Realm of Harkom Vol 1 : The Axe of Fargrim
                     (RPG on Disk 432)

                 Reviewed by Graham Raven

I have to admit it, the second I discovered that Fargrim was a
Bard's Tale Construction kit game my heart sank somewhat. The
background story I like. It certainly had enough going for it to
get me interested. There are five cities in the game, each having
many locations to explore. There are stores, temples, Inns,
dungeons, a good selection of races and professions to choose
from, and if you decide to be a magic user, there are enough
spells to 'cobble dogs with'*.

* Apparently an old Lincolnshire saying, which after living with a
Lincolnshire lass for over twenty years I still can't make sense
of, but it refers to 'having a surfeit', an excess, being in
possession of such an over-abundance of something, that you have
even enough to cobble dogs with!

There is a lot of potential for developing your character in this
game, an essential element to any RPG in my opinion, learning
different spells and skills, and improving your hit points, etc.
So with such a potentially enthralling game, where can it go
wrong?  The Mode of Combat is absurd! Sorry, I know that many will
disagree vehemently, including some games programmers who still
use it in their 'state of the art' games, but I for one have never
been able to get my head around 'round by round' fighting. Oh my
goodness the orcs are attacking, there's hoards of them, they're
everywhere - arrgghhh! They're all over us! Quick! What do we do?
I know, you make a cup of tea whilst I nip to the loo, oh yes, and
make some toast on the way back - make mine wholemeal yeah!? Then
we can spend the next ten minutes deciding who's going to do what.
Should I use Fireballs or would an Ice Storm be better? By rights,
the orcs should be squabbling over who picks your bones clean by
now!

Throwing caution to the wind in what ought to be an immediate 'do
or die' effort, I press 'A' for party attack every time, and the
program says okay, and what about party member two then, what do
they want to do? Hmm, really? Okay, what about party member three?
Attack the ****** orcs! Kill them, stab them, cut their heads off!
By now we all ought to be dead! Yes, I know, I should have read
the manual! Am I mad or doesn't 'Party Attack' obviously mean
'Your party attacks!' Hmm well no, absurdly enough 'Party Attack'
does not mean anything like 'The Party Attacks', ah no, that would
be far too sensible. 'Party Attack' means that you want to attack
another member of your own party, as you would, of course?

I'll admit that I only endured two encounters with bad guys. Not,
I hasten to add, because I was killed off, but because that was
all I could stand before giving up! My final rating took into
account how good the game could so easily have been had the
fighting taken place in real time, plus the fact that it didn't
(plus the fact that I was on holiday, in a good mood and being
unreasonably generous!)

Rating: Faintly Biscuit.

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