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"Taran's great adventure is a balance between fun and frustration..."

As a wee one, my mother bought me The Black Cauldron by Sierra for the Amiga. I seemed to remember having quite a bit of fun with it at the time, so when I discovered a neat little utility to play old AGI adventure games on the GBA, I jumped at the chance to give it another go, this time with the abandonware PC version. Sad thing is, I must have had more patience when I was 7 than I do now, because this game, while having its shining moments, seems to be alternately at times slow-moving and dull, or frustratingly difficult.

Story:
Based on the Disney adaptation of the Lloyd Alexander book, the Black Cauldron animated film was quite controversial. Disney received enormous amounts of angry letters from parents in reaction to seeing it in the theatres, as their children were terrified of the skeletal Horned King and his undead minions. The ending was also suspect as it required a live sacrifice to stop the evil of the powerful Cauldron (although the movie takes an easy out the book didn't in regards to this). For these reasons, the film was a poor performer at the box office and even today is one of the hardest VHS/DVD Disney animated releases to find. However, it remains one of my favorite Disney features. The source material is intelligent and well thought out, so Disney didn't go overboard dumbing it down. The lessons of friendship, courage, and loyalty even in the face of death are probably the best morals a child could learn.

The game follows the story quite well, although makes slight variations for the sake of gameplay in spots. The Horned King is attempting to capture Dallben and his assistant Taran's clairvoyant pig Hen Wen in order to find the location of the Black Cauldron. The Cauldron will allow the wicked King to summon an army of unstoppable undead warriors to conquer the kingdom of Prydain. Taran sets off to take Hen Wen to safety and avoid the Horned King's capture, and...well, I'll leave the rest to you to discover.

Graphics: 7/10

Black Cauldron is a decent-looking EGA game. The Disney-inspired artwork is crisp and clear, and the land of Prydain is well-rendered (particularly the overview of the Horned King's castle). Characters are not overly detailed, but recognizable. The animation leaves much to be desired, however.

Sound: 4/10

Remember the time way back when computer games used the PC speaker? Black Cauldron was one of them. With no Adlib/Sound Blaster support, this game just sounds horrible. The music jangles and sound effects are grating, and worst of all if you decide to brave this title with the sound on, there's a bug in the game which will make one area impassable. Best to turn it off and play with a soundtrack of your choosing here.

Gameplay: 7/10

This game is an adventure game in the spirit of Space Quest or Maniac Mansion. Unlike the complex parsers used in those games, however, Black Cauldron simplifies the interface down to a simple set of commands (Do Action, Use Item, Select Item etc) to make it more suitable for kids. The adventuring and puzzles are easy, logical and streamlined. My only complaint is that the game can feel slow-paced at times, which can be remedied simply by increasing the game speed.

Unfortunately, in lieu of Maniac Mansion's illogical puzzles comes a new source of irritation; seemingly infinite ways to die. In fact, it's safe to say this game is tied only by Shadowgate in the number of horrible ends you can inflict upon your protagonist in an adventure game. The types of deaths range from the funny, self-inflicted kind like drinking poisonous moat water, to the rather unfair such as attempting to traverse a stream which you find out is too rapid for Taran to swim only after you die. Also like Shadowgate, your character will die from not using an essential item from time to time; rather than torches however, Taran requires food and water.

In addition, Black Cauldron throws various action sequences at the gamer, such as scaling a wall while avoiding rocks from above, navigating a crocodile-infested moat, and most irritatingly climbing a diagonal rope up a mountain. This, unfortunately, is where the game falls apart. While these challenges may seem elementary, the game's horribly unresponsive control scheme makes these tasks a chore of constant saving and reloading. Taran will continue to move in a specified direction until the arrow key is tapped again or direction is changed,. Furthermore, he is completely unable to move diagonally, which makes avoiding castle guards and the painstakingly precise up-down-sidewards movements required for the aforementioned rope-scaling scene almost impossible to nail on the first try. The game also only has one save slot, which is the most irritating quirk of all. If you forgot to grab and important item in the midst of a sticky situation, and didn't save far back enough to be able to obtain it, you will be forced to start over from the beginning.

Overall, Black Cauldron can either be a moderately fun experience beaten in a matter of hours, or a complete and utter pain in the tush, depending on your taste in adventure games. If you're the type who likes your puzzles mixed with a bit of action and an unmercifully small margin of error, jump right in. If you prefer the complex puzzles and almost suicidal impulses required for character death, ala Maniac Mansion, steer clear. The game is free so you might want to give it a try anyways.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/26/04

An adventure based on the Disney cartoon The Black Cauldron. You are Taran, assistant Pig keeper, living in Caer Dalben. Soon you'll notice that your pig HenWen has magical powers... The Evil Horned King want that pig so that he can locate the black cauldron and rule the world. You must stop him.