Subject: REVIEW: Heimdall2 for the CD32
From: [email-masked] (Nick Ridley)
Date: 26 Jul 1994 16:11:11 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAME

	Heimdall2 for the Amiga CD32

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	Heimdall2 is an isometric, graphic, arcade/adventure game in the same
vein as Heimdall1.  Puzzles must be solved, monsters killed, and spells cast
in order to restore peace finally in the Norse Heavens.

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:		The 8th Day
	Address:	Core Design Ltd
			55 Ashbourne Road
			Derby DE22 3FS
			UK

	Telephone:	+44 (0)332 297797
	Fax:		+44 (0)332 381511

LIST PRICE

	34.99 (UK).  I paid 27.95 mail order.

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE

		A CD32 and a joypad.  A 2 button joystick will NOT be good
		enough as the two paddle buttons on the top are used for
		combat, and the 'start' button is important too.

		A decent sound system will help give you the full benefit of
		the CD soundtrack.

		I can't comment on whether the game will work with CD-ROM
		drives.

COPY PROTECTION

	Invisible.

MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	PAL CD32. I ran the game with the machine in NTSC mode, and the game
worked just about OK, though the picture was slightly off the bottom of my
monitor.  You'll have to guess with the title screen though, so I'd run this
in PAL with a monitor if you can.

REVIEW

	There is a brief loading period before customary credits appear on
the screen for Core Design and The 8th Day (both nicely drawn).  Immediately
there is a CD soundtrack playing in the background.  There is a very brief
animation of some Norse guy (Heimdall himself I presume) before we are
presented with a screen offering us the option of starting a new game or of
using a previously saved one.

	My first impressions are both good and bad - the music is excellent,
but there is no intro animation.  Even Heimdall1 had a series of still
pictures with text that described the background story behind the game.  An
opportunity was really missed here.  The intro animation for Premiere, by
the same team, was very good, and I was hoping to see something special from
them in Heimdall2.

	Still, the music IS nice.  I had already loaded the CD into my
normal player to check out the music tracks.  There is about 25 minutes
worth of music - 8 or so tracks, all of it nice, original, orchestral-style
stuff (though using excellent samples as opposed to real instruments I
think!).  Don't get too excited though, as there is one 3 minute passage
that you will get to know REALLY well!  (Shades of "Liberation" here.)

	The lack of an intro animation means that I had to read the manual
in order to pick up the story.  In short, you have to recover 4 pieces of a
broken amulet that, when assembled, will give you the power to stop the evil
Norse God Loki from wreaking havoc over the mortal world.  You play 2
characters, Heimdall and a Valkyrie named Ursha.  There seems little need
for there to be 2 characters as both behave similarly and no puzzles seem to
require you to be one or the other.  Still, you have two inventories in
which to store objects and another character to switch to halfway through a
fight when the other is about to die.

	There are three main levels of exploration in Heimdall2.  Firstly,
there is a sort of heavenly area that is made up of portals.  Entering a
portal (you need to find the relevant Talisman first) will teleport you to
a world that you can freely explore, killing things, solving puzzles, etc.
These worlds are explored by selecting an island on a map screen, whereupon
your ship sails there.  There are also shops where helpful objects can be
purchased and other items sold.

	Each island consists of a series of locations with exits at the edge
of the screen.  There is a forced perspective (as in "D-Generation"), meaning
that pushing up on the joypad actually makes your guy move up-left.  You get
used to it very quickly.  Unlike in D-Generation, you cannot move diagonally
in Heimdall2, and this helps to makes things less confusing in my opinion.
You will soon notice that both the graphics and the animation are of a very
high standard.  This is presumably a straight port of the A1200 version of
the game, with an added CD soundtrack.  Still, I'm not complaining.  Loading
is for once well organised, never taking more than 10-15 seconds.  Most
islands are loaded in their entirety in that time, so there is no more
loading for the immediate future, and it makes a real difference.

	You will soon find yourself in a fight, and this is a good time to
start drawing comparisons with the original Heimdall.  Fights in the first
game happened almost by surprise - there was no monster visible on the
screen, and suddenly you would find yourself having to kill something.  This
involved clicking on one of three buttons with the mouse - Attack, Defend or
Spell.  Heimdall2 is little different except that the fighting takes place
in the normal environment and you can run away from monsters as a result.
The fights are just as unsophisticated, but the two paddle buttons are used
for attack and defend and the red button for spells.  The game can be paused
at any time and the inventory screen entered - from here, objects can be
shuffled about, things eaten/dropped, and spells mixed.  As a result, no-one
will find themselves dying desperately quickly, so the game is more
accessible to the casual adventurer.

	The puzzles involve the standard moving of one object from one place
to another, along with more physical things such as having to get from "A" to
"B" without touching the spikey ball.  The solutions are generally obvious
after a little bit of thought, but some things are a little obscure.  The
gameplay is not totally linear either, and the islands and indeed worlds can
be explored in any order within reason. Herein lies one of the major quirks
(see BUGS).

	Spell casting is achieved in a manner similar to Dungeon Master in
that a spell is assembled from a series of runes and then cast.  Stronger
spells use up more 'mana' that can be replenished using potions.  Spells are
discovered on parchments that are left here and there.

	I have been playing the game quite a lot for a few days now, and I
feel that I am well towards finishing it.  So, don't expect a life-long
challenge (like Dungeon Master and other RPGs), though I guess I could be
pleasantly surprised and find that there is a lot more.  I was hoping that
at some point the background music would change once I made it to an new
world, but it seems that was a little too much to ask.  There is no option
to turn it off of course, though without it I would imagine the game would
sound sparse, as sound effects are few and far between.  Speech would have
been nice too, instead of having text appearing on the screen, but I would
rather have no speech than have the atmosphere ruined by some poor quality
acting!

DOCUMENTATION

	There is a hefty book that explains the use of a double CD case, but
this is in 4 languages.  The instructions are clear and not too serious
either, which is nice.  The game feels reasonably intuitive anyway.  There
are some spaces left for you to write in the spells that you will discover
during the games.  However, there is not enough space to do this
successfully, which is a shame.  I needed to refer back to the instructions
only a few times, and I found it easier to note down the spells on a bit of
paper.

LIKES

	I like a lot about this game.  Heimdall1 infuriated me in that it was
wonderful graphically, but accessed the disk a lot and would not hard disk
install.  The gameplay was exciting, but the puzzles were often obscure, and
it was too easy to make a mistake that would require you to start again from
your last saved position.  Heimdall2 feels much more polished, and I feel
confident in trying different things as I know that it is unlikely that I
will die instantly or without warning.  Dropped objects do not vanish into
thin air - they remain where you leave them.  Objects sold at shops will be
available for you to buy again later, so these places also act as
pawnbrokers!

	The music is wonderful, and that is always an important factor for
me.  At present, the only real advantage of owning a CD32 is in order to play
games with great soundtracks, so it annoys when companies rush releases and
don't bother to make one (e.g., James Pond 3, Frontier).  Hopefully, it means
more work for unemployed musicians like myself too!

	The graphics are of a high standard too, and the general atmosphere
is very... well... viking-like.  Ursha does walk a bit strangely though....

DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS

	One thing that annoyed me slightly is that unlike the floppy
version, the game does not support a mouse in the other controller port.
This meant that all inventory operations/spell mixing had to be done with
the controller.  This seems a ridiculous thing to have taken out of the
game, especially when so many CD32 owners must have mice hanging around (in
order to play Diggers and Liberation), and even if they haven't, there seems
no harm in leaving the code to support it in place.

	In practice, you don't have to move the cursor either very accurately
or over large distances so it doesn't really affect the gameplay much.
You'll get used to it.

COMPARISON TO SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	For the CD32, there are only a few adventure games available of this
type, Liberation being an obvious choice, though in reality they are very
different games.  Heimdall2 is cartoony in nature, and the action is never
desperately fast and furious.  You will have plenty of time to gently wander
about, scratching your head.  The forced perspective viewpoint is
reminiscent of the old Ultimate games such as Knightlore and Alien8 (and
Nightshade too I suppose) and it works well, as it did in the first game.
This viewpoint avoids the problem of having exits 'out of the screen' such
as you might have had in a game such as Monkey Island 2.  In reality, the
game is quite close superficially to its predecessor, though it feels much
more tightened up and polished.  There are few games that can touch it,
really.  Easily one of the best adventures ever on the Amiga.

BUGS

	I did manage to crash the game consistently at a particular point
with an 'unable to allocate enough memory' error, though I was attempting to
do something that most sane people would not (dropping all my belongings in
one location).  It also crashed unprovoked when I attempted to slash the
bars in the prison in the King's Dungeon with my sword.

	One thing I haven't mentioned yet is the saving system, and this is
my main gripe in this area.  When you have completed a world, you return to
the heavens and the entry portals, and there is a 'restart book' that you can
pick up.  This allows the save game option to work.  The problem is that
when you reload the game, the save game book reappears leading you to
believe you are now free to save the game whenever you want simply by
returning to the heavens and picking up the book, etc.  In practice, this
only starts to confuse the game and it loses track of where you have been and
where you haven't.  Thus, you end up picking up the same objects twice by
revisiting areas that you have already visited.  In general, this save game
system feels a bit loose and buggy.  Nothing too scary though -- just watch
out for it.

VENDOR SUPPORT

	None mentioned - presumably they don't want you ringing them up
asking for tips!

WARRANTY

	None mentioned.

CONCLUSIONS

	Well, I had hoped to finish the game before I wrote this review, but
I have got stuck again unfortunately.  However, I don't imagine I will be
stuck for long, because really this is quite a straightforward adventure
game.  A walk-through would not take too long to write.  You will delight in
the general atmosphere and hopefully whistle along with the really rather
nice music.  If you enjoy a pleasant adventure-style ramble in a well-drawn,
cartoony sort of way, then you'll love this game.  I was very impressed.  It
was a shame Heimdall1 wasn't packaged in with it, especially given the
relatively hefty price-tag, but then CD32 releases are not known for their
generosity at the moment.  I say buy it, though try and get it for less than
the full price if you can through mail order.

	I give Heimdall2 for the CD32 ... 4 stars out of five.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

	Copyright 1994 Nick Ridley.  All rights reserved.
	Email [email-masked] (or [email-masked])

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