     | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
(128k version) Isvar grows up to
face bigger problems, in the
128K version of a Spectrum
classic. No other game I know
quite so convincingly creates a
world within a microchip... and
if you think that your usually
flippant reviewer sounds
serious it's because this really
is an all time fave!
Isvar's back and 'is rambles round the environs of Castle Avars now 'ave a more musical note. One of the few failings in 48K, induced by a shortage of memory, has been corrected as a few tasteful tunes are added to his peregrinations. Music is the most obvious addition to this expanded first episode of the epic. The plot remains identical though, so you wander round the wonderfully well-realised castle in your quest for the Book of Light, mislaid by some clumsy wizard, thusly (as they say in the sagas) sinking the land into everlasting gloom. Something akin to an English summer? If you're hard pressed to find the mystic tome, and so save a mammoth library fine, the other additions are even more elusive. The Edge swears on a mystical runic sword that there are new monsters and at least one extra secret passage which could well get you out of a sticky situation, but I couldn't find them. Sure there's a skeleton rattling around at the start, but he's only there to advertise Fairlight II, and I was never menaced by this skinny specimen once I'd entered the adventure proper. By way of recompense there's a grisly death mask when Isvar bytes the dust or whatever it is that microscopic heroes do. But why grumble? This is still a classic and I for one will be playing the expanded version from now on. Then again, I got my copy for free, and I doubt even I would fork out again for all that hey-nonny-no nonsense, however hum-able. As is so often the case my advice is, a) if you don't already own this or you've worn the original out, go for the revised version: but option b) is for all the rest of you... save your pennies for Fairlight II which is being designed with the bigger Spectrum in mind.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rachael Smith has kindly authorised this site | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| LOOKING FOR EX-YS WRITERS! Do you know where any are? | ||||||||||||||
| READERS NOTE: The original YS articles on this site were written many many years ago, and should provide no indication WHATSOEVER of the author's present writing style. Judge these people on their current work, not articles they wrote decades ago. | ||||||||||||||
| All original YS text is still copyright to their original owners, including BOTH publishers and authors. Permission has been granted to reproduce these articles by a few of these owners - if you see your work on here and would like it to be taken down, e-mail me and I'll do it straightaway. All other pages have similar restrictions - email me for more details. None of the pages on this website may be reproduced in any way, nor sold to the general public (i.e. put onto a CD-ROM) without the consent of Nick Humphries and the author of each article. If you want to include any of these articles on a site or a CD, contact me for more instructions. |
