Feud


by David Whittaker, John Pickford, Pete Harrison, Ste Pickford, John Smyth
Bulldog Software [1]
1987
Sinclair User Issue 61, Apr 1987   page(s) 78

Label: Mastertronic
Price: £2.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Andy Moss

I never was much good at gardening. I don't know, put me in a plot of plants, and I couldn't tell a geranium from a gerbil.

I suppose if you haven't got green fingers, you haven't got green fingers. Now supposed you're a wizard, and that wizardry is the way you make your living. To be any good at it, you need to have an odd spell or two in your book (after all what good is a wiz with no spells, its like playing a guitar with no strings!)

Most spells can be made by mixing certain herbs together in your special magic cauldron (you keep abreast of the latest recipe by watching Grey Beards TV show, a sort of magic users Delia Smith) but the problem is finding the blessed things. Herbs just cannot be grown by any old bod, you need skill. So to be a good wizard, you have to be a good gardener.

Unfortunately, in Feud you're not. There is this rival wizard who fancies himself as the local main man, and is naturally out to get you. What you have to do is run around the locale, visiting other people's gardens, and pinching their herbs. When you have collected a good bunch, you need too rush back to your cauldron, and mix them to make the spells that will do it to him before he does it to you.

The graphics really are very pretty, with a mixture of terrain from woodland to huts to rivers to mazes, and believe me you don't get long before old Leanoric comes after you.

Apart from the two main wizard characters there are a number of villagers roaming around disguised as Dick Whittingtons, and Farmer Giles. These poor souls can be turned into zombies by zapping them with the right spell, and they can then chase after old Leanoric on your behalf.

A very simple game, yet addictive, and tricky to complete, with great graphics and happily no colour clash.

But what, I hear you ask, is the point of it all. Well two points, really. One is that you get to be main man/wiz in the kingdom, and the other is it gives you a crash course on becoming a better gardener.


Overall: 4/5

Summary: A highly entertaining tussle between two wizards with great graphics and 12 spells to conjure with.

Transcript by Chris Bourne

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