'TWAS A TIME OF DREAD
          A Text Adventure Game on SynTax disk 595

                  Reviewed by: Tom Lorimer

This game was written by Clive Wilson, an adventure author better
known for his adventures written for the Spectrum and Amstrad 8 bit
computers. It is a conversion of one of his best selling games to
the PC and was written using the Adventure Game Toolkit (AGT).

"Twas a Time of Dread" is the third and final game in a series of
text adventures on the same theme, with "The Darkest Road" being
the first, and "The Unborn One" being the second.

                    The Story Continues....

'Twas a time of dread! The land, once so fair, now ravaged by the
greatest pestilence since the time of The Black Wanderer and The
Unborn One.  Three thousand years have passed, years in which the
once beautiful land has been all but destroyed.

For three thousand years nothing has been heard of The Mysterious
Stranger but now on a dark, wet and windy night he returns. To you,
a descendent of the 'Singer of the Song'. You, a mere child, still
flush with the vigour of youth. To you he comes. You who have done
nothing remotely heroic in all of your seventeen years.

The Stranger tells you that when the Black Wanderer sowed the seed
of The Unborn One, so too did he sow another seed. the one which
would lie dormant until the time was ripe for it to burst forth. As
the seed lay dormant, however, it matured and then mutated. It
divided and became many and called itself LEGION though it was more
than just one being. It was many, it was Legion and through its
numbers it would gather strength. The multi-faceted evil then
spawned upon the land, but it spawned far to the east, far beyond
the Eagleshorn, beyond Darklen Moor, beyond the borders of the
realm, in the unknown reaches of the place known as the Saddest
Lands.


The Mysterious Stranger tells you that although the Silent Song has
been lost, it too has mutated. It has mutated within YOU, into
something more than what it was. But he cannot tell you what. That
is for you and you alone to discover. He leads you to the giant
bird Sebac, who is to carry you over the Eagleshorn to the realm of
Legion and there he bids you farewell. You must now set out upon
the giant bird in the direction of Legion and there do what you
will to stop the evil spreading to the west.

And so, Sebac sets you down upon the Plain of the Uninvited and
with a last, lingering glance in your direction, soars into the
blue sky and vanishes over the golden horizon.

So, off I went on my final adventure to defeat the evil known only
as "Legion"

This, like the other 2 games in the series was a straightforward
sort of game where you trekked around the countryside picking up
objects which you would need to defeat the evil Legion.  I was

doing fine until I came to a location which no matter what I tried,
I couldn't get past the "Souls".

After hours of going round in circles, it suddenly dawned on me
that when I drowned in the lake, I was still able to continue
playing the game. Hmmmm, I'm dead but so what, it's only a game, so
off I went to see how being dead altered things.  Bingo, now I was
able to just walk straight past the "Souls" and continue my quest
to destroy the evil Legion.

The rest of the puzzles were easy enough, except for one room which
I was sure was bugged, as no matter what I tried, there seemed to
be no exit from that location.  I was correct, it was a bug, but
this bug was blatantly written into the game by the author. Once
solved, it was only a matter of making my way to the final location
and confronting the evil Legion.

What's this, the "Sing Song" command doesn't work in this game, how
am I supposed to defeat my enemy?  If only I had taken more notice

of the random messages coming out of the receiver strapped to my
wrist.

In conclusion, I enjoyed this game, plus the other 2 in the series,
and would recommend them to any text adventurer who is looking for
a good deed to do.













                              - o -