Game Review: Feud (ZX Spectrum, Bulldog)

Brothers In Arms

Learic and Leanoric, are two feuding wizard brothers, who’ve lived in the village of Little Dullford for so many years, that none of the locals can remember when they turned up there.

You play Learic who is out to destroy his nemesis, wizard brother.  To do this, you pace quickly around the village, collecting ingredients to make spells.  Mixing the ingredients that match with those inside your spell book means that you can then cast that spell onto your brother.

As you move around the game, you will however, see the opposing wizard doing the same and trying to destroy you, so be alert, especially when he’s nearby!

Just One Life to Live, So Make the Most of It

When playing Feud, you only have one life.  At first that may sound harsh (especially when there is no way of gaining any others).  Instead, what you have is a certain amount of energy and either wizard only sustain a certain amount of damage, once spells are cast upon each other.

There is a fantastic feature at the bottom of the screen where there appears to be the two wizards with their names above them.  When either wizard is on the receiving end of a spell, you’ll see them gradually sink into the ground and that wizard starts to sink into the ground.  When there is no energy left, R.I.P. appears on a tombstone and the feud is over!

A Concoction of a Dozen Spells

When wandering around the village, you will occasionally see an ingredient.  These slightly flicker and tend to consist of flowers.  In fact, 23 out of the 24 of the ingredients consist of flowers whilst the other one just happens to be bones!

When you have collected an ingredient, your spell book (which is in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen) turns over to the relevant spell page which is applicable to that ingredient in and lit up in red.  When you have both ingredients for a spell, you can then go to your mixing pot and cast the spell.

From time-to-time, you will see the opposing wizard, Leanoric (who just so happens to be a doppelganger of yourself, but in purple!) also trying to get to the same ingredient as you.  Be alert and nimble to grab it before he does or else it’s gone.

Tracking Down the Enemy

A great feature is the compass (shown in the bottom-right hand corner) and this indicates in yellow the direction of where Leanoric is.  As there are plenty of screens, this comes, not only in handy to find him but also gives you a clue on how to possibly avoid him if he keeps heading your way!

Great Graphics but Poor Sound

The In-game graphics for Feud are excellent.  The characters are beautifully animated and move very smoothly indeed.  Each screen has a splendid use of colour, brightness and the details of the trees, large huts and characters are a pleasure to see.

There is very limited colour clash as the players walk in set open pathways and do not never walkover the backgrounds.  Colour clash is extremely minimal, and only occurs when passing by the local villagers (minding their merry way unless you turn them into a zombie!) or passing over Leanoric!

Sound is very sparse, and I’d describe it as tip-taps as you pace along.  The only other sound is when turning the spell book and casting a spell or when your rival is on the same screen.  The white-noise sound is alright, with my favourite being when use and shoot the lightning spell.

A Spelling Mistake!

Excuse the pun, but for anyone who likes spotting spelling mistakes, you may like to know that at bottom of the instructions, it reads incorrectly as All rightrs [sic] reserved.

On A Final Note

Feud was released on both tape and disk formats.  Spectrum +3 owners could also load Feud by buying a “Spectrum Plus 3 Hits” compilation on disk.  Feud can be found on side B of the disk whereas, the other two separate games (were on side A).  They are Amaurote and Hyperbowl.

The 128K version also has a loading screen, whereas the 48K version doesn’t  When loading the game, the initial short initial basic programme then just goes straight to Bytes: code.   The 128K version doesn’t make any use of the AY sound chip whatsoever and therefore mirrors the 48K version. In my opinion that was a missed to opportunity to enhance the game further.

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