Legend's Shannara is a game I shouldn't have liked. It's based on a series of fantasy novels that never had the slightest appeal to me--I'm a "hard" science fiction man, myself, and fantasy stuff doesn't normally do it for me. Dragons and elves and trolls and sorcerers ... my eyes just start to roll back in my head.

Also, Shannara is from 1995, but with a graphic look and interface reminiscent of much older games. It's positively dowdy, in fact, with verb selection reminiscent of quest games from the DOS era.

So why the heck did I enjoy Shannara so much?

I think it's because the game's designers worked so well within the given format. Yes, the animation is quite minimal, but all of it is effective. The art is flat 2D backgrounds and characters, but the scenery is varied and evocative, and the characters are attractive and appealing. I give the graphics a solid B.

The voice acting is above average, which is a good thing, because there's a lot of it. Voice acting gets a B.

There is a lot of dialogue in Shannara, and dialogue-heavy games aren't really my meat. But I put up with it in this game, because the story is so rich and interesting. If storytelling is a key virtue in an adventure game, Shannara has that virtue in spades. I won't go into the details, but it involves freeing your world from a long-dead evil spirit who has returned to life, and only the repaired Sword of Shannara can defeat this evil force. Story gets an A.

The interface also allows for your character to have companions from time to time. They appear as icons in your interface, and you can handily speak to them, exchange inventory items, and generally cooperate. The deeper in the story you go, the more this type of cooperation is vital to the game.

Navigation in the game is accomplished by two means, both on the nifty side. The first is a multi-point compass, which shows the directions you can move as green arrows. The second is a large map, in which you literally steer your character through the landscape. For general niftiness and ease and effectiveness of use, the interface gets an A.

The puzzles in the game are mild but diverting, and generally logical. I give them a pleasant B.

The game does have one downfall, and it's the combat element. Now, don't bail on me just yet, it doesn't kill the game. It's usually very easy to survive combat, and so it doesn't become one of those troublesome action elements injected into an otherwise pure adventure game. No, the problem with the combat in Shannara is that it just doesn't work very well. It's full of controls and buttons, and it's really much ado about nothing. This combat element gets a resounding D.

This weak element doesn't keep Shannara from being a true pleasure to play, however. I recommend it to anyone who feels like a little traditional fantasy play.

Final Grade: B

Note: Shannara is a DOS game that loads and installs just fine through Windows. Thanks, Legend!

System Requirements:
486/33
4 MB RAM
2X CD-ROM
Mouse
Sound board
DOS/Windows 95