Realm of Hakrom Vol I - The Axe of Fargrim
           (PC Shareware RPG on SynTax Disk 432)

                  Reviewed by Laura Duncan

Something is rotten in the realm of Hakrom.  Orcs, goblins and
general lawlessness are abroad in the land and nobody seems to be
doing anything about it.  However there is a tale of a legendary
axe that would solve all these problems if only someone could find
it.  Guess who is going to volunteer for this task?  Yes it is you
and your trusty band of adventurers who must brave all to save
Hakrom from destruction.

"Fargrim" is a shareware role playing game based on the Bard's
Tale construction kit.  If you've played the Bard's Tale and
sequels you will probably find much that is familiar.
Unfortunately I am not one of that select few so I can't give
details of the similarities.

Where to start?  Why, the Adventurer's Guild is the first stop to
assemble your crack team of up to seven individuals.  You can
tailor your own adventurers or accept those that have already been
prepared.  There is a fine selection of races (humans, elves,
dwarfs, hobbits, half elves, half orcs and gnomes) and classes
(paladins, rogues, monks, bards,hunters, conjurors and magicians)
but sad to say there wasn't a female amongst the lot of them.  The
wide range was welcome however and for one who only started RPGs
with Dungeon Master this was quite a novelty.

The playing screen is quite basic with a small picture area
showing the view or individual characters.  There are good still
pictures with some animation.  Step movement is by clicking on the
view screen or using the cursor keys.  Commands are input by
mouse-clicking or typing in the appropriate letters.  Fighting is
carried out by a tedious method of instructing each individual
character for each round or "throw of the dice".  I think you need
to be a fan to enjoy this type of activity.


There is plenty to do though.  The area to explore is vast.  There
are five cities, lots of countryside, huts, etc.  In the cities
there are shops for equipment, archery, weapons, armour, music and
magic restoration, as well as a thieves guild.  Visits to inns are
necessary for healing and refreshment and of course to wet the
bard's whistle.  Temples also have curative properties.  Do note
that graph paper and coloured crayons are essential if you are to
make any progress.

The game has a good background atmosphere built from the on-disk
manual that also contains pages and pages of letter-coded mage
spells.  There is a deal of entertainment and excitement to be had
from this game though the primitive gameplay will deter all but
the most patient souls (or map happy RPGers).

System requirements; 555K of free RAM and 2MB of hard disk space.

The game is available from SynTax and appears to be part of "The
Realm Of Hakrom" series.
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