Amiga

Sleeping Gods Lie

Movement is very smooth and easy to work: move the pointer to the top of the screen and you go forward, to the side and you turn. The play is oriented around finding objects and solving puzzles, and unlimited games can be saved so you can try different things. It's fairly easy, making the game suitable for adventuring beginners, but it's different enough that it will hold the attention of seasoned gamers, too. Sleeping Gods Lie could have used some more polish, but it's one of the most unusual and playable adventures I've been on in a long time.

The neat pseudo-Freescape 3-D of this huge and challenging arcade adventure is the same as that of the ST - it's a shame that more detail hasn't been added to the graphics and that code hasn't been optimised for faster screen update. Sound is enhanced with groans and screams from injured characters and a great sounding piece of music to accompany the story book intro. Skilled arcade RPGers apply here.

Tessera is a world abandoned by its creator gods to a harsh fate; as famine and plague ravage its people the tyrannical Archmage rules with an iron first. But you are no insane hero, pitting your puny resources against his legions of henchmen, you are keeping your head down.

The old gods of Tessera have been deposed, and the evil Archmage has taken control, imposing his own despotic regime. The only chance Tessera has to regain a sense of calm is to revive the last remaining free god from his ice-tomb in the farthest Coratinian State. By an extraordinary chance, this fateful mission has literally fallen at your door, and so with four shuriken, a handful of pebbles and an earthenware bowl, you begin your journey of discovery.