Lure of the Temptress

Lure of the Temptress
Developer(s)	Revolution Software
Publisher(s)	Virgin Interactive Entertainment
Designer(s)	Charles Cecil (director) Dave Cummins(lead design) Daniel Marchant(producer) Richard Joseph (composer)
Engine	Virtual Theatre
Platform(s)	DOS, Amiga, Atari ST
Release date(s)	June, 1992
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	None
Media/distribution	3½-inch Floppy

Lure of the Temptress is a fantasy point-and-click adventure game created by Revolution Software, published by Virgin Interactive Entertainment, and initially released in 1992 for Atari ST, DOS and Amiga systems. This was the first game developed by Revolution Software and was the debut for their own in-house developed Virtual Theatre game engine, which Revolution used in the subsequent games Beneath a Steel Sky and the Broken Sword series.

Story

In Lure of the Temptress, the player takes on the role of a young peasant named Diermot. He was most recently employed as a beater for the king's hunting party. One night, the king receives a note from a messenger, requesting the king's services to help stamp out a rebellion in the remote village of Turnvale. As the king's men depart on their horses to ride to the rescue, Diermot’s pony follows them, and he is unwittingly dragged along to the battle. When the party arrives at Turnvale, they are confronted not by an ordinary peasant revolt, but rather by a band of fierce, inhuman mercenaries - the man-eating Skorl, led by a young and beautiful enchantress named Selena, the titular temptress. The king's men are defeated in the battle and the king is killed. In the process, Diermot is flung from his mount and winds up on the ground unconscious. The Skorl take Diermot prisoner and toss him into the local dungeon, where the player starts the game, and Diermot begins his quest to rid Turnvale of Selena's evil tyranny.

Gameplay

The user interface of Lure of the Temptress consists partly of a mouse operated point-and-click GUI, but also of a rather intricate system of drop-down lists, with which the player can perform more advanced tasks, communicate with NPCs and give them complex orders. Many problems can be solved only by asking a supportive character for assistance, and the player can even instruct this character to lead him to specific locations. The major part of the gameplay is based on puzzle-solving, typical of the traditional adventure game genre. However, in a couple of action-oriented battle scenes, the player must use his reflexes and skills as he fights his opponents.

Reception

The game was rated 95% from Génération 4 (France), 94% from Joystick (France), 92% from ST Format (UK), 92% from Amiga Format (UK), and 91% from Amiga Action (UK). ST Action rated the game as the best adventure game ever. The game reached number one in the British GALLUP charts at the beginning of July 1992 and remained in the top twenty for most of the rest of the year. The game received 4 out of 5 stars in Dragon.

Freeware status

On April 1st, 2003, the game was released as freeware. The data files are available from the Revolution Software website for download, but unfortunately the original source code for the game has been lost. Lure of the Temptress is mostly compatible with modern day computers running Microsoft Windows XP though for those experiencing problems or who are running Linux or Mac OS X, using DOSBox to emulate the game is recommended. The game's engine has been added to ScummVM as of January 15, 2007. This version of Lure of the Temptress was released on GOG.com on December 18, 2008.

External links

• Revolution Software's Lure of the Temptress website
• Lure of the Temptress at MobyGames
• Let's Play Lure of Temptress
• THE MAKING OF... Lure of the Temptress (Edge magazine)
• Lure of the Temptress wiki