£4.95! A bit pricey for pocket
money software, but then it does
include a blank cassette to store
your saved games on. My review copy
came without an inlay, so I had to settle
for the rather gruesome animated loading
screen to give me some idea of what to
expect. More animation and a burst of
music when tile game had finished
loading, and side B of the tape includes a
program containing a map of Dral, the
land where the adventure takes place.
The
Quill'd and
Illustrator'd game
includes the now usual RAMSAVE and
load features, as well as graphics off,
though the pictures aren't too bad at all.
You start off in the Valley of Dral, with
the Mountains of the Moon far away in
the distance. To the east is a cave and by
your feet is a spell. In the cave is a
statue, and you can make out the word
VOLTAC, while if you go to the west
your quest is revealed to you, as indeed
is a charred body on the floor. You,
apparently, are Thallus, and Ashmeard is
dead. Maybe that's him on the floor. You
must travel to the Mountains of the Moon
and kill the witch Ella, who has the scroll
of Voltac. All this, incidentally, was
imparted to me by an old owl with the
name of Wise, though I don't know if his
first name was Ernie.
(I hope there's no
MORE where that COMES from! Ed).
Before heading for the mountains I
naturally had a nose around and found
several trees to climb, one of which had a
noose hanging from it. Elsewhere, in a
burnt-out area, there was the smell of
flesh. Ugh! The RAMSAVE feature came
in useful as there are a few sudden death
routines (quicksand and drowning), which
regular readers will know always tend to
put me off a game. Nevertheless, I liked
The Witch Hunter despite that. Plenty to
explore early on, problems slowly
becoming apparent, although the
vocabulary was a little fussy in places. I'd
be happier recommending this if it was at
a more genuinely pocket money price,
£1.99, say, but as a mid-price game it's
still okay.