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Title Vengeance of Excalibur
Game Type RPG
Company Virgin Mastertronic
Players 1
Compatibility OCS (AGA with patch)
HD Installable Yes
Submission keeno - keen@ulster.net

Review
Vengeance of Excalibur is the sequel to the excellent Spirit of
Excalibur.. it takes place towards the twilight of Constantine's rule,
around the late-500s AD.. Camelot has been plundered and its treasures
(including the most desirable Nineve..) stolen away by a rogue knight to
the infidels in the far south.. the game itself takes place on and around
the Iberian peninsula; an area of land and sea that covers medieval Spain,
Portugal and bits of France and Morocco.. a vastly barren, burnt and
choking place, it is inhabited by an army of fanatics; bandits, gypsies,
monks, crusaders, etc.. and there, in an enchanted castle in the deep
south, a darker, more sinister power awaits..

Since i covered the basic workings of the Excalibur games in my review for
SOE, i won't repeat them in depth here.. suffice to say, action takes
place on 2 levels: a scene level, that is a massive scrolling god's eye
view of the game's map and an action level, that is a side-scrolling
view of the game's characters and their immediate environment. Generally,
not much has changed.. you start your campaign by selecting a few of the
roundtable knights to journey into this harsh land, acquire allies and
retrieve the treasures of Camelot.. oh, and thrash a few infidels along
the way.. the knights you choose when you start, will affect very much the
play of the game through out..

The graphics of VOE are excellent.. your knights have opted to off their
heavy plate mail for the bucket helms and light chain of the crusaders..
and as the game progresses you see the lush greenery of the north has been
replaced by the dusty umber of the south.. there are more animations, and
the artists waste no time poking fun at the many zealots and
reactionaries; from the monks beating themselves with the good book, to
the flagellants crawling on their hands and knees, flaying their backs
with painful looking whips, staining their shirts with their blood.. this
game is actually a bit more gory than SOE; the crucified and gutted
corpses are really quite graphic - but never tastelessly so.. overall, the
look of the game is rawer (although never unrefined..) like the garish
hues of the landscape, it is starker and stronger.. a severe and muted
10.. all my comments for SOE still apply to the sound.. the rich
Spanish-flavoured score, sometimes sounding a bit too much like its coming
from an internal speaker, a 9.. as for the gameplay, everything that made
SOE great is here and more.. it is slightly larger; offering more quests,
more locations, more NPCs (Non-Player Characters) etc.. but also a bit
easier; it still took me about a week to complete.. while VOE is not quite
a whole new game, it is also by no means a set of data disks.. everyone
involved did an excellent job, from the game itself to the great
historical information covered in the included manual and map.. VOE is the
perfect send-off to one the Amiga's greatest role playing dynasties ever..
enjoy.

Graphics: 10
Sound: 9
Gameplay: 9.5

Vengeance of Excalibur: 9.5