Why can't things stau happy and peaceful? It hardly seems any time at all since you were a young wizard's apprentice, learning all the spells and incantations from the great wizard Mordamir. Now things have become all dark and fearful. Mordamir has been kidnapped and is now held captive in the evil dungeons of Erinoch.
The master called to you recently in a dream - a dream filled with oppression and dread. It's up to you to find your way through the labyrinths of Erinoch to rescue your mentor. The path is fraught with danger. Goblins and trolls guard the labyrinth, but they are only the tip of the iceberg (adopts Orson Welles growl...) 'Beware the Slime!'
You must venture into the labyrinth and take on the dangers to save your master. Throughout the dungeons you will find many enemies, some of which can be fought in a straight sword battle, but there are also many other characters and objects which serve a specific purpose on each level.
All interactions which involve either speech or objects (such as searching, questioning and trading) take place via a series of text screens, which give you a yes/no option at the end. This way you can pick up, buy or be given objects to use later on - not all of which are useful. In fact, some are downright dangerous!
If you complete a level, you are given a 'certificate' number, which allows you to access the last level you reached without playing through the earlier sections of the game, but you do retain the necessary objects from the upper levels needed for your quest into the depths of the labyrinth.
GRAPHICS AND SOUND
A lot of the scenery is similar, but this is made up for by the superbly animated sprites. The death scenes are so good it's almost worth dying on purpose! The sound, on the other hand, is a different matter. The spot effects are very few and far between, and the pseudo-
LASTING INTEREST
At first, it's great fun working out the puzzles and battling with the goblins, but the appeal wears off after a while when you have to do exactly the same thing time after time. The adventure will take some time to work out, but once you have completed the quest it's doubtful whether you'll feel the need to return for another bash.
JUDGEMENT
The appearance of The Immortal is most definitely its strong point, though to begin with the puzzles are absorbing. However, the only people who will stick at the game long enough to reach the end time after time are the die-hard adventure-