And now for the last in this month's selection of nouveaux gamettes. QOR is from Maltdale Ltd, a company who I must confess I haven't come across before. QOR is their first game, written using GAC and launched at the June Amstrad show. QOR features one Joe Steam who has been assigned theperilous taks of penetrating the planet of the title and checking out a vast computer complex that the authorities suspect is being used for hostile purposes. Joe is smuggled aboard a ship in disguise and must keep a low profile before stealing a ship himself to invetigate the situation. This was a frustrating game because much of it was truly original in presentation. The author, Steve Baker, has come up with a number of imaginative terms, phrases, and objects to give the impression of someone living in the 21st century. The graphics are also, occasionally, excellent but the overall impression of the game is one of extreme unevenness. One moment I was impressed by an imaginative turn of phrase or pretty picture, the next I was let down by some appalling spelling-mistake, or a tattily designed screen. There are also other rather more serious criticisms. The game features a reasonable number of locations, of which almost all are illustrated, but there aren't a huge number of objects and those that are there often yield little information when examined. Giving objects even a brief message of description helps to keep the atmosphere going in a game and avoid a feeling of frustration, which this game eventually fails to do away with. At the time of writing Maltdale hadn't fixed a price for the game. Adventurers are growing steadily more choosy these days, and if you can get a game as good as Robin of Sherlock for £7.95, then new entries into the market have to watch both their quality control and their pricing very carefully. QOR needs tidying up on-screen at least before attempting to survive at any price over five pounds.  
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