West

            Download from www.rwapadventures.com

                       Reviewed by Sue

Last issue I looked at Zkul, Talent Computers' best known text 
adventure. West is another text only game, played in real time. 
You are on the trail of a gang of bank robbers who have gone to 
ground near an abandoned mining town deep in Indian territory. 
With only your trusty six shooter, your horse and your wits you 
must outgun the robbers, grab their loot and find out how to 
escape. There is only one save position. You can be resurrected 
twice and take it from me, you're going to need all the reviving 
you can get!

You start on a dirt road with the town to the south. Your trusty 
steed trots up and will follow you if you're lucky. Sometimes he 
just wanders off. All you have is a gun with six bullets in it. Now 
where are those robbers?

Wandering south you follow the main street, checking buildings 
to either side. Sometimes you'll find objects to pick up such as a 
shovel and a box of matches - two bits of equipment no self 
respecting adventurer can do without. I hadn't gone very far, 
soaking up the atmosphere as balls of tumbleweed rolled past 
me when ... in slithered a rattlesnake which bit me. And I was 
dead. Drat. In this game, yes, you get resurrected. But all your 
possessions are dumped where you died. I'd been in a desert 
area when I got 'bit' and I couldn't find my location again so I 
lost my gun. You guessed it, the desert is a maze and I found  
another while I was playing. Before I could do anything else, up 
popped a bank robber - and shot me. I was resurrected again 
and started wandering back to find my gun. This time I got on 
my horse. Maybe I'd be safe up there? No such luck. A 
rattlesnake bit my horse which fell and crushed me. I was dead 
for the third and final time. You can't 'restart' so I had to quit and 
begin again.

This time I met a bank robber, shot at him, missed, but he 
missed me too, and my next bullet got him. Yay! One robber 
down - but now I only have four bullets left. I wonder how many 
robbers there are? While I was wondering this, a rattlesnake 
slithered in and bit me. And I died. Again. This time I found my 
gun pretty quickly, but before I could do much else I moved one 
step, found myself in Indian country where I got killed by 
Indians. There were a few other senseless deaths I won't bore 
you with but I'm sure you're getting my drift.

When I tried to restart the game after the last of these deaths, 
I'd found I'd had the allotted three games you're allowed to have 
with the demo. I could probably have uninstalled it, reinstalled it 
and had another go but quite frankly by now I was fed up with 
eating dirt. 

Buy it? No chance, not even at the paltry fiver being asked for it! 
All the random elements make it way too frustrating. Twenty 
years ago I might have persisted. But now, nope. 

                              - o -