PYRAMID OF PERIL A Text Adventure for the PC on Disk 853 ST version on Disk 852 Author: J. Whatty (1993) Review by Bev Truter This AGT homegrown offering has recently been added to the SynTax Library, and ever on the lookout for new adventures to try, I decided to have a go at Pyramid of Peril - Hmmmm, I must be in my "pyramid" phase at the moment - the last 3 months have seen Pyramid, Pyramid of Muna, and Tomb of the Ancient Pharaohs piling up on my hard drive. "Peril" was written by an American author, and the opening screen informs you that this is..."an epic adventure of mystery and romance, set in the vastness of the Sahara desert." For "epic adventure" read "38-location adventure", and don't rely too heavily on the promise of mystery and romance. I wasn't able to find any registration details on the disk, so it looks as though Peril might be freeware rather than shareware. Grammar and descriptions of locations and objects were adequate - about what you'd expect in an AGT game; but a few obvious spelling mistakes detracted a bit from the overall atmosphere - 'totaling', 'dispair', 'heiroglyphics' and the appalling 'dissapeared' being the most obvious. At least there wasn't the classic spelling howler I found in another desert-setting text adventure I played ages ago, where I found myself "lost in an endless dessert..." . There appeared to be an error in the scoring system initially, because after killing several creatures and collecting a fair amount of treasure the status line still doggedly informed me that I had a score of 0/1000; but then I realized that All Would Be Revealed at the end of the game, where your score suddenly appears accompanied by a congratulatory message when you reach the final location in the adventure. Instead of the usual Introduction, which sets the scene for an adventure, and explains what you are trying to do or find in the game, Peril takes a different approach. You begin with not the faintest idea of what you're doing in the middle of the Sahara, outside an ancient pyramid; and unless you can find a way into the pyramid, then pick up and examine the object you find there, you will never discover why you came to be wandering around the desert in the first place. Briefly, the plot is...." you were on holiday, travelling around Egypt with your fiancee Helena, exploring the ancient pyramids and shrines. Helena mysteriously disappeared, and you bribed a local official, who told you of a lost city believed to be beneath the pyramid of Shamra. The trail eventually led you here, and you realize your adventure has only just begun." The first problem facing you is finding a way into the pyramid. This done, you must then find a Hidden Chamber before you can deal with a Mummy (bandaged and walking, not middle-aged and maternal) that guards a sarcophagus in a large antechamber..... In this relatively short game you will find a few standard puzzles to solve - mainly how to open doors and containers, how to deal with a rock, and how to dispose of about 10 creatures spread over 38 locations. Most of these creatures have unimaginative names and are poorly described - e.g. you meet a rat, spider, scorpion and cockroach in your travels. However, one rather novel "creature" lurks in a pool of water - uugghh! - very creepy! All creatures are dealt with by a "kill X with Y" type of strategy, and far too many of these fight sequences were required for my personal taste. When killed, they all die in the same predictable AGT way...lots of writhing around and puffs of green smoke, etc. I did find one rather sloppy programming problem, where instead of achieving something by using a command in a Command file, the author attempts a short-cut by using a "special" in the Data file. Each time you type "dig", the parser insists "I do not understand the verb DIG". Fair enough, but then the parser inexplicably has a change of heart in one particular location, where you "dig" and are clumsily transported to another location. To make matters worse, your shovel suddenly transforms itself into a spade in the accompanying text, even if you dropped it in disgust and are no longer carrying it. However, despite my rather lukewarm feelings about this game, it did prove to be a pleasant diversion for a whole afternoon (no....make that two afternoons, as I am a compulsive mapper, even of short and simple games). In fact, given this game had too many creatures to kill, too few locations to map and too few puzzles to solve, I have no idea why it appealed to me as much as it did. Probably because it seemed to promise more than it actually delivered...hope springs eternal, and I kept on thinking it was going to get better. Also, I had just finished re-playing two frightful text adventures prior to Peril, so perhaps it seemed quite refreshing in comparison to the other two games. Although Peril is definitely not in the industrial-strength class of text adventures, it was a moderately easy and entertaining game. ENJOYMENT: 4.5/10 ATMOSPHERE: 4/10 DIFFICULTY: 3.5/10 FINAL COMMENT: If you are a pyramid/desert fan have a look at Pyramid of Peril. - o -