IRON LORD

 UbiSoft's contribution to the new arcade/adventure/strategy game genre has been
over two years in the making. It's difficult to successfully combine these game
types, and IRON LORD demonstrates some of the potential pitfalls that can occur
when attempting this sort of mix. Nevertheless, IRON LORD is an innovative
program, a real contribution to a genre that is still in its formative years.
(This review is based on the Amiga version; Atari ST version notes follow.)

 Like its predecessors (DEFENDER OF THE CROWN, ROCKET RANGER, SIEGE AND THE
SWORD, and IT CAME FROM THE DESERT), IRON LORD is primarily an adventure game
structured around a series of arcade games, with both a strategy game and a maze
exploration game included at the end of the adventure.

 You are a young knight whose uncle has destroyed your heritage and is bent on
taking over the kingdom. It's your task to convince the inhabitants of the land
to join you in a war against the armies readying an invasion. You have to travel
among seven different areas to convince various characters to help you in your
quest. Once you've assembled your army, you must declare war against your uncle.
With victory comes the final challenge: a search through a long maze for your
uncle's few remaining evil minions. Success in this last battle means winning
the game.

 The game comes with an introductory story that fleshes out the basic plot.
Unfortunately, the story addresses only the events that have led up to the point
where the game begins. It would have been much more interesting (and helpful!)
if UbiSoft had included a story that -- by way of a few hints or clues as to the
nature of your tasks -- was more integrated with the game itself. Additionally,
although you know what your final goal is, there is little to tell you what
sorts of intermediate steps you need to take. It's also hard to determine in
what order you need to take those steps.

 There are a couple of ways in which the lack of such information proves
troublesome. The first confusing experience in the game occurs at the beginning.
When you enter each town, the upper right-hand window switches to a nicely
detailed overview of the portion of the town you're in. You use your joystick
(or mouse) to move your knight around the town; each town is rather extensive
and filled with buildings. You anticipate entering a number of locations and
conversing with variety of different characters.

 It's therefore disappointing to discover that each "town" is only a small maze
inhabited by, at most, one or two characters. Thus, you spend a lot of time at
the beginning searching, hoping to bump into more people. Only after a while do
you realize that searching is futile. What looks like an immense world turns out
to be about six locations, three which have two characters in them, two which
have only one, and one which has one character and one entrance to an arcade
sub-game. Like me, you may feel somewhat cheated.

 After some exploration, it becomes clear you're not going to become more
accomplished until you've completed IRON LORD'S two main arcade sub-games: the
archery tournament and the arm-wrestling contest. Further progress beyond the
very initial stages of the game is blocked until you've succeeded with these
sub-games. This means that anyone without the requisite arcade finesse (or, in
one case, brute strength) will not be able to play most of the game.

 The archery contest is the lesser evil of the two. It takes more careful
calculation and delicate aiming than anything else; so, it really isn't a
reflexes test (though you have to hold down the mouse button and let it up at
just the right moment to get the arrow on the proper path towards the target,
something which takes much practice).

 The arm-wrestling contest, on the other hand, is virtually impossible (I
finally succeeded with the help of a friend). You must move the joystick right
and left as rapidly and smoothly as you can. This simulates the pressure you'd
have to sustain in a real arm-wrestling contest. You're required to go up
against nine opponents in a row, with each subsequent opponent more difficult to
defeat (meaning you have to move the joystick more rapidly without any
hesitation). It's possible to defeat the first eight opponents, but your muscles
will be mighty sore by the time you reach the ninth. Even if you're fresh, he's
close to impossible to beat. (My right hand is still aching from the effort!) At
least you can rest between rounds.

 Despite the pain I endured, I must profess some admiration for these arcade
segments. I've never encountered action sub-games that so accurately reflect the
development of the physical and coordination skills they simulate. You need all
the precision, steadiness of hand, and patience required in a real archery meet.
And you need the same kind of sustained, relentless muscle-power demanded of
real arm-wrestlers. So, hats off to UbiSoft! Although the arm-wrestling segment
is one notch too difficult, these two sub-games are models worth emulating in
other programs.

 Once you surmount these initial hurdles, the game takes off. Participating in
the archery tournament nets you a good amount of cash (needed to purchase items
from each of the characters you encounter). Part of the game involves finding
out who has items another character might want. Each character gives you a
different mission to accomplish. With the completion of these missions, you're
granted soldiers for your growing army.

 When exiting or entering towns, you sometimes run into assassins (another
arcade sub-game). Careful emphasis on self-defense over attack takes care of
these situations; failure to survive an assassin attack ends the game.

 Communication with characters is a point-and-click process and is very
straightforward. What characters say to you is context-sensitive; if you've done
certain things, you get more information. If your reputation is too low, you'll
receive little in the way of information or cooperation.

 Traveling between towns is nicely animated, but a bit repetitious: You travel
to your home castle in order to save or load the game, and to declare war, which
initiates the strategy game.

 The strategy aspects are fairly rudimentary, particularly when compared with
the top game of this type: LORDS OF THE RISING SUN. You're limited to
positioning your troop units for attack and then clicking on "Next Turn." Troop
movement lowers strength, and two units positioned around a single enemy unit
prove the most effective for attack. The main determinant in your success with
this game is the size of the army you've managed to amass.

 Finally, you enter the last sub-game, which is a maze game six levels deep,
with end-of-level monsters to battle upon exit from each level. Escape this
alive and you win the game.

 IRON LORD is supplied on two copy-protected disks, and requires both a joystick
and a mouse, 512K of RAM, and a blank disk for saved games (only one save is
allowed per disk). The program runs smoothly on all Amigas, and two floppy
drives are recommended for play to eliminate disk swaps.

 The success of a game of this type can't really be measured in terms of its
individual components. Taken individually, the adventure game in IRON LORD is
less interesting than any separate text or graphics adventure, the arcade games
are more primitive than most pure arcade games, and the strategy game won't hold
a flea's candle to the likes of SWORD OF ARAGON.

 The real measure of this sort of game is the extent to which the major
components are integrated into one continuous, imaginable gameworld, so that
movement from game-type to game-type proceeds without dissonance or
interruption. Viewed in this light, IRON LORD succeeds admirably. The various
sub-games, challenges, conversations, and experiences blend beautifully into a
consistent depiction of the possible fates of a young medieval knight.

 ATARI ST VERSION NOTES

 The Atari ST version of IRON LORD looks and plays more or less identically to
the Amiga version described above. The graphics, animation, and digitized sound
effects are impressive throughout, and the game will run on any ST (including
the Mega series) with 512K, a color monitor, and a 720K disk drive. Telephoning
Electronic Arts is as fruitless as telephoning the Vatican, which means that the
availability of single-sided disks qualifies as a religious mystery. The Command
Summary card points out that LORD is compatible with Atari's new STe, but I am
currently unable to verify this.

 IRON LORD on the ST is joystick-controlled: The stick moves the screen pointer
and the knight, indicates menu choices, swings the sword on the 3-D combat
screen, and moves regiments; the button brings up text information in the
Countryside locations, lets you enter buildings and mount your horse, selects
menu choices, and returns fire against the monsters in the Labyrinth.

 The IRON LORD package comes with three copy-protected disks, instruction
manual, ST Command Summary card, and a poster. As noted earlier, you'll need a
color monitor and a double-sided drive; there is no other hardware support.
You'll have to swap disks regularly, and disk access (although plentiful) is
speedy.

 In IRON LORD, arcade action (lots) and strategy (much less) combine with a
graphic-oriented adventure to form one excellent game. Graphics and animation
are superb throughout, and the joystick interface is easy to use. There are many
games within the game. It's evident that UbiSoft put some thought into the
program: The results are all over the screen.

 The 720K drive requirement, lack of support for a hard drive, and copy
protection make the package slightly less than perfect. Then again, perfection
is an elusive goal that's generally too much to expect. In any case, IRON LORD
is beautifully designed, fabulous-looking, and easy to learn and play, rendering
the attainment of perfection (via single-sided disks and no copy protection)
unnecessary. IRON LORD is a must-have.

 IRON LORD is published by UbiSoft and distributed by Electronic Arts.

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