KNIGHTS OF LEGEND

 KNIGHTS OF LEGEND is a mixed bag of blessings and hardships. First, the good
news: This computer role-playing game is filled with detailed illustrations,
combat, and adventures. There is so much detail, in fact, that it's the nearest
thing to a paper-and-pencil RPG I've ever seen on a computer. 

 Graphically, as you outfit your characters with weapons and armor, you can see
what they look like by accessing an individual or team illustration! As you
approach a building, whether cottage or castle, a detailed and well-drawn
illustration will be displayed. Equally complex illustrations of all the
characters and monsters appear as you meet them.

 What's it all about? The 142-page player's handbook just begins to touch on
that subject, but in a nutshell, KNIGHTS creates a world called Ashtalarea, "a
medieval realm of glory and peril, a fantastic land in which you will someday
take your place among the heroes of song and story."

 Your characters begin as peasants, and through training and combat may rise in
rank to Knight-Baronets some 25 levels (and four modules) later. However,
Ashtalarea is only the first module in the series. Beginning in Spring, 1990,
separate modules are scheduled to be released for the nearby lands of Salynn,
Bamidor, Tsadith, and Astrikan. You can only rise as high as Squire in this
module, but even that much improvement will require some careful planning. In
any case, level increases aren't your primary objective -- which is to explore
the land and finish the 24 quests.

 You have a considerable choice of classes for the makeup of your party,
including: two male and four female human classes; six male and six female
elvan; seven male dwarven; and three male kelden (large creatures with wings).
Since a party can consist of only six adventuring characters, some study is
necessary in order to make effective choices. Generally, it's wise to include
one member of each race in your party.

 The combat features are numerous. Combat occurs between generic battling icons:
Your characters are represented by numbered icons in orange tunics, and the foes
are represented by larger white icons. A separate part of the screen shows a
generic body icon that keeps tab of the damage each character incurs during
combat; the various parts of the body icon turn red as they're damaged.

 You can move the icons to tactical positions, determining whether they walk,
run, sprint, fly, fly faster, zoom, or land. You can choose to attack with bow
and arrow, magic, or in close combat. If you select the latter, you then specify
what kind of blow to strike, armed (berserk, hack, thrust, slash) or unarmed
(kick, head butt,bash, punch). You must also decide where the blow will strike
(high shot, body shot, low shot), and which defense the character will employ
after striking the blow: panic, stand, back-up, dodge, duck, or jump.

 There are several other commands available during combat, including those to
sheathe and drop weapons (magic users must have their hands free to cast
spells), and to pick up and unsheathe weapons.

 Your characters start out in the town of Brettle. The first thing they must do
is go to the tailor's to be outfitted (and tailored) in armor. They then can
pick up weapons at various weapon shops. One shop is prejudiced against dwarves
and won't serve them. In fact, you'll find prejudice rampant throughout the
game; Magic Users, Elves, Dwarves, and female characters are the targets of most
of it. (The stable keeper in Brettle will not sell a horse to a Dwarf, for
example, but a stable in Shellernoon will.) This element of prejudice adds a
flavor of real-life society, and while often angering me on behalf of my
characters, it served to deepen my involvement in the game.

 An animated helmet icon moves through the town (overhead view) as you travel to
different locations. When you go outside the city, there is a larger overhead
view, and you lose the icon; your party is now represented by an animated dot.
When you meet some monsters (not shown on the map), the combat screen appears.
This map view is a little bewildering and impossible to map! You have to stumble
across many quest locations, since they aren't shown on the map. You do see
icons for the various villages, towns, however.

 Now for the bad news. The first release of the Apple version of KNIGHTS
contains a nasty bug that affects the single drive user: When a yes/no icon pops
up at the same time as a disk swap request, the disk swap request takes
precedence, thereby hanging the game. Some players have reported that the game
hangs occasionally even with two disk drives, so buyer beware. As of January,
1990, a fix is reportedly in the works.

 Another hardship for the single drive user involves the numerous swaps (over
50!) required to format a save-game disk in order to play the game. In fact,
even with two disk drives, there are a substantial number of disk swaps
throughout the game.

 Finally, since KNIGHTS relies heavily on combat and the combat features are
very detailed, battles can take a _long_ time -- up to four hours to solve a
quest, for instance, after which you must then return safely to an Inn before
you can save the game! So unless you have four straight hours free, don't even
think about undertaking a quest. And you'll need at least a solid hour just to
go out and fight one-on-one in the Arena! In other words, the game plays
sl-o-o-o-o-wly! One needs a lot of patience.

 The Apple version (Apple II+, IIc, IIe, and IIgs) is not disk-protected, so you
can run it from backup copies (hooray!). However, you will need to get special
versions in order to play the game on 3-1/2" disks or a hard dirve; the 5-1/4"
version cannot be transferred, even to a RAM drive. An Apple mouse is optional.

 I recommend KNIGHTS OF LEGEND to those interested in playing a
non-puzzle-oriented, combat-heavy CRPG with lots of detail. If you have the
patience and desire to endure hours worth of long battles, this game is for you
(especially if you have two disk drives or obtain the hard-drive version). But
be aware that the first Apple release is buggy; you might want to wait for later
versions. In spite of all my reservations, though, I still like the game, and I
really regret having to withhold the rave raview that _most_ of the game
deserves.

 IBM-PC VERSION NOTES

 KNIGHTS OF LEGEND is less frustrating to play on the IBM than on the Apple --
at least, if you have a hard drive. Being able to run the game from the hard
drive eliminates the disk swaps that bedeviled the Apple version. It does not
solve KNIGHTS' basic problem, however: The game simply takes too long to play.

 The IBM-PC version supports either the keyboard or the mouse; neither input
method is entirely satisfactory. It's easy to learn the interface, because all
you have to do is select icons, either by pointing and double-clicking or by
cycling through the icons with the < and > keys. But once you get the hang of
the game, the very simplicity of the command interface becomes a liability.
There are so many options in each combat round that you spend as much time
selecting icons as thinking up battle strategies. Although the interface was
designed with the mouse in mind, it's actually faster to use the keyboard to
select icons. Mnemonic letter commands ("A" for "attack," "P" for "parry,"
etc.), like those used in POOL OF RADIANCE or the ULTIMA games, would have sped
things up even more for players who know how to type. With the increased
popularity of the mouse, game designers seem to forget that the best interfaces
make the most of the capabilities of _both_ the mouse _and_ the keyboard.

 The disk swap bug reported in the Apple review is not present in the IBM
version. The only problem I encountered was the non-flushing of the input
buffer: If you "lean on" the cursor keys while moving, the keyboard locks up.

 Graphically, the game is excellent. The 16-color EGA graphics are outstanding,
and a distinct improvement over the Apple graphics. CGA, Tandy, and Hercules
modes are also supported. The game does not support any sound cards. It requires
384K of RAM; the documentation does not state which versions of DOS are
compatible (I had no problem with version 3.3.).

 KNIGHTS OF LEGEND uses no on-disk copy protection. In fact, it has no copy
protection of any kind, since the manual is so essential to playing the game.
The program is distributed on six 5-1/4" disksettes (3-1/2" disks are available
separately); installing it on a hard disk is advised. In fact, due to the slow
nature of the game, I can only recommend it to IBM gamers who enjoy tactical
combat, have lots of patience...and a machine with a hard drive.

 KNIGHTS OF LEGEND is published and distributed by Origin.

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