The Xanth books
by Piers Anthony have long been popular with readers of fantasy and
science fiction, so it comes as no surprise that someone finally got
around to making a computer game based on one of them.

In
this instance, Companions of Xanth, from Legend Entertainment,
is adapted from the book “Demons Don’t Dream”, which is
included in the game package. Since the game follows the book somewhat
closely, and a couple of puzzles have essentially the same solution
in each, it’s best to play the game first and read the book afterwards.

Two mundane (i.e., non-magical)
teenagers from Earth, Dug (male) and Kim (female) are drawn into Xanth
to compete in a game for a mysterious Prize. Neither knows what the
Prize is, except that it’s supposed to be something very good.

Under the surface, however,
matters are much more serious than they appear. Two demons, E(A/R)th
and X(A/N)th, have set the game up as part of a wager. The stake is
the existence of magic in Xanth itself. If E(A/R)th’s player – Kim
– wins the prize, then all magic in Xanth will disappear forever.
If X(A/N)th’s player – Dug – wins, then everything will continue as
before. Since the goal is to maintain the status quo, you manipulate
Dug through the game (by the way, that is how his named is spelled
in the book; there is no “o”).

Because Dug has no familiarity
with this world, he receives the Compendium of Xanth and also must
choose a Companion to help him before play begins (hence the title
of the game). While four are presented to him for selection, in actuality
this part is rigged: only Nada Naga can be chosen. Picking any of
the other three leads to early disqualification.

This was annoying, and
not really fair. As the game is designed for Nada to be the Companion,
better to have presented her as such right away, instead of pretending
to allow the player choices which lead only to restoring the game,
possibly several times.

Once Nada gets Dug and
herself out of the starting room, the real play begins. From that
point on, Dug must solve the rest of the problems himself, although
there are occasions when he can ask Nada for assistance.

The
pair explore the wild and wondrous realm of Xanth, meeting many strange
beings, passing through the regions of Void, Earth, Air, Fire, and
Water, and running across an unending succession of bad puns (most,
of course, taken from the book, which has even more; sometimes, there
can be too much of a good thing).

Around three-quarters of
the way through, Dug catches up briefly with Kim, and they switch
Companions; Nada goes off with Kim, and Dug ends up with Jenny and
Sammy Cat. This doesn’t make quite as much sense in the game as it
does in the book, so do be sure to read it afterwards to learn what
this business is all about.

The game ending is very
different from the book, however, and it is not clear why Legend made
such a change. It is especially odd as the game’s resolution doesn’t
really settle the demon wager at all, making the whole thing ultimately
unsatisfying; it’s a loose end that shouldn’t have happened.

Companions marks a radical
departure for Legend from their previous offerings; it is their first
true all-graphic product. Players familiar with such games as the
Spellcasting Series, Eric the Unready, and Homeworld,
may be surprised by the absence of a type-in interface. Except for
a few hot keys, there is no keyboard input; all actions are controlled
with the mouse.

As the cursor travels over
the graphics screen, it lights up objects of interest by displaying
the name of the item. So, for instance, when the cursor is on Dug’s
computer, the word “computer” appears on the screen. To
form a sentence, the mouse is clicked on the highlighted object, then
moved over to the list of verbs on the left-hand side, where it is
clicked on a verb to complete the sentence. Thus the command “look
at the computer” is accomplished by first clicking on the computer,
and then on “look at” from the list of verbs.

This system works in reverse,
too: you can click on a command first, and an item second. So taking
“look at” first, followed by clicking on the computer, gives
the same result: “look at the computer”.

The verbs listed are few
indeed: Put, Take, Look, Look At, Open, Close, Talk, and Wait. Occasionally,
an additional verb or two will appear on the list when using a particular
object. For example, if a rock is the highlighted item, the verb “Throw”
is temporarily added to the commands.

Room
descriptions and results of actions are displayed in a small window
under the main graphic screen. Below that is the inventory window,
where all of Dug’s current possessions are depicted. These items can
be acted upon in the same way as anything on the main screen, by highlighting
them and choosing a verb, or vice-versa.

While the verb-object interface
is simple, it is not used consistently in the game, which can cause
some frustrations. Take the matter of Ma Anathe (an anagram of “anathema”).
You have to bring her a certain item. Up to that point, when you had
an object people wanted, they would recognize it was in the inventory
when you talked to them.

Not Ma, though. However
much you talk to her, she just tells you to not bother her unless
you have the item. Also, the verb “give” doesn’t appear
when the item is highlighted, and the regular “Put” doesn’t
do much if you try to “put” the item on her. The answer
to this dilemma is to first highlight the item, then move the cursor
onto Ma, at which point “give (item) to Ma Anathe” appears
on the screen.

This sort of thing happens
more than once in the game, and to make matters worse, no mention
is made in the manual of this special construction. The instructions
merely describe the “verb-object” and “object-verb”
combinations; nowhere does it tell you that you can make commands
in other ways, as noted above.

The puzzle quality in Companions
is uneven at best, and in some cases, downright poor. Take the sequence
with the evil Com-pewter, for example. It is described in the Compendium
as being extremely powerful, and able to change reality in its vicinity.
This made it sound as if taking on Com-pewter would be a difficult
task.

As it turned out, this
entire sequence was a joke (and not a funny one, either). All you
do is play a game of anagrams with Com-pewter, who describes something
from the world of Xanth, and provides an anagram of the item, lacking
one letter. You choose the missing letter from a small pool of letter
tiles.

This isn’t a challenge,
or even a puzzle; it’s just pointless activity. You merely open your
Compendium of Xanth and read through until you find the answer, which
naturally tells you what the missing letter is, and that’s the one
you choose. The second round is slightly tricky, as Com-Pewter cheats
by not providing one of the letters, but Dug has an inventory item
to use as a substitute.

After going through this
no-brainer, Dug is forced by Com-Pewter to resign (even though he
won), but Grundy Golem (a sort of emcee for the Xanth game) puts him
back in, and gives Dug the item needed to actually destroy the machine.
This is supposed to be a puzzle?

Not much better (if at
all) is the rescue of Nada Naga after she’s been spirited away by
the demoness Metria. When Dug finds Nada, she’s chained to a wall.
Nearby is a type of moss that can eat through anything, including
metal. Naturally, you think that the moss is part of the solution
to freeing Nada.

Wrong!
The moss is used for something else. You simply talk to the manacles,
and they let her go. How are you supposed to know this? How did I
know this? Simple. There wasn’t anything else left to try; I had gone
through all other possible actions with no result, and that was the
last thing available to do.

A voice does whisper at
you occasionally “from the vicinity of Nada’s arm”, but
that’s where the moss is, so you don’t really have a way of associating
the voice with the manacles, and why should anyone think that manacles
can talk? None of it makes any sense.

Probably the best sequence
is at the start, where Dug must help the village of Isthmus rid itself
of the dreaded censorship. While most of the puzzles in this segment
aren’t especially difficult, at least the solutions can be reasoned
out instead of stumbled over by trial and error.

Companions follows
the book fairly closely in what it covers, yet for all that is a quick-playing
game. Partly this is because of the mostly simple (sometimes nonexistent)
puzzles, and partly because many areas don’t have that many things
to do in the first place. The Com-Pewter section is an example of
this, as is the Void, a one-location puzzle. It just seemed to me
that there should have been more substance to many of the segments.

Overall then, Companions
of Xanth is a disappointment. Its poor puzzle structure makes
it the weakest Legend game to date, and unlikely to please gamers
looking for an adventure on the level of a Spellcasting or Eric The
Unready. The relatively short playing time is also likely to leave
many with an unsatisfied feeling. Only fans of the Xanth series, or
those looking for a lightweight adventure, will find this one worth
their time.

Just Adventure Assigned
Grade: C

System Requirements:

CD-ROM
Hard disk
640k RAM
Microsoft compatible mouse
DOS 5.0 or higher
VGA graphics card
Real Sound, Ad Lib, Sound Blaster and compatibles, Roland MT-32
with MPU-401 compatible interface