Hello, good evening and welcome to cliched introductions, part one. Are you ready? Then I'll begin. Once upon a time far, far away in RPG land, there existed the kingdom of Kyrandia - a green and pleasant place, full of beautiful trees and flowers, and inhabited by happy people who loved each other and were always doing some good deed or other Creeps.

The ruler of this land was King William, a noble and just man who cared for his people and was respected by them. Kyrandia derived its beauty from the Kyragem, a powerful gemstone whose magical spell held sway over the territory it protected. While the magic of the Kyragem prevailed, no harm could come to Kyrandia.

Right, that's the sickly bit over with, so where did it all go wrong (it had to do really didn't it)? During his reign, William had cause to order the imprisonment of Malcolm, the evil jester, for murdering the parents of Brandon (that's you).
Now I'm sure you've guessed the next bit, but I'll tell you anyway in case - Malcolm has escaped incarceration and stolen the Kyragem, placing Kyrandia under an evil spell whereby the beauty has been replaced by a withered, desolate and barren landscape.

On a visit to his Grandad Kallak, who just happens to live in a tree, Brandon arrives only to find that to his horror Kallak will today be even less interesting company than old men usually are, due largely to the fact that he's turned to stone.

Speaking from a personal point of view, if anyone killed my parents broke out of prison and turned my grandad to stone, I'd be pretty annoyed and might want to do something about it. But if a tree suddenly started giving me the lowdown on exactly who the culprit was and how to get revenge, chances are I would check into my local sanitarium, condemning myself indefinitely to a life of eating soft foods and wearing shoes without laces.

But not Brandon. Brandon keeps his cool, listens attentively to the tree and promptly sets off on his dangerous mission. Git.

On leaving the treehouse and venturing into the forest, Malcolm's work is evident - the grass is brown, the trees dead and there's not an animal to been seen anywhere - not even a Leeds United fan.

Now it's a case of collecting whatever objects you need - you can hold up to eleven - and blagging the required information to take you closer to your ultimate confrontation with the Roy Walker of the underworld.

Spell casting is kept to a minimum in Kyrandia - much more important is Brandon's interaction with the characters, animals and inanimate objects he comes across. Something can be gleaned from nearly every screen, be it information from Bryn, the mysterious and strange temple dweller, or the odd teardrop from the pool of sorrow.

The game is divided into four so-called chapters - that's levels to you and me. You begin, as mentioned, in the forest, and continue through on the second chapter, trekking through the labyrinth of caves before winding up among the trees again for the grand finale.

A great deal of thought seems to have gone into every aspect of Kyrandia. Remember in last month's issue I was impressed by the characters in Rome AD92 and the way they not only provided information but came out with some funny off the-wall comments too? Well there's plenty of this kind of thing in Kyrandia, in fact considering Brandon is an orphan with a stone grandad to contend with, he's quite a funny guy.

Not only must you dash about hither and yon all over the show collecting artefacts and gossip, but also endow yourself with the special powers necessary to complete the game. There are four - the power of healing is important quite early on, but as for the out four... well, I promised not to give too much away.

The animation is absolutely superb. Every screen is full to busting with detail and colour, and the way in which the characters move enhances things 100 per cent. I know it's not particularly new, but I'm a big fan of the... um, 'graduating sprite' for want of a better term. You know what I mean, your character is walking away, getting smaller and smaller until he's nothing but a dot in the distance. Don't yawn damnit!

All through writing this I've been struggling with my conscience, but it's no good - I can't lie to you! I don''t know what the sound's like. There, I've said it. It's true, and I'm sorry, but I saw this game at Virgin Mansions in London, and there was no sound on the version that I played.

I did ask the opinion of Richard Branson, who'd just made me a brew and was proceeding to clean my shoes at the time. Said Richard: 'It's better than dropping acid and listening to Cliff Richard records played backwards.' I won't vouch for that (not because I haven't tried it,but because he didn't pay me enougt), but I will say that if the sound is half as good as the vision, then it's damn good indeed.

Developers Westwood Studios are eager to point out that their product contains absolutely no violence. Apparently in the USA, where Kyrandia has been available for some time, it has attracted many women gamers who have been drawn to its 'gentle' element. But blokes, don' be fooled into thinking this is one for woofters - it's as good a game as you're likely to come across this year - and besides, who needs blood and guts when there's this much going on already?

Kyrandia is the first release in the Fables and Fiends series by Westwood. It's only just hit the shops, but I'm already looking forward to the next one.

Strange though it may seem, in adventures you can sometimes find out a lot about your enemy's personality just by his name. In Monkey Island 2, for instance, LeChuck sounds like a real hard nut to crack; while in the Zork trilogy the Grue is a horrid slimy beast which only attacks when it's pitch dark. If your enemy is given the name Malcolm, though, you know almost immediately that he possesses both some charming and devilish characteristics that make him strangely likeable.

And sure enough, the Malcolm in the story of Kyrandia is a twisted court jester, who wears a silly striped costume which raises a smile in his victims before they are led toa grim death. Gone then are the amusing twinkling eyes, replaced by a menacing glare; instead of juggling balls, he juggles razor-sharp knives. Yes, along with the pirate LeChuck and the monster Grue, the name of Malcolm the jester is set to become synonymous with all that's wicked.

The story of Malcolm's downfall began when he murdered the king and queen of Kyrandia, and took up residence in Kyrandia castle. The castle was the home of the Kyragem, the source of all magic in the land, and so Malcolm assumed almost total control over the people.

Fortunately for the Kyrandians and for the game, Kallak, head of the Mystics and father of the slain Queen, found enough power to banish Malcolm to the castle. Then, with his grandson Brandon, he took up residence beyond the Timbermist woods, far away from Malcolm. Due to the absence of the Kyragem, the Mystics were unable to keep the restraining speel around the castle for long, and soon Malcolm was free.

Now Brandon has grown up, and although he doesn't know it, he is the sole heir to the throne of Kyrandia, and the only one who can rid the land of the evil Malcolm. You must play the part of Brandon, and help him take control of the Kyragem.

Conversation Killer
Right from opening the box, it's apparent that Kyrandia is a big game. It comes on nine disks, which can be installed on to hard drive (see bottom of page). If you have a hard drive, playing the game is a dream; if you have two floppy drives, it's slow but bearable; if you only have one floppy drive, it becomes a bit of a nightmare. This, unfortunately, is the nature of graphical adventure games - Monkey Island 2 suffered in a similar way.

The music has a similar feel to the iMUSE system used in the latter, while a similar font is used for the text. Control of Brandon is via a point-and-click system, so you point to a place, click the mouse button, and Brandon will move there.

As you move Brandon around, you notice that all of your input to the game is done graphically. Unlike Monkey Island 2, where you had a large say in the conversations, Kyrandia has fixed speeches which occur when Brandon meets a character. This gives the impression that you're not so much interacting with the story, but merely guiding Brandon around solving puzzles. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, because some people found the conversations of Monkey Island 2 a bit flippant at times, hardened adventurers may find it a bit limited.

Whistle a happy tune
The graphics which describe the land of Kyrandia are nothing short of stunning. The attention to detail, along with the vivid use of colour make Kyrandia an incredibly beautiful place. The characters which are scattered around the land are similarly detailed, and expertly animated. Malcolm is especially good; as he walks threateningly towards Brandon he constantly juggles knives, sometimes throwing up high into the air before catching it behind his back. Also, the scene where Brandon morphs into Pegasus is a stroke of genius.

The music and sound effects are excellent, and set the atmosphere well depending on the stage of the game. In the labyrinth, where all is dark and dingy, the music takes on a very doomy and deathly tone; while out in the open air a happy tune merrily plays away as Brandon wanders around.

The game is fairly linear, in that most puzzles must be solved before you move on to the next part, unlike some adventures that are around at the moment. Kyrandia doesn't become boring when a difficult puzzle arises. Sometimes the solution is glaringly obvious, so when you realise the answer you kick yourself with annoyance; but most of the time the puzzles are cleverly thought out and intricate, and take a long time to solve.

One or two puzzles, though, are just downright annoying. For example, in the Timbermist Woods is a golden bowl sitting on a marble altar. A variety of gemstones are scattered around the woods, about 10 in all, and a selection of four stones must be inserted into the bowl in order to obtain a flute. The order in which the stones are placed vries with each game, and so placement involves a great deal of trial and error. Place the wrong stone and it will be transported to another part of the woods, so you must go off in search of it once again. An obvious way around this is to save your position before placing each gemstone, but such actions should nt be necessary to solve puzzles in a modern adventure.

To add to this, Brandon has the annoying habit of replying to some of your commands with a completely inane phrase. Attempting to pick up an object which isn't not allowed, for instance, will cause a reply such as "Would anybody notice if I just went home?", or "Why do I have to do all the work?". Because you're the main character in a game which I just paid 36 quid for, that's why.

See no evil?
It would be unfair to say that these comments apply to all of the game, though. The majority of Kyrandia is very playable, and many of the puzzles are highly rewarding. The graphics are beautiful, the animation is excellent, and the sound is atmospheric.

The humour, too, is abundant. The funniest part of the story is the conversation between Darm the Wizard and his pet dragon, Brandywine. The two are just like an elderly husband and wife; he is arrogant and forgetful, while she is prompting and, at times, conscending. Don't worry though, I won't spoil the scene by describing it in too much detail, but suffice to say that it is almost worth buying the game for this scene alone.

As with all graphical adventure games, this has to be compared with the bench test that is Monkey Island 2. Above all of the recent graphical adventures, such as Curse of Enchantia and Lure of the Temptress, Kyrandia comes closest to matching the humour, style and atmosphere of the LucasFilm game.

The Legend of Kyrandia is the first in a series of Fables and Fiends adventures. If Westwood Studios make all of the puzzles both intricate and logical, add more interactivity with the game's characters, and remove the inane ramblings of the lead character, then maybe the second in the series will be crowned the king of Amiga adventure games. For now, this is merely a fine adventure, which is great for ex Monkey Islanders needing a fix.

After the success of Lure Of The Temptress, Virgin are attempting another blitz on the adventure market, this time with their brand-new, all-singing, all-dancing Fables and Fiends series. The first episode of this epic saga is Legend of Kyrandia. The people of Kyrandia, concerned at the problems that the environment could have, struck a deal with the Natural Kingdom to care and protect it. (At least this way they wouldn't have to put up all those 'green' people or, for that matter, have David Icke running all over the place).

However, deals like this can't last forever, and one person in particular wants it squashed. Malcolm (and wouldn't you be maladjusted with a name like that?) murdered Kyrandia's king and queen but was trapped in the castle before he could unleash the full power of the Kyragem, the mythical jewel that was the source of all magic.

The only survivor of the royal family was Brandon, and he has to defeat Malcolm and restore the world to its peaceful state. In case you haven't worked it out yet, you are , in a very virtual sense, Brandon.

Before you started reading this, I guess most of yo would have looked straight at the pictures and are probably thinking 'Oh great. Another Monkey Island clone'. But hold your horses because this could well be the game that breaks the Monkey Island hold on the adventure scene.

No, really. Lots of comparisons are going to be drawn between the two games, so let's do one now. Just how do the nine (count 'em) disks of Kyrandia measure up against the likes of Monkey Island and Curse of Enchantia (reviewed last issue)? Well, to look at, it does lack some of the graphic detail of the others, but what there is is all wonderfully done. (The transformation of the willow when you heal it, for example, is simply beautiful).

Most of the early part of the game takes place outside so it would have been easy for the programmers to go over the top on detail, but they kept it simpler and it looks just as effective, if not more so. Some of the animations are breathtaking - Malcolm the juggling clown is the classic example. The internal scenes are all hugely atmospheric too, especially in the grotto complex.

Humour played a great part in the other two games, but at times it seemed that the programmers were struggling to keep the laughs coming consistently. Kyrandia does contain a great deal of humour but it isn't there just for the sake of trying to be funny. When you get laughs in Kyrandia, it's usually as a very welcome break from a particularly stressful bit of brain strain.

The chase between Brandon and the marble carrier, the argument between the mystic and his dragon and lots more are all genuinely funny - the style of humour isn't as childish and stupid as in Monkey Island.

Of course the most important parts any adventure are the puzzles. Are they too obscure? Are they too easy? Is it just too damn difficult? So many adventure games fall into the trap of being too easy or too hard, but Kyrandia is set just about right. At the start the puzzles are simple enough to work out with a little thought but this is just to break you in gently. Later in the game you'll find yourself spending more time thinking about the puzzles than anything else. No matter how tough the puzzles appear, though, you always find yourself cursing when you uncover the solution, which is always much simpler than you think.

There's no doubting that Kyrandia is a very big game - any game that comes on nine disks is bound to be. For those of you with the likes of an Amiga 2000 it's a joy to play, although if you have a hard drive there's still a fair amount of waiting around, as it loads each screen individually. This means if you leave a location you have to wait for the next one to load, then if you want to go back you have to wait for the last screen to load again. This can get very frustrating, especially in the early parts of the game where there's a lot of wandering about to do, and this is possibly the only problem with this magnificent work of art.

The control system is one of the easiest to get on with I've ever come across, with the possible exception of the Coktel adventures. There's none of the sentence construction that featured so heavily in Monkey Island 1 and 2 - all you have to do is point and click. To use an object you just click on it and then click where you want to use it.

PERFECTLY WELL ADJUSTED
Certain aspects of the game are changeable and you will definitely want to change them. You can alter the walking speed of Brandon on screen. At the start he plods around but, when you've played the game a few times, you'll find yourself setting the speed to maximum. Not only is a faster but it's also quite amusing to watch him whizzing around the place. The speed of the text is also changeable and you may want to do this too if you're a fast reader.

So, is Kyrandia better than Curser Of Enchantia and Monkey Island 2 (which in my view are the two best adventures on the market)? Umm, tough,. It's about on a par with Enchantia but Monkey Island 2 is a little better.

Thirty-six quid is a lot of money for a game, so you want to make sure you're getting value.

Okay, so what has Kyrandia got going for it? It's big, very big. It's easy to get into and, because of the way it's been styled, it's very easy to get completely hooked on it. Unlike a lot of adventures where a certain puzzle will just keep annoying you for hours on end until you give up because the solution is just so completely unfathomable, just about everything in Kyrandia makes sense in the end.

The graphics aren't as detailed as those other titles but they do look good and the game has been packed full of those nice touches that appeal so much to most adventurers. Most of the other characters seem to be more than a little bit clinically insane which makes for some fun when you talk to them. It's easy to control and moving round and manipulating objects soon becomes second nature.

Kyrandia isn't quite the next best thing since sliced bread but it is possibly the next best thing since Monkey Island 2. It is a great game and I wouldn't hesitate in recommending it to anyone. If adventuring is your middle name then, besides having a very strange name, you're the kind of person who won't be disappointed after shelling out those hard earned notes for Kyrandia.

If this is anything to go by then I'm looking forward to the rest of the Fables and Fiends series. Kyrandia will be a hard act to follow, and if they improve on this then they'll have the best adventure going. For now though, Virgin will have to be content with a mere classic.