Kingdom: The Far Reaches

In 1984, RDI Video Systems (headed by one Rick Dyer) introduced the Halcyon, a $2,000 video game system using laserdiscs instead of cartridges. Only two games were released for the Halcyon before it croaked; one was Thayer's Quest, best described as a more complex version of Dragon's Lair. (Dyer worked on both games, hence the similarities.) Eleven years later, Dyer has a new company and a "new" game that's actually a revamped Thayer's Quest. You play the part of Bilbo Baggins-er, Lathan Kandor, and your quest is to explore Middle Earth-er, the Five Kingdoms, gathering items and clues while searching for the three Relics of Mobus which give you the power to kill the evil mage Drakesblood and rescue a princess with the unlikely name of Grace Delight.

Alas, the cheesy Tolkien wanna-be story is not helped by the gameplay: Click on a location, watch a full-motion video clip, (maybe) use an item, (maybe) take an item, click on another location. Still, there are a few dozen hours of puzzles to solve, and very entertaining voice acting-shame about the so-so animation. The verdict: Kingdom is one of the most playable FMV games for the 3DO, which isn't saying much, but hey.

Although not the traditional RPG that Secret of the Stars and Chrono Trigger are, this lighthearted Dragon's Lair facsimile is still deeply rooted in the fantasy role-playing genre. But decoding the puzzles can be less than adventurous, and the trial-apd-error gameplay gets old fast.

Far and Away

You play as Lathan, the last hope for the world of the Argent Kings. With your mentor, Daedolon, you must unlock the mysteries of the kingdom, find ancient relics, and restore Princess Grace Delight to the throne. Standing in your way is mucho mystic mayhem in the form of war-locks, crystal tigers, enchanted forests, and more.

Daedolon bestows some pretty nifty spells on you, including ones that release traps, give sight to the blind, and decode ancient tongues and alphabets. As you find more relics, you'll also find that they can be used as weapons.

Although the gameplay is suspiciously similar to that of Dragon's Lair, it has an inventive twist. Instead of just following a preset path, you must actually make decisions that either open up new areas or change the outcome of other events to come.

Animations 'R' Us

The graphics are clean-cut illustrations, but they aren't quite as well done or as humorous as those in Dragon's Lair or Space Ace. They resemble a badly illustrated Satur-day-afternoon animated Bible story. And the myriad ways that Lathan bites the dust could have been done better.

The sounds are crucial but also way short of fantastic. Clear voice-overs pervade the game, but some of the dialogue is silly and translucent, like Lathan's comment about the fairies, "What strange little fellows." Please!

The simple menu system is easy to control, though you won't know what to use in your inventory without some trial and error. Unfortunately, the response time is very short, so save at every turn of events, or death will come often to Lathan.

Its a Reach

Far Reaches is no salve for traditional RPG warriors, but it makes a great forage into another strange fantasy world. If you think you're going to get the fast action of Dragon Lair or the solid elements of Chrono Trigger, however, you'd better Reach for something else.

From the creators of Dragon's Lair comes Kingdom: The Far Reaches, a fully animated graphic adventure with a rich soundtrack.

When a magic talisman, "The Hand," is shattered into five pieces, dark magic spreads throughout the land. As the last of the Argent Kings, you must find the missing pieces and banish evil from the land.

Kingdom's nonlinear gameplay includes both puzzle and action challenges. The stoiy line unfolds differently each time you play, depending on how you use the game's more than 30 magic spells and special items to build your power and skill.

If you have been looking for an interactive adventure, look no further. Interplay's new game Kingdom for the 3DO should give you've been waiting for.

Kingdom incorporates scores of animated sequences that tell the story, while you collect the items and make the choices that will send you further into the adventure. If you make wrong decisions, you could end up in an early grave.

With lots of cinematic scenes, complete with voices and a fun quest, RPG fans of all skill levels should find themselves challenged by this title.