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From: mapjilg@gdr.bath.ac.uk (J I L Gold)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games
Subject: Re: Want Shadow of the Beast II info
Message-ID: <1990Sep4.162905.12481@gdr.bath.ac.uk>
Date: 4 Sep 90 16:29:05 GMT
Organization: Bath University Computing Services, UK
Lines: 37

Want some advice? Well, here it is anyway - it's a helluva expensive
way to buy a T-shirt. The "improved" game play basically means what 
appears to be the crudest parser going, that allows you to "converse"
with some of the locals. However, the basic idea's just the same: jump,
punch, duck, punch, punchpunchpunchpunchurghhh.... and then a minute's
worth of drive gronking before you can set off again, and that's not
even with the end-of-game sequence enabled.
The graphics aren't nearly as spectacular as the original. Gone is the
stunning parallax scrolling, replaced with a 2-or-3 playfield multi-
directional parallax scroll. The baddies and the main character 
animation is very good, though. The gameplay is very, very hard. It's
bad enough getting past a couple of screens, and there are too many 
bottlenecks that just kill the enjoyment of being able to push that
little bit further each time. Finally, the sound effects are fine, but 
the music is inferior to the original.

Conclusion: Beast II looks and sounds rather plain in some respects 
compared to its predecessor. The gameplay is still too hard to be fun,
and too monotonous and biff-bash-bang to interest roleplayer types,
and there are still too many delays and pauses that break the flow of 
the game. 

Price:		34.95 UK pounds :-(
Ratings (/10)
Gameplay:	3
Graphics:	7
Sound:		7
Value:		3
Overall:	5

I can't close, however, without mentioning the EXCELLENT intro
animation which sets the story...beautiful graphics and sound effects.
If only you could skip it, though (where have I heard that before?).
-- 
#  J.Gold                            |    mapjilg@uk.ac.bath.gdr               #
#  University of Bath , UK           |    jilg@uk.ac.bath.maths                #
#  The more improbable an event is, the more likely it is to happen :-)        #