¢SOFTWARE SCENE - JULY/AUGUST 1993¢¢¢Avalon Labs¢¢THE CURSE¢HANS KLOSS¢DARKNESS HOUR¢¢Reviewed by Kevin Cooke¢¢¢The Curse¢¢ THE CURSE is a completely graphical adventure game. Options are selected by clicking an arrow (ST style) on the object you want to manipulate, and then clicking on an option from the menu that is then displayed.¢¢ The game opens with a picture of a castle and scenery on the screen, plus a nice tune to go with it. Pressing fire opens the castle door and puts a menu on the screen. From here, you can choose to either load a saved game, or start from the beginning. Having no game saved, I had to start the game from the beginning, so I clicked on this option.¢¢ The disk loaded a little more, and then revealed the first room. The graphics here were quite detailed, although only a few colours had been used; but again, a good tune was playing here. First of all, I tried checking my inventory and spell book, and found I had nothing. Clicking on a few different parts of the room showed me the basic options I had available to manipulate each object.¢¢ Eventually, I started to progress and started finding more and more items and spells to keep. I was also pleased to find that the screen took only a short time to change when you entered a new room. I must admit that I kept getting stuck, but a sudden chain of thoughts kept letting me progress to the next part of the game.¢¢ I played THE CURSE for quite some time and eventually became completely stuck, so I decided to save my game. The menu that appeared told me that I had completed 30% of the game, and gave me the option of saving my game or cancelling the menu. I then let the disk whirl until my game was saved, and turned the computer off.¢¢ Although I would have liked it to be easier to drop things anywhere I wanted to (you can only drop them in certain places), THE CURSE is definately worth buying, and should keep you occupied for plenty of time. Also, don't worry about the size of the tiny instruction sheet; I think it tells you everything you'll need to know.¢¢¢Hans Kloss¢¢ The next game I will examine is HANS KLOSS. This is not only the name of this game, but the name of the character you will control in it. The game is set in World War 2, where you must enter a secret underground bunker to slow down or stop developments of a bomb that is going to be used to blow up London and south east England. To do this, you must obtain nine pictures and twelve other documents which have been left rather carelessly around the bunker.¢¢ Once loaded, the title screen shows an excellent picture of a German soldier and starts the tune that will play throughout the game. Pressing fire will bring you to the game where Hans Kloss will be waiting. As you start to move him, you will soon start to realise that this is indeed a quality game, especially the animation of Hans which is very lifelike.¢¢ Apart from your inability to shoot, the game has a lot in common with Mission Shark. There are lifts, enemies (although no soldiers; only strange things that move across the floor), and good music. You also have a food and drink level indicator at the bottom of the screen, and if either of these should reach zero, you will die. Hans sometimes finds food to eat, but throws it up if he already has a lot of food in store - a nice touch. There is also a nice treat in store when you pause the game, because Hans lights a cigarette and starts smoking it.¢¢ The game actually gets a little easier when you realise that some of the doors do not need to be opened, and Hans seems to be able to fall as far as he likes without injury, but it is still pretty difficult.¢¢ HANS KLOSS is certainly a challenging game, and after numerous attempts, I still couldn't get very far. However, this does make the game a challenge.¢¢¢Darkness Hour¢¢ Last of all, I looked at DARKNESS HOUR. In this game, you must rescue each of your knights who have been turned into butterflys by an evil sorcerer. This task would be easy if it wasn't for the spikes in the floor, sorcerers attacking you with their staffs, and rooms that trick you into using your keys on the wrong doors.¢¢ The game starts off with a good tune and pleasing graphics. Everything is big, bold, and colourfull, and your character and enemies are well drawn. The first level takes a little working out to discover which door not to open, but that shouldn't take you too long. Each of the next levels will try to trick you, making a certain amount of trial and error involved in completing the levels. You must also be very carefull as you progress as you only have a limited number of lives to play with. If you should lose all of your lives, you will be returned to the start of level 1 when you play again.¢¢ Overall, DARKNESS HOUR is very enjoyable, and good value for money.¢¢¢The Winner?¢¢ Out of the three games, THE CURSE was my favourite, but HANS KLOSS and DARKNESS HOUR were also very good. If all of AVALON's games are going to be this good, I will certainly buy every one of them.¢¢The Curse - 6.99 + P&P¢Hans Kloss - 5.95 + P&P¢Darkness Hour - 5.95 + P&P¢¢From: Micro Discount (021-353-5730)¢¢¢¢Kevin Cooke.¢
