(Note: this was one of three "short short" reviews I did for CGW for Xmas '94; the other two are Death Gate and Noctropolis)

Published by Mindscape, this is a game with pretty graphics and not much substance. Werner Von Hallenrod, having reached eighteen, sets off to prove himself worthy of joining the Dragon Knights, and incidentally discover the truth about his father's death.

He needs votes from current Knights to be accepted. Some Knights exhort him to be bloodthirsty, others to take the path of wisdom (nonviolence). One refreshing character will accept a bribe in return for a positive vote. A bar graph measures Werner's actions, growing towards violence or wisdom depending on his actions in certain circumstances.

There are no conversations, only monologues from NPC's, as Werner never speaks in any way. Perhaps he should have been christened Noel, the Silent Knight. Whatever, Werner heads out, kills some monsters, picks up a few spells, and finally arrives at Von Wallenrod castle.

The rest of the game is taken up with a scavenger hunt in the castle, finding various objects and figuring out what to do with them. Some items are not easy to see, and every room must be scanned thoroughly to ensure not missing something important. "Boring" gains new meaning here, especially as you are likely to revisit many rooms, looking for things that might not even be there.

While there is some fighting, it is similar to Alone In The Dark. Werner has no stats or skills, only a bar measuring his life force. Combat is simply equipping a weapon and bashing away, hoping you can outlast the monster.

Magic is minimal. Two spells are one-time-only; fireball can be handy, if you have time to bring up the runes for it. Teleport, when finally obtained, allows Werner to move around the castle easily, and later the countryside, when he receives the magic map. This is the best feature of the game.

Amazingly, there are only four save slots, and you can't even give them your own titles. Games are saved as "Saved game 1", Saved Game 2", etc. Really helpful in trying to recall where all those saves are in the game, or which is the most recent.

Only SoundBlaster and compatibles are supported. For Gravis owners, SBOS works well; other soundcard owners, I hope you have something similar, or the game will play silent. At least you can turn on text so as not to miss the monologues (some of which actually have importance).

Bottom line: to quote a friend of mine (commenting on a game many years ago): "It's like diving into a beautiful pool, and finding the water is only two inches deep".

System Requirements:

IBM PC 486 DX or compatible
4 MB RAM
8 MB hard drive space available
2 MB EMS free, 600K free conventional memory
MS-DOS 5.0 with a memory manager or MS-DOS 6.0 or higher
SVGA with 1 MB VRAM
Double-speed CD-ROM drive
SoundBlaster or compatible sound card
100% Microsoft -compatible mouse.