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Welcome
to Game of the Week! Each week there will be a
new featured game on this page. The game may be good,
average or diabolically bad, it really doesn't matter!
Just look at the pics, read the text and enjoy the nostalgia!
:-) Game of the Week! is open to contributions so if you
would like to contribute
a game article for this page you're more than welcome
to! Every article we receive will be considered! |
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Necromancer
1983 Synapse
Software
Programmed
by Scott Coleman & Steve Coleman
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Most
text of the present article comes from the review published
in the seventeenth issue of the British C64 magazine ZZAP!64
(street date: July 21st, 1986). |
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NECROMANCER
Americana,
£2.99 cass, joystick only
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As Chief Druid your life is not an easy one. Not only
have you been assigned to defeat the evil Necromancer,
but your powers have to overcome his marauding hoards
of meanies. This, being such a hard task, cannot be
completed in one fair swoop -- no, the eventual destruction
of Necromancer is achieved in three stages.
ACT
ONE
The
Druid stands in the middle of an open plain from where
he launches his Wisp, a cheerful little creature who
flits about the playing area under his control. With
the Wisp our dear Druid can plant seeds which grow into
fine glittering trees. But the evil Necromancer hates
to see all this peace, love and happiness, so he sends
out his army of Neanderthal men, all with the sole intention
of bashing your trees back from whence they came. The
Druid decides that this really isn't very nice behaviour,
and so wreaks his revenge by way of the Wisp, who can
now fly about the forest, knocking the army into the
middle of next week.
ACT
TWO
This section of the game is set in the vaults, where
the trees are called to do some work. They can be sprung
into life by directing the Wisp to their roots, and
from there on it's a case of 'pick up your roots and
walk'. From here the Druid has to crush eight spider
larvae by planting a tree in one of the vaults. The
tree's roots break through the bricks and crash down
onto the larvae, thus killing them. To make life difficult
there are The Hands Of Fate who dip themselves into
the vaults, pulling up a tree in the process. Completion
of Act Two is achieved by smashing as many larvae as
possible, and then leaving via the fifth vault. Now
you can encounter the Necromancer . . .
ACT
THREE
In this episode the object is to defeat the Necromancer
and rid the world of all his nastiness. The scene shows
a graveyard and is, predictably, full of graves. It
is from those with headstones that the Necromancer emerges.
To defeat the evil one, the Druid has to drive him out
of his grave by attacking him with the Wisp. However,
this is not as simple as it sounds -- as soon as the
Wisp drives the Necromancer out of one grave, he infests
another. So, what our overworked little Wisp has to
do is evict and exterminate the Necromancer from all
the graves. Doing this completes the game and the forest
explodes in a rainbow of colours, restoring peace and
happiness to the world.
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This
game is quite fun to begin with, especially thwacking
the cavemen who are delightful little creatures
rampaging around on the screen. However, I didn't
find it very addictive and after playing it for
an hour or so it became boring. One thing that
struck me as odd was the fact that in Act One
the spider attacks only diminish your strength,
but in Act Two they kill you outright. Maybe a
game more suited to the tree planters at the Forestry
Commission.
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Presentation
63%
A couple of options but little else worthy of
mention.
Graphics
50%
Reasonable definition and animation
all round.
Sound
31%
Nothing of any merit.
Hookability
61%
Initially pleasant . . .
Lastability
38%
. . . but interest soon wanes.
Value
For Money 44%
Not a great deal of long term fun
to be had here.
Overall
40%
If planting your seed is your 'thing'
then you might enjoy this aged American 'classic'.
.
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Htmlized
by Dimitris
Kiminas (15 Oct 2007)
Only the second of the above screenshots existed in
the original review.
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