Mystic Well - author Jim Todd (ST)
           Daymare 2 v1.0 - author Jim Todd (PC)
  (RPG available on ST Disk 258 and now on the PC on Disk 824!)

            Reviewed by James Judge on a 1040 STe

"In a far away land a powerful wizard enchanted his life force into
a golden skull and proclaimed himself to be a God. Then, in a
display of his malevolence, he conquered the citadel known as the
MYSTIC MIRROR. You play the part of an adventurer who has vowed to
defeat his evil plans and save your world from destruction"

Oh, just had a terrible feeling of deja vu then, and not surprising
really. Yes, I have reviewed this game once before for the late
(but great) Red Herring and now I have replayed the beginning of
the game just for you, dear reader.

The reason for this review is mainly because it is now on the PC
(but under a different name). Sue asked whether I'd like to review
the PC version and I said that once was enough, but it really is
amazing what boredom can drive you to - not only did I play up to
where I was the last time I reviewed it, I dug out the STe, hooked
it all up AND mapped the damn game! Yes, there wasn't much going on
today.

Anyway, on with the review. The little paragraph above is what you
find on the README.DOC that's on the disk, and is meant to be the
atmospheric scene setter.  Well, it did it for me, don't know about
you. Can't wait to go get this golden skull that has a spirit in
it. I'm brimming with enthusiasm. Honest. Would I lie?

The game is a standard Dungeon Master clone that was programmed on
the ST originally. There I would have hoped it would stay, but no,
it crept its way onto the PC for hoards more people to play and
love <ahem>.

You start the game by rolling up the stats of your character and
assigning him a profession (either warrior, mage, priest or rogue)
and then you are transported to this garden. In the garden is a
well (probably the well of the name of the game), a few shrubs, a
couple of useless items and a mirror. Stepping through the mirror
will take you to the citadel and on to your quest.

It is (theoretically) possible to complete the game using the
shareware version . All that is missing from the game is the
save-game option, so if you keep your ST running all the time (or
a continuous DOS session in Windows for the PC user) you may just
be able to complete it - as long as you don't get killed. Whether
you'd want to is another matter.

There is only one character (who you don't even get to name!) and
one screen to worry about, so this wouldn't even confuse Mongoose!
The screen is slit into four distinct areas. The action box where
you see a first person 3D representation of the world, the stats
box, the inventory (rather a small one with room for only seven
items apart from your armour, weapons (you can have two) and rings
and pendants) and the control panel. You are allowed full movement
in this game (ie you can step forwards, backwards, shuffle left and
right and turn left or right) by the six control arrows and there
are four other little buttons to allow you to save the game,
eat/drink something and throw a weapon or use one.  The graphics
are very simple (both on the ST and PC version) and won't have you
going 'ooh' and 'aaah'. In fact they are appalling.  Monsters look
as if they have escaped from a five year old's drawing book and the
scenery is as imaginative and bright as John Major's hairstyle. One
good thing, though, is that all the wall and floor sections are
created from square tiles, so it makes mapping a hell of a lot
easier - just count the squares instead of pacing out a room.

Another downer for the graphics is the screen refresh rate. This is
very slow.  In the Red Herring review I thought I was being a bit
OTT when I said that you could carry out eight commands and only
have three processed by the time you had finished. Actually, I
wasn't - it's true. You need to really slow down playing this game
as any attempt to whizz through the place will get you hopelessly
lost.  Oh, and the sound's rubbish too - just a couple of clicks
from throwing items and opening doors will be all you'll get from a
game of this calibre. The PC version may be slightly faster and
have better sound, but not by much methinks...

The fighting and spell casting aspects of the game are as simple as
a very simple thing. To fight you just arm yourself and click on
the fight icon when there is a monster in front of you. A line will
appear across the action box and you know you've hit it. When the
monster hits you four 'X's appear and your HPs go down. Repeat
until one dies. Brill! Spells can only be cast by wizards and they
aren't very self explanatory - just what is a Magnetic Eye?

Other than that the game is very sparse. There is sporadic fighting
and few puzzles (and they are of the close the pit by pressing a
lever or finding a key variety) to keep you happy, so bring a book
along for the trip!

Also there is food to contend with. Food in RPGs is one of my
hobby-horses. I feel that unless you are playing an RPG that has a
definite time-scale and lasts for many game months or years (as in
Betrayal At Krondor) then yes, fine, have food. But for simple
dungeon games there is no real need to have food - it just tries to
put a limit on what you can do and I don't like to be limited by
something that has no other effect than offering you another way
to die. But in this game (as in DM) you have not just food, but
food AND water to content with. Stay still and they don't go down
- move and they go down (slowly but inexorably).  Still, you may
just find a can of Coke or a tin of Creamed Ham to stop that tummy
rumbling (I joke not - there's also cans of runner beans and
chocolate bars!).

This game is really poor - I can find nothing to recommend it. If
you do want it, though, with the save-game option enabled then
you'll have to fork out $10 for the privilege. But you're very sad
if you do...  Dungeon Lord is a better PD RPG for the ST and
Ancients 1: The Deathwatch is by far the superior for the PC
owners.

Get at your own risk!




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