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PREVIEW
Buried somewhere in a mythical land reminiscent of Tolkien's Middle Earth lies a book, which is the root of all evil. One horrific day, a young innocent stumbles across that weighty tome, and opens it - the evil spews forth to desecrate the land.


The main object in Shadow of the Unicorn is to retrieve that book from whoever holds it, seal it and hide it away. However, there are a number of sub-plots revolving around the 10 central characters which must be completed. For instance, the Queen Kielmath has been overtaken by evil. You must persuade her to join your side as she plays a vital role in the game.

You control all 10 characters, each of which have separate abilities, ranging from magical to healing powers. Some, like the dwarfs, work well with their hands, others, like the woodmen, have a great affinity to all living and growing things.

There are three main characters - Avarath, chief wizard; Mithulin, King of one kingdom and Kielmath, Queen of the other. The game ends if the energy levels of any of those three run down. Happily, that is restored by eating the berries off a magical bush which grows in some profusion. It does not matter if one or two of the remaining characters die, although without them your quest will be harder to complete.

The game comprises vast panoramic views - rather like Lords of Midnight - with bright colours and detailed graphics. There are 2,816 screens and over 11,000 views.

You can travel only to the east or west but not north to reach the forests, buildings and mountains in the background. Mikro-Gen has come up with a neat solution. If you want to travel forwards, revolve the scenery by facing another direction. That brings the place you want to investigate on an easterly or westerly line.

The graphics are marvellous - and should be even better once the game is completed. We saw a pre-production copy which was impressive, although some final touches had to be added. There are battle sequences, spells to cast and objects with magical properties to pick up as you venture deeper into the land. The characters inter-react with each other and, unlike the Wally games, while you are controlling one, the others remain static - they do not wander off to do their own thing behind the scenes.

Shadow of the Unicorn should keep you occupied for hours as there is so much to do and see. It costs £14.95 and is the first game to use the Mikro-Plus - Mikro-Gen's little black box of tricks which increases the Spectrum memory to 64K. An illustrated book provides the background, and a number of clues lie within those pages.

Clare Edgeley