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The
Official Secrets adventure club has been running a few months
now and is apparently doing very well. For £ 19.95 you
get six bi-monthly issues of the club magazine: Confidential,
Gnome Ranger by Level 9 (or a special surprise alternative),
use of The Adventure Helpline and Adventure Contacts, automatic
membership of the Special Reserve Software Club (giving discounts
on loads of games), and of course the exclusive mini-adventure
reviewed here - Myth specially written for the club by Magnetic
Scrolls.
In
this light-hearted look at the Greek mythological world, you
play the Sea God, Poseidon, and, guess what, you can't swim!
Mucking
about in heavens is an easy life and you have a great time going
to riotorous parties.
So
when your brother Zeus invites you to his temple-warming party
you accept on the spot.
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When
you arrive everything seems to be normal, with lots of food
and drink to indulge in, but then Zeus decides to make a very
serious speech about the rise of Christianity and how the Greek
gods should prove their superiority by each performing a difficult
task.
He
hands you a piece of paper with your task on it: to find Hades'
fabled Helmet Of Invisibility. With a flash you're transported
to the gates of hell. Looking around you spot your first problem
- a huge nine-headed Hydra guards the gates and isn't going
to let you past. Armed only with a shield and trident (unfortunately
not of the nuclear variety) you decide not to rile him and instead
explore a garden to the east where a frolicking lamb and marble
altar are to be found (I wonder what must be done here?!).
The
only other route takes you into a deep swamp (aw no, you can't
swim!) where an old James Bond trick can help you survive.
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Get
through this and you reach the infamous River Styx, full of
dead souls making the journey to hell. A ferryman and Death
himself make an appearance here along with a perplexing puzzle
concerning transporting six keys over the river.
It
didn't take me too long to make a fair bit of progress in Myth
as the puzzles aren't that difficult to solve, although fine
for beginners.
Experienced adventurers will probably find it a bit easy although
they'll have plenty of fun reading the humorous text and admiring
the beautiful graphics which appear every few locations (these
can be swapped for small mono cameos to quicken play).
Then
there's a typically refined Magnetic Scrolls parser which accepts
multi-command sentences. One thing missing (although most won't
need it) is HELP - as members can always phone the Official
Secrets Helpline!
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Although
I wouldn't exactly recommend forking out 20 quid just for the
game, Myth is a great freebie for those interested in joining
the only professional adventure club in Britain.
| Atmosphere |
77
% |
| Puzzle
Factor |
84
% |
| Interaction |
71
% |
| Lastability |
67
% |
| Overall |
76
% |
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