About Cabi-Soft - Talisman review
Amiga Mart February 1993
Text Version:
Talisman is a large, 2mb only text/graphic adventure, written by Paul Jenkinson, which involves the search for the talisman. Set in a land of magic, orcs and dwarves the game is wholly run via a few command icons present in a small window. Other windows show text output and a black and white graphic that is displayed for every location. Even though they are only black and white the graphics are well drawn, atmospheric and, due to these factors, I didn’t really mind the lack of colour.
Commands, beside the load/save options are Use, Talk, Fight, Operate, Get, Drink, Describe and Examine. Restricting the icons to these choices does stifle the freedom of command and puzzle-type, somewhat, although Paul does make every effort to avoid such problems. Let’s face it, even Sierra have had problems with iconic interfaces and they are only just getting the hang of it themselves.
2mb may seem an excessive RAM necessity. However, Paul does say that the decision was made to reduce the disk access (mainly due to the graphic loading). However, I would have liked to have seen an option for a 1mb version, for example, if you register – or something similar.
Most of the puzzles are fairly standard. The old “you can’t pass point A unless you use object B on it. Go find object B” However within these constraints the searching is made enjoyable due to the atmospheric graphics and longish text descriptions. There are other puzzle types. Such as finding odd objects and trying to find a use for them, etc, which dies add variety. Combat is included but it is rather unnecessary and could have been deleted without any detrimental effects on the game itself.
Finally I would have liked to have seen a ‘yes/no’ safety net on the save/load actions or, alternatively, multi-saves. Your risk accidentally over-writing your present game on disk or on screen.
I haven’t finished Talisman as yet but I’m enjoying myself and will carry on till I do. It certainly gets the ol’ grey cells going. Text/graphic adventures are rare creatures indeed on the Amiga. I hope the author decides to create a sequel.