Review: The Golden Fleece

The GOLDEN FLEECE

GOOD LUCK, BRAVE HERO

These days, game designers and competitions offering highly incentivising cash prizes have given us a wealth of very polished games that would have made us froth at the mouth in disbelief thirty years ago. And of course there's nothing wrong with that, but it does mean we see fewer games that embody the 'spirit of the Spectrum' - games that would sit quite happily among some of the best of 1982 (or now), and still have a few clunky features, or aren't afraid to use UDGs. The Golden Fleece is such a game and I instantly loved it.

It's an adventure RPG game, in which your quest is to win the fabled Golden Fleece by sailing around fighting mythical creatures. To have a chance at defeating the monster on the northern-most island, you need to increase your powers by killing off the weaker ones first.

The fight sequences are superb, and possibly use a unique mechanic (no-one on the SC forum had seen it before). It combines choices such as advance, attack, evade, and also mixes a dice throw with a ladder that defines fight parameters as you climb it. The ultimate goal is to cleave the monster's head off for a quick win. That is, assuming your monster only has the one head...

The fights are the main event, but there's a lot of fun to be found in exploring the map. You need to hug coastlines as much as possible to avoid the underwater threat of Cetus.

Saucerbrain has done his research on mythology, so you might even find that you learn a bit. Not much use in real life, but it might get you a few points on University Challenge.

So - the Golden Fleece gets the official "Spirit of the Spectrum" award! Great oldschool fun that reminds us why we stick with this quirky little computer.

Oh, and be sure to wait for the RND seed to generate at the start, after all - there's nowt worse than a non-random Aegean.