DESCRIPTION

Kingdom II: Shadoan was created, conceived and produced by Rick Dyer, designer of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace. The story takes place in an animated world reminiscent of Tolkien's work and is based on the arcade game Thayer's Quest.

The story revolves around a quest by the main character Lathan Kandor, the last of the magic-wielding Argent Kings, to recover two lost relics, the Dagger of Arne and the Crown of Malric. These two items, when combined with three previously found relics recovered by Lathan in the "prequel" adventure Reaches, form the powerful amulet known as the Hand of Mobus. From this mystical device emanates magical powers strong enough to help Lathan in his quest to defeat the evil Torlock, the second most powerful mage in the Five Kingdoms.

The game features a Disney-team musical soundtrack, 70,000 feature-film, hand-painted quality animation cels and is the product of a three million dollar budget. Shadoan is an interactive game that can be played on both DVD ROM and DVD Video players on properly equipped IBM-compatible and Macintosh computers. Developed for an international audience, the game contains seven subtitled languages (English, Japanese, French, German, Spanish, Korean and traditional Chinese).

Two degrees of difficulty are offered and consist of an apprentice level (easy) where some puzzles and perils are suppressed and the riddle- and danger-strewn wizard level. Basic gameplay requires directing Lathan's actions throughout the Far Reaches and Shadoan and making decisions at crucial points during the adventure. A time limit is imposed on the decision-making process and is represented by an on-screen hourglass, the speed of which is dictated by the difficulty mode. Action is controlled with either a mouse or remote with keyboard hot keys supported. Shadoan is filled with standard adventuring fare such as books of interest, a map, a scrying glass, magical gems, scrolls and relics among others. Minimum monitor resolution is 1024x768. ~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide