Qabbalah

Copyright : Amsoft | Reviewed by : Ritchardo

No, not some hokey Hollywood religiion sported by the likes of Britney Spears and Madonna but an Amsoft Gold release and one of the last games to be released by the Brentwood boys.

Guide an aspiring acolyte along the paths of the Tree of Lifeâ?¦ according to the text rolling across the bottom of the screen. I canâ??t find any other explanation of whatâ??s going on so thatâ??ll have to doâ?¦

Still, some games play okay without any kind of instructionâ?¦ donâ??t they?

Graphics

Colourful if undefined, Qabbalah is a step up from some of the earlier Amsoft titles and looks quite good to be honest. Sure, everything is a little angular but compared to some games released around the same time, Qabbalah has aged quite well in appearance whilst maintaing a retro charm - a difficult balance to achieve.

The animation of your main character (I donâ??t know his name so letâ??s call himâ?¦ Keith) does leave a little to be desired his shuffling along causing no real offence but his ludicrous Carl Lewis-esque long jumps are unrealistic and difficult to control properly.

Far from the biggest problem with this game, with a better sense of gameplay, Qabbalah could have had a real chance of being a memorable game rather than just looking like a flat Sorcery rip off.

Sound

A short tune is looped on the title screen which is actually quite good. It wonâ??t set the heather on fire but itâ??s okay! The sound effects on the other hand are a little more drab and are reminiscent of a baboon being winched up and down a mineshaft in a barrel.

Gameplay

Iâ??ve decided after some extensive play testing that Qabbalah is all a big joke. It has to be. The first jape comes on the title screen asking you to choose between three difficulty levels: moderate, difficult and impossible. The joke of course being that no matter what option you pick - this game is impossible.

Itâ??s not impossible because itâ??s particulary difficult to get around/avoid monsters and the like - itâ??s more impossible because at no point are you ever clear on what is going on. Judging by the layout of the screen you have to collect spheres and use objects - sadly I didnâ??t find any - instead I wandered the landscape avoiding giant floating skulls and bits were you inexplicably lost energyâ?¦

Iâ??m sure that the designers of this game had a clear idea of what they wanted to do but unfortunately this is not abundantly clear and even though we donâ??t currently have instructions available to us Iâ??m 99.9% sure that they wouldnâ??t help us much either.

A confusing mess, Qabbalah exists purely as a game of plodding exploration rather than any kind of graphical adventure.