THE
STORY
You are a young man named Diermot,
who was living a quiet pastoral life in a peaceful kingdom until the King
conscripted you to serve in his army. It seems that he recently received
news of a revolt in the hamlet of Turnvale, orchestrated by a young and beautiful
apprentice sorceress named Selena. And not being one to let such matters
go unsquelched, he immediately set off to nip the uprising in the
bud.
But much to his surprise (and yours!),
he was met not by peasants armed with pitchforks, but by a horde of grotesque
gargoyle-like creatures: vicious mercenaries known as 'The Skorl'. The king
and all of his men were killed. Except you. You fell off of your horse and
were knocked unconscious.
You awaken God knows how much later
lying on a filthy straw mattress in a torch lit room, with rough stone walls
and bars at the high window. "Obviously this isn't the guest suite", you
think! No, you are in a dungeon in Turnvale, the prisoner of the cruel Temptress
Selena with an unfriendly Skorl guard just outside the door.
In fact, the entire town appears
to be literally crawling with them. You shudder to think about what will
happen to you if you stay here, and what will happen to the good people of
Turnvale if you leave. Reluctantly, you admit to yourself that you are the
only one who can save them from Selena and the Skorl. So you look around
for some means of escape.
Just who is this mysterious Selena
anyway? And what is she after? Ah, but "hell hath no fury like the wrath
of a woman scorned" .....
The setting is lovely: a medieval
quasi-English village with thatched roofs, cobblestone streets, flowers,
a pub and a town square. The puzzles are clever and interesting, and not
too difficult ..... you must use magic and cunning (mainly the latter) to
defeat the Temptress and her minions.
But it is the outrageous characters
(more than 25), and your interaction with them, that really make this game.
Your sidekick, Ratpouch (said to be the nickname of one of the developers),
practically steals the show with his observations and wisecracks. Plus you
can tell him to do almost anything (complex commands), and he will do it.
And the tongue-in-cheek humor of the other 'locals' is just as good, particularly
from one or two of the regulars who hang out at the pub.
However what impressed us the most
was the hugh difference that 'Virtual Theater' makes in a game. The characters
all seem to have a life of their own, and you never know what may happen
or where you may see them next. No matter what you are doing (or not doing),
they randomly and unpredictably come and go: running errands, shopping, stopping
by the pub for a beer and gossiping with each other. You can join in and
the conversation changes accordingly, or not and it continues without your
input. It's just like real life!
