[{"TitleName":"Claws of Despair","Publisher":"Players Software","Author":"Ben Hall, Jonathan Nicholson, ROB","YearOfRelease":"1986","ZxDbId":"0006089","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 53, Aug 1986","Price":"£0.98","ReleaseDate":"1986-07-18","Editor":"David Kelly","TotalPages":108,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: David Kelly\r\nDeputy Editor: John Gilbert\r\nSenior Staff Writer: Graham Taylor\r\nStaff Writers: Clare Edgeley\r\nDesigner: Gareth Jones\r\nEditorial Secretary: Norisah Fenn\r\nAdventure Writers: Gordo Greatbelly\r\nZapchat: Jon Riglar\r\nHelpline: Andrew Hewson\r\nHardware Correspondent: John Lambert\r\nContributors: Jerry Muir, Gary Rook, Tony Kendle, Richard Price, Mike Wright, Brian Cooper\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Louise Fanthorpe\r\nSenior Sales Executive: Rory Doyle\r\nProduction Assistant: Alison Morton\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Linda Everest\r\nSubscriptions Manager: Carl Dunne\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\nTelephone [redacted]\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by EMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n\r\nCover Illustration: Lee Sullivan\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to Sinclair User please send programs or articles to:\r\nSinclair User\r\nEMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nOriginal programs should be on cassette and articles should be typed. Please write Program Printout on the envelopes of all cassettes submitted. We cannot undertake to return cassettes unless an SAE is enclosed. We pay £20 for each program printed and £50 for star programs.\r\n\r\nTypeset by Saffron Graphics Ltd, [redacted]\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by EMAP Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1986 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458\r\n\r\nABC 90,215 July-Dec 1985"},"MainText":"CLAWS OF DESPAIR\r\nLabel: Players\r\nAuthor: Peter Iveson\r\nPrice: £2.99\r\nJoystick: none\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nReviewer: John Gilbert\r\n\r\nThe standard of budget priced text and graphic adventures is generally not that hot but here's one fantasy game that is worth playing.\r\n\r\nThe plot itself isn't terrifically original - you're on a quest to meet the owner of the talons in the title. That's necessary before you find the object of the whole effort, the Staff of Sarfrin (which sounds just like a kind of sugar substitute).\r\n\r\nThere are few traps but many decisions to be made. Should you kill the guards who are beating up an old woman in the poor quarter of the city, or can her death be turned to your advantage? Your attitude to murder is important to your success. For instance, you can't even seem to begin your quest until you kill three guards.\r\n\r\nWhen you're out of the city of Carloon the going gets tough. A red dragon will demand your blood. The tracker will try his best to kill. And the sand sharks are always there waiting for you to put a foot wrong.\r\n\r\nIn fact sand is there in abundance in the game's desert maze which seems to stretch out forever in all directions. One disappointment is that many of the desert scenes use the same picture which takes 30 seconds to draw each time. Irritating if you get stuck for a long time.\r\n\r\nClaws of Despair is an above average adventure game at a price anyone can afford. The text is imaginatively written and the full-screen graphics, although slow in execution, set the scene admirably.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"The slow graphics and standard format are a problem but the thinking is all pretty imaginative stuff.","Page":"50","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"John Gilbert","Score":"4","ScoreSuffix":"/5"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"4/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"ZX Computing Issue 30, Oct 1986","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1986-09-25","Editor":"Bryan Ralph","TotalPages":92,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Bryan Ralph\r\nAssistant Editor: Cliff Joseph\r\nConsultant Editor: Ray Elder\r\nAdvertising Manager: John McGarry\r\nDesign: Argus Design\r\nA.S.P. Advertising and Editorial [redacted]\r\n\r\nPrinted by Alabaster Passmore and Sons Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nAdvertisement Copy Controller: Lynn Collis\r\n\r\nDistributed by: Argus Press Sales and Distribution Ltd, [redacted]\r\n\r\nZX Computing Monthly is published on the fourth Friday of each month. Subscription rates can be obtained from ZX Subscriptions, [redacted]\r\n\r\nThe contents of this publication, including all articles, designs plans, drawings and other intellectual property rights herein belong to Argus Specialist Publications Limited. All rights conferred by the law of Copyright and other intellectual property rights and by virtue of international copyright conventions are specifically reserved to Argus Specialist Publications Limited and any reproduction requires the prior written consent of the company.\r\n\r\nArgus Specialist Publications Limited. ©1986"},"MainText":"Players\r\n£1.99\r\n\r\nMore a cause of despair as it turns out: another less than wonderful offering from Interceptor's new Players label. It is somewhat better than JTTCOESH. but still suffers from similar flaws.\r\n\r\nYour quest is to recover a Staff of Saffrin, which will save your land for reasons not quite made clear in the slightly incoherent instructions. The game - what I've seen of it - is set in a middle earth type civilisation, with inns and a walled city, plus a wizard and other magic.\r\n\r\nDescription is above average, generally well written. The full screen graphics are mostly poor though, and excruciatingly slow. This is particularly noticeable, and frustrating, in a desert maze, where the same rather dreadful picture is drawn at each of the many junctions; and since you are killed frequently, you have to reload often, when the pictures are drawn again.\r\n\r\nIndeed, death lurks round unfairly virtually every corner, and usually there's no turning back, making play frustrating, not challenging. EXAMINE is rarely responsive, and there's an unnecessary pause each time you use it. The game is generally unfriendly. The problems are tricky, but quite original and fun.\r\n\r\nThe packaging is well designed but otherwise I'm totally unimpressed by Players. A much better idea would be to re-release some old Interceptor games like Heroes Of Karn: they're better adventures, ideally suited to a budget price and have delectable graphics. Players is not budget adventuring at its best: buy Seabase Delta or AETOASOG instead.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"88","Denied":false,"Award":"Glob Minor","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Peter Sweasy","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":"Grim"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"Grim","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]