LORD OF THE SWORD

Mastertronic

Two-Mega cartridge: £24.95

LORD OF THE SWORD follows in the wake of the unsuccessful Miracle Warriors but features more action than adventure.

The land of Baljinya has fallen on troubled times, dark forces are at work and evil creatures prowl the countryside. As the warrior Landau, you've been chosen to destroy this evil and save the land . . . then take the rest of the day off!

The task is split into three missions, your first is to find the Tree of Marill, the second, to defeat a band of goblins and finally to destroy the stone idol.

You are armed with bow and arrow, sword, and a wealth of courage. Beginning in the town of Harfoot, you are free to choose a direction lo travel in.

With excellent parallax scrolling for company, you move around the land via horizontal trails. Evil creatures of very weird origins are out and about looking for heroes to eat. And with only one life of limited energy and several very nasty monsters to deal with, your quest could be very short. This difficulty level would destroy the game totally, if it wasn't for the continue-play option.

As you explore, villagers pass on scant bits of information regarding your three missions plus other tasks you may partake in should you wish. While these extra missions aren't important, the clues they unveil help towards completing your overall quest.

To help you on your way, a map of the land may be viewed while in towns. However, as it doesn't show your position, it's not much help.

Standard Sega graphics fail to distinguish the game from many others, although there are some wall defined enemies to see, such as the floating eye and the boulder-throwing tree. A twee soundtrack that plays throughout is bearable - just.

Lord of the Sword, with it's two dimensional movement and uninteresting gameplay, doesn't prove a compelling game despite the moderate depth offered by mini-missions.

OVERALL 58%

Rating

58

Reviewer

The Games Machine magazine

Region

UK

Scans

TGM-Magazine-Issue14?gallerypage=75

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