Simon the Sorcerer I

                 Reviewed by Julian Gregory

In my never-ending search for cheap computer games I was browsing
through the computer boxes at a store when I chanced upon Simon
the Sorcerer I and II for a price of œ9.99 each. As the boxes had
the original price of œ44.99 still attached, this seemed too good
an opportunity for me to miss.

This review is of Simon I only.

The box contains just a CD, a tiny manual, a registration card and
an offer for a hint book. Why they will insist on such large boxes
I just do not know.

In this game you play the part of Simon (what a surprise) and you
have been given the task of rescuing Calypso the wizard who has
the power to return you to your own world. Where you actually are
is never explained, or I suppose very important.

The layout of the screen will be very familiar if you have played
games such as Monkey Island. The words required are laid out at
the bottom left of the screen. You might think that only having 12
different verbs would restrict the game, but it certainly does not
here.

Most of the time will be spent travelling around talking to other
characters. Your character's voice is taken by Chris Barrie (of
Red Dwarf fame). It may just be me, but I felt that the voices, in
almost all cases, did not fit in with my concept of the
characters. Perhaps this is a throw-back to my text adventuring
days!

Most of the game is fairly straight forward, although a warped
sense of humour may help in some cases. The comedy touches are
quite good in places. The puzzles are relatively easy, they
certainly are with hindsight, having finished it.


There is a lot of travelling through a forest in this game and,
thoughtfully, the designers have provided a type of map to enable
you to jump to various locations if you have already seen them.
However the map only has a small number of places on it and I
would have liked to have been able to move anywhere just by
clicking on that location on the map.

Overall 60% and I look forward to looking at Simon II shortly.











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