Knightlore

Copyright : Ultimate | Reviewed by : Ritchardo

Using the revolutionary filmation techniques designed and perfected by themselves, Ultimate launched their CPC version of Knight Lore on the back of critical acclaim for the Spectrum version and were, at the time of release, arguably the most popular software house in the country for the consistency and quality of their games.

Knight Lore, with much fanfare, was the group?s first foray into the Amstrad CPC market and they doubtless hoped that their tale of cursed werewolves and magic incantations would translate well across the ZX divide.

Graphics

The first true 3D adventure, it?s hard to accurately convey the sheer jaw-dropping impressiveness of seeing Knight Lore run for the first time. Other games may have taken the same mould and improved upon it but for sheer originality, it?s hard to put Knight Lore?s graphical look into context.

Although somewhat taken for granted now, the technique of removing the flicker when moving characters pass in front of stationary objects or other characters gives the game a more film like appearance than a game (hence the filmation title no doubt!). Look out to for the transformation between Sabreman and Werewulf that takes place at the end of each night in the game.

Initially you may be disappointed at the lack of colour, however, although only a handful of colours are used at any one time, if you move into another screen, these colours change so the game is still fairly colourful (this changing colour scheme becomes vital in terms of trying to map the game in your mind).

The only criticism that I could level at the graphical side of the game is the slowdowns that crop up when more than one thing on screen is moving. It?s the only thing that stops the graphics from picking up top marks.

Sound

The chink in Ultimate?s armour, Knight Lore?s soundtrack suffers in comparison to its graphics and so is often dismissed as disappointing. While it is true that the sonics do not provide a match for the appearance of the game, they are nowhere near as bad as some commentators would have you believe.

The opening tune is functional and sets the mood well even if it is a little brief and they could probably have looped the track as the menu is not the largest to navigate so players are unlikely to become bored or irritated by it before they can get the game underway.

The rest of the game is packed with sound effects from the sound of Sabreman walking on a sliding scale to the sound of other objects moving around on screen, there?s rarely nothing going on to listen to. The sound effects are entirely passable and my only real stinging criticism is that Sabreman?s walk can become irritating but you can?t have it all ways!

Gameplay

Plot wise Knight Lore was always something of a conundrum. Scrapping straight forward instructions in place of a series of cryptic riddles, part of Knight Lore?s initial joy was trying to decipher what the hell was going on!

Once you?re off and running though there?ll be no stopping you and with a little perseverance and some trial and error, progress can be quickly made.

Although maybe not as enjoyable as some of the latter arcade adventures such as Batman, Knight Lore still punches its weight and if you invest some time into the game, the rewards will soon reveal themselves in the shape of a deeply enjoyable experience.

The blend of arcade against adventure is perfectly pitched with enough to entertain both of the polar extreme sections of the target audience and will completely satisfy most of us in between.

The transformation of Sabreman and the effect that this has on the game is a sublime stroke of genius on behalf of the programmers. Although not impossible to play while as a Werewulf, the difficulty is cranked up a notch as some of the hazards and enemies are that much harder to avoid in this form and some things are just impossible to do while as a werewolf (you cannot enter the room with the magician without being zapped for instance)

Looking and playing like no other game that came before it, it is impossible to accurately convey the importance of Knight Lore in the development of computer games in this country and you could also argue a case that the Stamper brothers early support of the machine with this title helped to give the CPC credibility that other plat formers never had - for that reason alone every CPC games players should have a copy in their collection.