fans off.

A good game as far as Rogue games go with few mistakes (spelling
mistakes are present, but aren't in abundance). If you are a fan
of the books or of the Rogue games then get this - you may be
pleasantly surprised. Otherwise spend your money on something else
- for the typical RPGer this game holds little of interest.

                              - o -