Lure of the Temptress

Summer 1992, and I'm sitting in front of a monitor with that typical orange glow. A game arrived on diskettes from what was then a completely unknown studio called Revolution Software — and the very first screen told me this wasn't going to be ordinary. A dark dungeon, a humanoid guard behind bars, no hands behind my back and think.

Lure of the Temptress is a classic point-and-click adventure set in a medieval fantasy world. You play as an ordinary peasant named Diermot, who finds himself imprisoned after his village is taken over by the Skorl — strange humanoid creatures serving the mysterious sorceress Zanthia. Save the city, escape the dungeon, uncover conspiracies. Nothing that would knock you out of your chair with plot originality, but as a framework for an adventure, it did the job back then.

The controls are clean: left mouse button performs an action, right button changes it — you cycle through icons for hand, eye, mouth. No command list, no typing. For 1992, snappy and intuitive. Revolution added something else though that others weren't really doing back then — characters with their own routines. NPCs walk around the world, they have their schedules, and if you don't catch someone at the right moment, you have to wait or find them elsewhere. It gave the city a certain liveliness, even though the AI sometimes got genuinely stuck in a corner and shuffled there forever. Old technology has its limits.

The graphics looked solid back then — detailed backgrounds, smoother character animation than many competitors. The Virtu engine was Revolution Software's own development and looked decent on VGA monitors with that flickering screen. Music and sound effects through Sound Blaster did their part for atmosphere, though the soundtrack can't compare to something like the contemporary LucasArts titles — it's functional, not unforgettable. What's aged worst are some puzzles dependent on timing and character movement, which in today's playthrough might frustrate more than satisfy.

Lure of the Temptress today is best suited for someone who wants to see the beginnings of a studio that later gave us Beneath a Steel Sky or Broken Sword. As a historical artifact it has value, as a pure adventure it's a bit uneven — strong opening, sluggish middle at times. It does not run in the browser here — the page carries a description, screenshots and the release data. Half an afternoon is enough and you won't regret it.