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Welcome
to Kerovnia - the fantasy land where drunken dwarves dwell in
a witty adventure game with superb graphics.
Kerovnia
seems at first glance like your average fantasy world: there
are the dark, gloomy forests, the usual wizards, dragons and
brave heroes. But the current situation in Kerovnia tells us
that this world doesn't take itself too seriously.
King Erik
is slowly but surely losing his power and influence over the
country - just now that elections are at stake. The people responsible
for this whole situation are the dwarves who have been banned
from Kerovnia a long time ago and are still not allowed to return
to the country. Problem is that the dwarven folk brew the most
delicious and strongest whisky there is and the citizens of
Kerovnia wouldn't mind enjoying this particular drink. But King
Erik can't be convinced to let the dwarven peoples back into
the country.
At this
particular point you enter the game, being mysteriously thrown
from the "normal world" into the land of Kerovnia.
What distinguishes "The Pawn" from other adventure
games is the fact that you don't have to achieve a certain goal
in the game - it is at first unknown to you. You basically have
to find out by yourself what your goal in the game will be,
but mostly you are interested in getting back to the normal
world. The game itself features some very comfortable special
commands. You can, for example, change the foreground and background-colour
of the text screen and you can also change the textsize. Changing
the textsize is particularily important when you are running
your Atari ST on a colour-tv. All ten function-keys of the Atari
ST can be customized. You can type in often used commands and
assign them to a function-key, which means that you won't have
to retype all the standard phrases over and over again.
Included
in the packaging is a very good novella, which comes on 44 pages
and introduces the player to the plot of the game. Those among
you who don't bother with literature can of course skip the
novel, read through the manual and start playing right away.
Adventurers who get stuck at a certain puzzle will find encoded
hints included at the end of the novella, the box also contains
a poster. The only problem for us german gamers - without decent
knowledge of the english language you won't be able to play
"The Pawn". Trying to make the parser familiar with
german grammar didn't lead us anywhere.
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Heinrich
Lenhardt's opinion on "The Pawn":
For me "The Pawn" will always be a classic.
This was the very first game that really made use of the
Atari ST's graphic power. All of the roughly 30 different
pictures in "The Pawn" are still the best graphics
to date on the ST. Most of the conversions won't of course
feature pictures of this quality - the QL and Joyce versions
don't have any graphics at all.
The
adventure itself is a very good self-persiflage. This
game is making fun of each and every fantasy-cliché
there is - but in a very elegant and ironic way. Combine
that with the superb parser and you get an absolutely
stunning gaming-experience. You can even type in whole
sentences and "talk" to other people in the
game. The game isn't exactly cheap, but it's right at
the top of adventure gaming. The documentation and the
user interface are absolutely brilliant.
I
can recommend "The Pawn" to beginners and experienced
gamers alike. Anyone who has decent knowledge of the english
language and is looking for a graphic adventure with decent
text simply has to buy this game.
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Gregor
Neumann's opinion on "The Pawn":
Trying to categorize "The Pawn" is absolutely
impossible. The people who created this game have done
everything to make it different to any other game in the
genre. The result ranges from wildly romantic to chaotic.
You are never quite sure who the game is making fun of
with it's subtle humour: adventure games? The player?
Or even the game itself? This aspect makes for an absolutely
refreshing gaming experience, because every time you expect
something to happen, you can be sure that something completely
different happens in the end.
The
text is really decently written. It is full of new ideas
and irony (or have you ever heard about an adventure game
which announces on a sign that you have reached the southernmost
border of the game?). I wasn't convinced by the parser
though - allthough everybody thinks it's one of the best
parsers around at the moment. Why? Because at the end
of the day - when you try some unusual way to solve a
problem - it just doesn't understand you. But nevertheless
I think that "The Pawn" is one of the best adventures
of 1986.
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Graphics:
87 out of 100
Total: 89 out of 100
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