Price of Magik, The - Review

The sequel to Red Moon, but an excellent adventure in it's own right.

You have to learn a number of spells to defeat the evil Myglar. This involves finding the spell name, the object to use as it's focus and, more importantly, the effect of the spell. Some spells can be used to solve multiple problems.

There is a definite sense of menace in the setting, with the player needing to lose their sanity as a pre-requisite for learning many of the spells.

As usual with Level 9, you are given eloquent location descriptions together with objects available, so you do not need to waste time manipulating the scenery. All interactive objects can be examined, often producing more useful information.

There is a very elegant solution to the usual problem with travel in text adventures in that there are short cuts to all the areas in the game. This is very useful because of the large size of the game world.

There are a large number of NPC's, and it is fun trying to work out the strategy for dealing with each one; combat is usually only necessary in a few cases.

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Parser/Vocabulary (Rating: 7/10)

The game will tell you the specific word it does not understand, and also lets you know when you are trying to manipulate the scenery, which saves a lot of time.

Atmosphere (Rating: 8/10)

Definite sense of menace right from the start.

Cruelty (Rating: Merciful)

There are no sudden deaths, and although you can fight the NPC's, it is not always necessary. An undo facility is available to take back actions.

Puzzles (Rating: 8/10)

Most of the puzzles involve finding the spells and deciding what they do. There is one puzzle which has to be solved very quickly at the start; if it is not solved you will only face he consequences later in the game, necessitating a re-start. However, when I re-started the game I realised that the puzzle is definitely fair, I was not paying attention to the description.

Overall (Rating: 9/10)

A very enjoyable alternative to the usual 'treasure hunt' games, in that you have to hunt for the spells.