textfiles/games/REVIEWS/swords.rev

 SWORDS OF TWILIGHT

 SWORDS OF TWILIGHT is a computer role-playing game developed by Jon Freeman and
Anne Westfall (authors of ARCHON) for Electronic Arts. This review is based on
the Amiga version.

 The game is set in a universe of eight parallel worlds, each of which is
connected by the magical Rainbow Road. Albion is a training world and the
starting point of your quest. Since the coming of Shadow, magic has failed in
Albion, and the Road itself has become warped and bound. The object of the game
is to return the Road to its proper course and dispel the Shadow that is falling
across all of the worlds. To do this, you must obtain each of the sev Swords of
Shambala and their matching stones, and return them to their proper places.

 Along the way, you'll have to deal with the Shadowlords who dwell in their dark
towers on seven of the worlds. Each of the Swords has a different property
(e.g., "Baleblade" is the Sword of Aggression) and is effective against a
specific Shadowlord; therefore, the recovery of one Sword should help you with
the recovery of the next.

 You and up to two of your friends run a party of three adventurers, chosen from
a selection of 31 characters: twelve Mages, twelve Knights, and seven Knight
Champions. You may have a maximum of one mage and one champion in the party. If
you have fewer than three people around, the computer will play the extra
characters, but a mage must be played by a human. Commands are issued to the
characters via a simple menu system.

 The characters are all predefined, from their names to the color of the clothes
they wear. An experience range is available, so you don't have to start with
novices. In addition, characters may advance in rank during the course of the
game. Also, you're not stuck with your initial character choices: If you want
different people for a job, you can return to Gloriana's castle in Albion and
change the composition of your party.

 Information is gathered by talking to the characters you meet during
encounters. You may ask a person for information about himself, the present
locale, or an item you are carrying; you can also ask whether he knows anything
that would help your party in its quest. You may even request aid, although
you'll sometimes be offered assistance without asking. Most parties you
encounter will want to know who you are and what your purpose is. Certain men
items allow you to answer these questions, accept or decline offers, and offer
items of your own.

 The attitudes (hostile, wary, polite, friendly) of your party members have a
large effect on the outcome of an encounter. You can adjust the attitude of
human-controlled players via the appropriate menu. A friendly word interjected
in the nick of time can stop hot-headed computer players short and prevent
unnecessary bloodshed.

 It seems that you spend most of your time in the game gathering information.
Conversation quickly becomes a mechanical process wherein you volunteer as much
about yourself as you can, get into the other party's good graces, and milk him
for as much information as he'll give forth. The questions and their responses
are canned, but the text you see will depend on the persons involved in the
conversation and the present situation. Even so, you'll note a great deal of
repetition in the encounters.

 The NPCs you meet will remember how you treated them and will act accordingly
the next time you face them. Additionally, because your reputation often travels
ahead of you, you must consider the consequences of your actions: Immoral
behavior -- such as theft or murder -- will tend to make it more difficult for
you to find out the things you need to know.

 Combat utilizes simple arcade elements: Move your character next to the foe you
wish to attack, press the trigger, and turn in the direction you want to swing.
The effectiveness of your attack depends upon such factors as the attacker's
readied weapon, strength, skill, and fatigue level. Be warned that combat takes
place at a fairly rapid clip, so there is not a lot of time for tactics once
battle is joined.

 There are five different mage classes to choose from: conjurers, witches,
wizards, enchanters, and sorcerers. Each class has a modest assortment of
available spells, depending on the rank of the mage casting the spell. That
you're allowed only one mage in the party at any time suggests that it may be
necessary to return to Gloriana's castle now and then to exchange your current
mage for one of a different class.

 The mechanism used to cast spells varies slightly from class to class, but
generally requires the use of the keyboard to type the name of the spell bei
cast. This takes time, making it difficult to cast spells in battle unless
you're a nimble typist. The act of casting a spell wearies the spellcaster, so
you must conserve your mage's energy wisely: It doesn't help if he or she falls
asleep while defending against an attack!

 In addition to the Seven Swords, there are a number of items your party can
accumulate over time. These include the usual assortment of keys, weapons,
armor, rings, talismans, and other items -- some magical, some not. These assist
your party in its quest. Each character can carry a maximum of eight items, so
inventory management is important in this game.

 The graphics in SWORDS OF TWILIGHT are, for the most part, handsomely rendered.
The players view their characters from an overhead perspective on a scrolling
map in the center of the screen. However, the eight worlds are not as large as
they seem at first glance, and they appear to use the same terrain map, with
only the buildings changing from world to world. The interiors of rooms are
represented in minimal detail with very little ornamentation, the result being
that one room looks much the same as another, except for size a shape.

 The faces of the player characters and NPCs are displayed in inset windows at
the four corners of the screen. Menu selections and words spoken by a particular
character appear beside his/her head in the window. The faces are well done; my
main regret, however, is that each of the 31 characters does not have a unique
likeness, although there is some variation for sex, age, and character class.

 I played SWORDS OF TWILIGHT on an Amiga 1000 with 512K of RAM and two disk
drives, but it will work equally well with only one drive. Once the game is
loaded from the Program Disk, only the Data Disk needs to be present for the
rest of the session.

 Although SWORDS OF TWILIGHT is innovative in a number of aspects, its greatest
deficiency lies in the flimsiness of the underlying story. The information you
receive in one world resembles that which you'll find in another -- just change
the names of the places, items, evil personages, etc. A great deal of effort
appears to have been expended on creating characters that interact sensibly with
the world at large. But I'd have preferred more variety and less repetition in
the elements of the actual quest itself.

 If you're looking for a standard of comparison, you'll probably find SWORDS OF
TWILIGHT closest to THE FAERY TALE ADVENTURE, although the flavor of the two
games does differ somewhat. Because of its relatively low complexity, I think
SWORDS will appeal more to novice and intermediate CRPG'ers than to seasoned
veterans. Nevertheless, if you don't require a detailed plot and aren't bothered
by a bit of repetition, SWORDS OF TWILIGHT might be the game for you.

 SWORDS OF TWILIGHT is published and distributed by Electronic Arts.

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