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Although
it's been programmed by Brian Howarth and Mike Woodroffe
of Gremlins and Robin renown, this latest
Adventure International release is largely founded on
the work of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. In case
the names aren't familiar, these gents have brought
the joys of man-to-man combat into living rooms all
over the country with their Fantasy books. The books
use a dice system combined with hit points and experience
to determine the outcome of fights, and the system has
been adopted by the computer game.
In
order to give you lots of opportunity for rolling the
dice, Seas of Blood puts you in the role of a
blood-thirsty pirate captain on the Inland Sea, who
must retrieve twenty treasures and store them on a mountain-top
in order to crack the game. You start off onboard your
ship and navigate the ocean blue using the command SAIL
followed by a direction. Apart from the normal adventuring
and exploring to be done, there's also a strategy element
to the game, since you must keep an eye on the morale
of your men and on your provisions if you are to avoid
mutiny and ending up as shark-fodder.
Although
AI claim there are 300 graphics locations in this game,
the White Wizard soon found himself sailing around in
circles, seeing nothing but vast, featureless expanses
of ocean. In fact, the game is not very easy to map
unless you steadfastly stick to the coastline and first
define the borders of the Inland Sea before attempting
to cross it. While you're at sea, you occasionally come
across merchant ships which you can attack and, if your
'crew strength' is greater than that of your opponent,
you have a good chance of victory and adding to your
treasure trove.
When
you arrive on land, you will find new foes to conquer,
and on these occasions the game takes on a rather more
conventional adventure flavour, with hidden tombs, treasures
and -- of course more victims ripe for the slaughter.
Movement
on land can present problems. A number of Adventure
International games still employ the old technique of
requiring you to enter the command GO followed by a
location or object -- for example, GO MOUNTAIN. If you're
not used to it this can be a bit unnerving -- there
are a number of locations that do not specify any exits
at all, and entering a direction will get you a 'Can't
move in that direction' message. Just as you think you're
stuck there forever, entering GO MOUNTAIN, or something
similar, gets you moving again.
This
rather primitive syntax is, unfortunately, combined
with another perennial AI habit of ignoring words that
the program doesn't understand. This is downright confusing
sometimes, particularly if the program has actually
understood what you are saying and taken some action
without telling you (as it sometimes does).
However,
the combat routines really do make up for all this,
and a bit more besides. As soon as you 'attack' some
poor unfortunate (or they attack you), a pair of dice
appear on the screen and start spinning away, and your
life hangs in the balance for the next few seconds as
you attempt to throw a better score than your opponent.
[This
screenshot was not part of the original review]
Your
'hit' points are added to your score (as are your enemy's),
but these tend to diminish as you progress in the game,
whereas the opposition always seems to be fresh as a
daisy! Sooner or later (sooner in my case) you encounter
someone who really gives you a hammering, and from then
on it's only a matter of time before you meet your maker.
I
have my reservations about Adventure International games
-- they look great and have lots of locations, but the
parsing is always a bit primitive and there really aren't
any outstanding programming features -- interactive
characters, for example, or interrupt-driven events.
However, the Fighting Fantasy team seem to have done
for the company very much what Scott Adams did with
the Marvel Superheroes -- inject a new burst of energy
that has resulted in an above average game. Much as
the White Wizard deplores bloodshed, be can't wait to
get back to the keyboard to knock the stuffing out of
another over-fed merchant!
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