Hero Quest: Return of the Witch Lord


by Les Edwards
Gremlin Graphics Software Ltd
1991
Your Sinclair Issue 70, Oct 1991   page(s) 57

Gremlin
£5.99 cass/£7.99 disk
Reviewer: Linda Barker

Heroes, eh? Bit crap, aren't they? All they can do is kill people. Of course, it wasn't always like that. Once upon a heroes did really amazing things like rescue maidens from ivy-covered towers and outwit the forces of evil. Hero Quest was just like that - lots of wizards and potions and things. Those were the days, eh? (It only came out a couple of months ago! Ed) But hark! What's this yonder?

Yep! The role-playing, spell-casting, quest-solving fantasy game is back. Sort of. In Hero Quest you had to complete 14 quests to defeat the Witch Lord, and that was pretty much that. He got clobbered, kaputt, finito (along with his Army Of The Undead). Good had (once more) triumphed over the forces of chaos. Or had it? Ha! No it blimming well hadn't.

Obviously the pesky Witch Lord was only pretending - 'cos here he is again! And this he's even angrier than before, and the Undead have been on a special 'How To Be Really Nasty' refresher course. Eek!

SO WHAT EXACTLY iS AN EXPANSION KIT THEN?

Well, first of all - the expansion kit doesn't work without the original Hero Quest (So, if you want to take full advantage of this rather spanky new addition, you'll have to go and buy the original game.) Load up Hero Quest and you've got two options. You can either go straight into Return Of The Witch Lord or you can hack 'n' slash your way through the original 14 quests and then go onto the extra ten.

It's best to take the second path (as it were) and play all the way through, 'cos then you can start the new bit with a saved character. An experienced elf (or wizard, or whatever) is likely to have more strength and brain-power than a newie. And there's a fair chance that he'll be wll equipped in the weaponry and treasure departments too. (In fact, I'll go one further and suggest that you definitely use a saved character or you're not really going to get very far at all!)

SCARE ME!

All the new quests have seriously spooky names guaranteed to send shivers scampering up your spine, like The Gate Of Doom, The Silent Passages and, ooohh! I can't go on, it's all too frightening for a fair maid such as me, and... (Get on with it. Ed) Ahem.

Okay. It's exactly the same as Hero Quest. Basically. Yep, it looks, sounds and plays just like the first game. Movement works in exactly the same way, as do spells, searching and the buying of weapons. Which is probably a very good thing. I mean, you wouldn't expect an extension to look or play any different from the, erm, thing that's being extended, would you? No! After all, it'd be pretty confusing if you loaded Return Of The Witch Lord and it was all pink and fluffy, wouldn't it? (Yes, it would. Ed) Right.

The most impressive thing about the pack is the sheer bargainosity of the whole thing. I loaded it up expecting just one extra level and, aye carumba, there were ten of the jolly things! If you've got Hero Quest already then I urge you to go out and buy this poste haste. If not, this really is an incentive to kill two birds with one lump of granite and buy the game and the pack in one go. You won't regret it.


Life Expectancy: 87%
Instant Appeal: 82%
Graphics: 85%
Addictiveness: 80%
Overall: 86%

Summary: A definite must-buy for everyone who's already got Hero Quest. A barg!

Transcript by Chris Bourne

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