Computer Gamer


Feud
By Bulldog
Amstrad CPC464

 
Published in Computer Gamer #25

Feud

Bulldog is the new label from budget king Mastertronic. Priced in its 'higher' bracket at around £3, you'd expect the games to be of a similar quality to the much acclaimed MAD range. Sadly, this is not the case.

This particular game, Feud, concerns an argument between two wizards. Yourself, Learic, and your brother, Leanoric. The location is the small village of Dullford in Devon. To play the game you have to search through the forest to find herbs to mix and cast spells. However, your enemy is doing exactly the same thing *and* trying to do nasty things to you as well.

The forest is set out in a similar way to those screen-to-screen maze games of yesteryear and, more recently, games like Toadrunner. The view is taken from an almost vertical aspect, yet the objects are depicted from a side elevation. This is a well tried old technique used to give a bit of depth to graphics, but now much superceded by the new true 3D games.

Feud

The screen has the forest scenery - trees, bushes, fences, etc - arranged with space in between for your man to move through. When you go off the edge of a screen, you are moved to the next screen and so on. Occasionally, you come across a herb. This can be collected for later use - when you have the appropriate ingredients you can mix a spell.

To create spells you must return to your hut and look through your spell book. This is always displayed in the status area at the bottom of the screen and is used to select spells. The appropriate page will also give you a list of twelve spells. These range from the offensive - fireball, lightning, etc, to spells for invisibility, healing, protection, etc.

These spells can all be used against your enemy. Some may be cast once, others a number of times. Some may only be cast in certain situations - for instance, you can only teleport when no-one is looking! The game is a reasonable budget game and, compared to others, good value. However, compared to Mastertronic's other £3 games, the game is an old one with a new twist - the spell casting. This is good, but not good enough.