DARK SCEPTRE

A scan option shows the land through which your quest takes place

The Northlanders are unwelcome visitors in the Islands Of The Western Sea. The King Of The Isles is set on revenge and orders a fearsome sceptre to be wrought — but the King himself is struck down, and his enemies gain the very power with which he sought to destroy them.

So the sceptre must be found and destroyed, in this graphic adventure based on programmer Mike Singleton’s own play-by-mail game.

You have command of a warrior band that seeks the eponymous evil sceptre. The Red Shadow Lords are your deadly adversaries and must be overwhelmed at all cost. You can enlist the help of other fighting companies: but they’re neutral at first, and even after taking your side are liable to desert you.

Each character has one of eight different personalities, which makes him suited to certain tasks and not to others.

Your warriors are controlled by commands from a set which includes kill, protect, defend, seek, bewitch and petrify. Each fighter can be given several orders at once, to be carried out in sequence.

But once an order has been issued you have no control over a warrior’s actions, and he’ll act independently during unexpected encounters.

You can watch any warrior in action, and hear the clashing swords. When one of your warriors is fighting an enemy, others may line up waiting to fight your warrior.

A scan option provides a scrolling overview of the land through which your quest takes place.

Dark Sceptre has been eagerly awaited after the success of programmer Mike Singleton’s Lords Of Midnight (Smashed in Issue 7) and Doomdark’s Revenge (an Issue 13 Smash; both earned ten out of ten on the first CRASH rating system!).

A sequel to them, Eye Of The Moon, is promised. But it’s taken Singleton more than a year to develop Dark Sceptre, and not even he can complete it in less than 17 days... yet.