Travels in the Land of Erden: in quest of the adventure
                     by Laura A. Knauth
         Part of Disk 1214 and on this issue's disk

                  Reviewed by Nick Edmunds

Fresh off the ship we find ourselves at the dock in a town called
Shalandria.  Being a roving adventurer we were attracted to the
town by its legends of a dragon, a lost ruby and deep, hidden
caverns. While all this may sound vaguely familiar and the
introductory text appear slightly clich‚d, it's not a good
indicator of what to expect from the game - for a start there's no
dragon and the bulk of the action takes place above ground.  As we
begin our exploration there's no clear cut goal so the plot
essentially just unravels itself as you amble around the town
attempting to investigate the surrounding myths - who says art
doesn't imitate life.

The town itself is set among a beautiful, sprawling landscape
which, with around 120 locations, means mapping is not a task to
be taken lightly.  The eight-way movement further complicates
things, as it doesn't always transcribe to paper particularly
well. I generally find it easier to map games that stick to the
standard four directions thus reducing the chance of location
continuity errors.  This said, the navigation process is aided by
a little symbol at the top of the screen that indicates possible
directions of travel.  This symbol may have been intended as an
extension of the compass your character has in their kit and
although not one hundred percent accurate it's still a very useful
feature.

Location descriptions are loaded with background information, much
of which is intended to set the scene and create atmosphere. All
this proved a bit much for my tiny little mind as I have the
attention span of an absent minded goldfish.  This means that I'm
easily confused, tend to lose track of what's happening and end up
reading the same section several times, tend to lose track of
what's happening and end up reading the same section several times
;-).  While this may have the potential to obstruct immersion into
a game world, Laura manages to get away with this delicate balance
through the quality of her writing, walking a fine line in
creating a scene while maintaining game involvement.

Erden is not only expansive, but it's also quite busy as the non-
linear game-play means there's plenty going on. There's often so
much around you that it pays to examine everything. Fortunately
there are many sources of information scattered about, so you're
seldom stuck for long without a clue - look out for the
encyclopaedia, it's an excellent source of reference as it gives
the opportunity of looking up all sorts of details about the land.

Further nice touches include a spell, which has a real impact on
your surroundings as well as logical after effects in accord with
the laws of physics.  A gypsy who consults her crystal ball in
order to determine if we've been a good little adventurer or not
before giving any help (yet again I managed to slip through the
net - her crystal ball must need debugging).  And a few
alternative endings, which while a great idea are unfortunately
not especially different from each other and don't include a

Scooby Doo version, but what can you expect from pesky kids
nowadays.

Erden is almost a return to the old school "dungeon" style of text
adventure game, but without any of the flaws we may associate with
them. For example, in the opening statement Laura promises not to
kill a character without good reason - which is nice. In fact the
whole thing is nice, even the obligatory leaflet blowing about the
cobblestones of the town provides no information other than to
wish us "Pleasant travels in the land of Erden".  This basically
sums up the feel of the whole place. The towns-people are affable,
the countryside is scenic; there's nothing to kill and nothing
tries to kill you. This danger free, warm-heartedness may make for
a very player friendly game, but the lack of any sort of urgency
doesn't really inspire me to motivation. The land of Erden is so
pleasant that the charm of the place borders on twee and I for one
would probably go stir crazy if I lived there.

The 'info' section tells us of Laura's vision to create an epic
adventure based in a land with a history of its own, a vision
which has definitely been realised in Erden. Having recently been
mostly playing a more compact style of adventure game it was nice
to play something with real substance.

While Erden may not be everyone's cup of tea, (could have done
with a little more action and a tad more comicality for my liking
- I like a laugh me) it is well rounded and well written, with no
noticeable flaws. Laura is nothing if not thorough and has
certainly proved her worth with this comprehensive first attempt.










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