Hullo, what's this? It's not a game in itself (not at that strange price, anyway). It must be an expansion pack. And, it is! Mark Caswell gets into some additional Heroquest dungeon dilemmas!
Gremlin
£5.99/£7.99
Now don't go thinking this is just a cheap way of playing the Hero Quest game because it isn't! To play the new adventures you need the original Hero Quest game and have to buy it on the same media (ie players who have HQ on tape need the tape version of Witchlord, and disk players need the disk version.
Gremlin advise that you use a saved character from HeroQuest because the new missions are a darn sight tougher (a very slight understatement).
Morcar, the evil dungeon master, is lurking around but so are the brave heroes: Messrs Stumpy the Dwarf, Eric the Elf, Arnie the Barbarian and Wizzy the Wizard (as named by me, of course).
IT'S THE FAB FOUR AGAIN
The game starts much the same as HeroQuest with you choosing characters, buying supplies (if you have any gold left over from previous games) and choosing spells for the Elf and Wizard.
Ten new missions are on offer here: The Gates Of Doom, The Cold Halls, The Silent Passages, Halls Of Vision, The Gate Of Bellthor, Halls Of The Dead, The Forgotten Legion, The Forbidden City, The Last Gate, and the last and most difficult, The Court Of The Witch Lord.
General gameplay is unchanged, as are the attacking hordes, although there do seem to be more of them. One change I noticed is the static screen that appears when a character is attacked. Each creature and adventurer has their own full colour 'you have been wounded, you clumsy prat'screen, which is very pretty indeed.
As this is an extension of HeroQuest rather than a true sequel, I can't add a great deal to the original review. But these extra missions are greatly appreciated as I'd solved most of the quests in the original game. So, go and buy it (it's as simple as that, really).
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.
Label: Gremlin
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £11.99 Tape, £15.99 Disk
Reviewer: Big Al Dykes
We raved about Hero-quest in these very pages back in June giving it 90 percent and a SU Gold award. Now Gremlin have gone one better and brought out a genuine sequel to the original. Get your dragon's teeth into this one if you dare!
Return of the Witchlord is basically the same game and you MUST have a copy of the original Heroquest to play it. However the story is a a continuation with a new and even more treacherous task and many new, stronger and more advanced enemies.
The evil Morcar your adversary in Heroquest was but a child by comparison with the Witch Lord whose ambitions stretch to control of the entire empire. He's holed up in the mountains of Kalos, looking out over the plains of death, and it's in the labyrinth of the mountain that your quest takes place.
To play return of the Witchlord you must not only have a copy of the original Heroquest but be able to play it successfully too as the outcome of this adventure will depend entirely on how well you've managed to develop your character and his skills. Return of the Witchlord is difficult.
There are still options for four player games, save and load options and everything that was in the original. If you enjoyed Heroquest you will enjoy this too, there is no doubt about it.
GARTH:
I must say that I am a fan of the genre too. The computer version has everything the wargamer needs to go about their strange business. Fab!
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