Yessir! Seas Of Blood is just the sort of thing a depraved, bloodthirsty cavalier like myself is looking for! When you get this one slotted into your tape deck, the first thing that comes up on the screen is 'found blood!' More! Give us more!
    And more you'll certainly get. Forget the goody-goody nonsense, and get stuck into this meganumber from Messrs Livingston and Jackson of Fighting Fantasy book fame. You take the part of a vile, blood-spilling pirate who has nothing better to do than sail the Inland Sea getting into scrapes and pinching other people's riches.
    You start off on board your good ship the Banshee with your evil smelling crew. You must 'Sail North' (or 'South', or wherever the fancy takes you) until you come across a port or another ship. You'll have more fun meeting a ship, though, 'cos it's tally ho and into the fray!
    The combat routines are great fun and quite similar to those used in the original books. Whenever you encounter the enemy, two sets of die (one for you and one for the opposition) start spinning on the screen to determine the outcome. After a few throws one or other of you will end up as food for the sharks!
    When you come across a port, you can 'Go ashore' or 'Go (name of port)' and engage the natives in a battle of the die, or should that be a battle to the death? At the start of the game most of them give up without much of a struggle, but later on you'll find they're very unwilling to give up their gold!
    As far as the pics and descriptions are concerned, this game's pretty standard Adventure International fare. It's programmed by Gremlin's Mike Woodroffe and Brian Howarth and looks very similar to their earlier creations - Robin Of Sherwood in particular. Remember how you found your way around Sherwood Forest by keeping a close eye on the display? Well, you can do the same thing here, should you find yourself lost in the inevitable jungle.
    The trouble with this game though, is that it ignores everything it doesn't understand - that wouldn't be too bad, but it also ignores some things that it does understand! For example, if you type 'Wear helmet' (and you haven't picked it up), the program replies 'You can't do that yet', so you 'Get helmet' and then find that 'Wear helmet' is ignored! If you check the inventory you'll find you're actually wearing it.
    This is a real bloodthirsty megaromp that no pirate should be without. The blurb claims 300 graphic locations but a lot of these are just stretches of empty ocean. By the way - you certainly ain't gonna find it easy to map. Stick to the shore till you've found your way about. Stick to this game me hearties and you'll have a ho, ho, ho and a bundle of fun.

Ratings given by other magazines

7/10      8/10    --- SU Review

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