textfiles/games/REVIEWS/savage.rev

 THE SAVAGE EMPIRE

 Are you tired of Lord British always summoning you to an ever-changing
Britannia to beat the wizard, destroy the demonic computer, prove your worth,
rescue his majesty, and generally save the world over and over? Bored with
troll-bashing? Finished with dragon-slaying and strutting your virtues for the
common folk, only to receive a "Well done!" and a ticket home as your only
rewards (you don't dare brag to your friends and neighbors for fear of the
rubber room)? For once, wouldn't you like to shed that sword and go where you
don't have to be a shining example of virtue to all?

 Well, take heart, Avatar, and visit a lost part of your own world for once!
Steamy jungles, swamps, volcanoes, and primitive tribes (among other dangers)
await you in THE SAVAGE EMPIRE, the first scenario in THE WORLDS OF ULTIMA from
the minds at Origin. (This review is based on the IBM-PC version of the game.)

 Your game package includes the latest issue of "Ultimate Adventures" (Vol. 59,
No. 11 -- November, 1990), which you don't really need to read: You've written
the feature article yourself! Nevertheless, you would like to make sure they
spelled your _nom de plume_ correctly. (Excessive pride is unbecoming an Avatar,
so naturally, you used the pen name "The Avatar"!)

 Opening the magazine, which has the look and style of those old Science
Fiction/Fantasy pulp rags (complete with heroic illustration and scantily clad
woman on the cover), you flip past the letters to the editor (some nut is
obsessed with making explosives from scratch), and settle down to read the first
chapter of "Valley of the Thunder Lizards."

 Driven by dreams of a tribal princess-in-distress named Aiela, and a request
from Lord British (yeah, a cameo role) to investigate your moonstone and "the
ruined ones," you visit your friend Professor Rafkin at the museum. There you
meet Jimmy Malone, a nosy reporter with an anachronistic style and a big file on
you (your mysterious disappearances, etc.).

 It seems the Professor has been sent a flawed moonstone from an old student,
which on closer prodding opens a twisted moongate that draws you, Malone,
Rafkin, _and_ the entire lab into the land of Eodon, aka THE SAVAGE EMPIRE!

 After a wild rescue of the Princess Aiela from a huge flying reptile, you meet
her tribe, the Kurak. She was on the run from Darden the Huge, prince of the
Urali, when the creature attacked. You spend a short time in her camp with your
friends, and meet a dead ringer for your comrade from Britannia (whom you knew
as Shamino), when Darden's forces attack!

 Despite a valiant effort, Darden recaptures Aiela, you are knocked out, and
your friends are lost. So ends chapter one of "Valley of the Thunder Lizards,"
and the game begins. Your quest: Reunite your friends, rescue Aiela, and attempt
to bring peace to all the tribes of Eodon. Yet, there may be other forces at
work here....

 All this prologue and more are to be found in your issue of "Ultimate
Adventures," but will you complete your quest and return safely to write the
next chapter?

 As you may have surmised, I enjoyed the documentation a great deal. It did a
wonderful job of revving me up for the game. So ready was I that I feared being
disappointed by the game itself. I'm happy to say that, thanks to my imagination
and the very creative graphics, SAVAGE EMPIRE held my interest.

 Luckily (or not, depending on your tastes), SAVAGE EMPIRE is not combat
intensive; it's more puzzle-oriented. Unless you fight lots of Myrmidex, you'll
probably see your Avatar advance only one level. He'll start out at level 6, and
his hit points (as well as the other characters') seem to be dictated by their
stats and luck. The dungeons (caves and Myrmidex holes) are very simple
one-level mazes. There's a lot of overland travel involved to complete the
missions and gather materials, although you can discover a shortcut method.

 The majority of the NPCs in a particular tribe respond with identical, limited
dialogue, but this is adequately balanced by one or two tribe members who are
capable of in-depth conversation. Depending on who is in your band, interesting
and humourous comments are exchanged among the NPCs. One tribe carries on a
dialogue reminiscent of a Three Stooges' routine; it was really fun! I highly
reccomend having Jimmy Malone in your party: His smart remarks really liven up
some of the conversations, and his notebook is very useful for keeping track of
your quests.

 The combat system is essentially the same as the one in ULTIMA VI, but instead
of all those combat options (which I never totally understood), the choices for
the other party members are trimmed down to four: Close (approach and attack
nearest enemy); Ranged (fall back to for missile assault); Retreat; and Command.
Quite a bit simpler than Flank, Assault, and those others in ULTIMA VI, isn't
it? The weapons and armor are strictly primitive, with one or two exceptions:
Those you build (you get to work from absolute scratch), and those you find.

 One thing that annoyed me is that you enter combat mode automatically. This
means that whenever an NPC in your party is attacked, the eyes of Fabozz go from
green to red, and everyone attacks, chasing enemies who are running or out of
your sight. This wastes ammunition and subjects the party to unnecessary damage;
it also requires your Avatar to get them all within sight before continuing.
(The alternatives are to put them all into command mode and fight
single-handedly, or keep switching combat mode off.) In addition, the image of
Fabozz (at the top of the main diplay window) usually blocks the position of the
sun (day) or the moon (night), making it difficult to estimate the time.

 The magic is a simple but ample shamanistic system, using three totems or
skulls to invoke the three spirits; also, one of three offerings that the shaman
casts into the wind yields nine possible magical effects.

 Eodon is populated by several tribes, most with discernible ethnic origins, and
unique attitudes and cultures, giving you ample room to offend and step on toes.
The monsters are strictly of prehistoric origin, with slight differences due to
interbreeding.

 As to the endgame, some have commented that it came too fast upon them and was
too brief, not satisfying. Myself, I found it consistent with the story line,
not unexpected, and a pretty good wrap-up.

 The SE interface is the same as the one introduced in Ultima VI: a bit
confusing at first, icon-based and easiest to use with a mouse or joystick,
although keyboard input is also smooth. The VGA/MCGA graphics are well done, in
a style that appears Aztec in nature -- fitting because the land is rumored to
be hidden in Central/South America. Unfortunately, I am unable to speak for the
music/sound effects, as I have yet to purchase a sound board. However, players
in The Gamer's Forum have had nothing but good things to say about the sound,
although it requires every bit of memory you have. AdLib, SoundBlaster, and the
MT-32 board are all supported.

 To date, a few bugs have been reported, most notably, a problem with inventory
managment. If your inventory is full and you unready an item, you may lose it
permanently.

 The game may be played on any 100% IBM-compatible computer. A machine speed of
10MHz or better is strongly recommended, as is a hard drive. A minimum of 558K
of low DOS memory must be available to run the game, and if you want to have the
music soundtrack, expanded memory must be present (as well as the Adlib,
SoundBlaster, or MT-32 sound cards). The game may run too slowly on some
machines if PC speaker sound effects are chosen, so some users may have to
choose "No Sound."

 Mouse support is provided for the Microsoft Mouse with Microsoft Mouse driver
v7.0; other mice or drivers are not guaranteed to work. MCGA/VGA, EGA, and Tandy
16-color graphic modes are supported.

 My copy of SE came with two 5-1/4" high-density (1.2 Mb) floppy disks that (at
a cost of $9.95) can be exchanged for either four 3-1/2" (720K) disks, or seven
5-1/4" (360K) low-density disks. I'm not certain if Origin is selling the game
in the other formats; you may have to send the disks in for exchange or copy
them to your own disks.

 You can copy the disks with the install program, either to blank floppies for
backup, or to your hard drive. (The "Ultimate Adventures" magazine serves as the
only copy protection: After you create your character, there's a one-time lookup
of a random word.) When installing to hard disk, two modes are available: One
saves disk space by decompressing the files during game play, and the other
saves time by decompressing during the install. The difference in disk space is
approximately 2Mb (3Mb vs. 5Mb); I suggest the second method, unless you're
tight on space or have a fast 386. The decompressing during install takes a
while, but it's worth it.

 I found this first scenario of WORLDS OF ULTIMA to be quite good, small bugs
and my personal ordering problems aside. If the next game of the series (rumor
has it that it will be on Mars and modeled after Edgar Rice Burroughs) lives up
to SE, it will be worthwhile indeed.

 WORLDS OF ULTIMA: THE SAVAGE EMPIRE is published and distributed by Origin.

*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253