Classic point-and-click adventure games have two titans that loom large because of just how many successes they had: Sierra On-Line and LucasArts.
This isn't about them.
Other adventure game developers existed alongside those titans. Some of them, like Revolution Software, continue to exist, outliving both of the big two.
Best known for the Broken Sword series of adventure games, Revolution was founded in 1989 by British game developers Charles Cecil, Tony Warriner, David Sykes and Noirin Carmody.
Cecil and Warriner got their start in the mid-80s working at Artic Computing, an English studio active during the British microcomputer boom (think systems like the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC). Artic folded in 1986 and after a few years working at other companies, Revolution was founded.
1992's Lure of the Temptress was the company's first product: a fantasy point-and-click adventure game slightly reminiscent of King's Quest and with a cheeky sense of humor reminiscent of The Secret of Monkey Island, though less wacky and more British in its comedy. Released for the Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, and MS-DOS computer systems, it was a solid hit for the company and paved the way for more ambitious projects.
The game's setup is told in a gorgeous intro cinematic that explains that a good king had united the land and on a hunting trip, hired the peasant protagonist, Diermot, to flush out game for them. Suddenly, the unnamed king learns of an evil sorceress named Selena who has conquered a town and threatens the kingdom. The king's men ride to battle, only to be cut down by Selena's orc-like henchmen, the monstrous Skorl. Diermot is captured during the battle, and awakens in a prison cell, where the game begins.
Revolution developed the Virtual Theatre engine for their games, which aside from the regular pointing and clicking, also allowed the NPC characters populating the world to wander around and interact with each other for greater immersion than simply standing in one place waiting to be talked to by the protagonist.
This is good and bad because while the verisimilitude is appreciated, the game also has you track down specific NPCs to talk to in order to proceed, and it can be frustrating trying to track them down.
After escaping the dungeon with the help of a jester named Ratpouch, Diermot has to explore the village of Turnvale, its castle and a nearby cave to find a way to stop Selena from conquering the rest of the kingdom.
The interface is quite good. Left click to look at something, right click to bring up a menu of options like talking, pulling, using, etc). The game also gives you companions that can follow you around and Diermot can even give them somewhat complicated orders which are necessary for some puzzles.
Unfortunately, the character pathfinding, at least on the DOS version available on GOG.com for free, is a mess. Its very finicky getting an NPC follower to do something because you have to stand right next to them at exactly the right spot to trigger the dialogue. Not impossible, just irritating.
With the stakes of an evil sorceress with an army of monsters threatening the kingdom, the actual scope of the game is quite small. Cozy, even. Turnvale is a nice little town, which is good, because you will spend a lot of time walking back and forth across it. The townspeople all have engaging personalities, and even ones like Gwyn, the town gossip who has no direct bearing on any puzzles, provides story hints and clues if you keep talking to her.
As a protagonist, Diermot is a lunk, but a likable one. Ratpouch is funny for a little while, then his pathfinding wears out its welcome as he constantly ends up underfoot.
The GOG version uses the SCUMMVM emulator to run, which apparently has buggy audio and there's an annoying alarm bell sound that played constantly in the town as I was exploring it. Apparently the issue doesn't happen if the game is run in DOS-Box. From what I've seen online, the Amiga version seems to run the best with the best sound, but I have no experience with Amiga emulation to have a firsthand opinion on it. This being an early 90's game made by a brand new studio with hardly any budget, there is no voice dialogue in any of the versions.
The writing and artwork are solid in all the versions I've seen, and the game has a very quaint and cozy atmosphere that allows the tone to jump between flippant dialogue with a Conan the Barbarian type of adventurer in a bar to trying to save an innocent shopkeeper from being executed by the Skorl. Like Sierra games, Diermot can get game overs in many ways, but its not the parade of Save-Die-Reload Save that King's Quest has. Only a few puzzles have built in limitations like time limits you don't necessarily know about, like the wine barrel puzzle, but overall its fairly forgiving for an early 90s adventure game.
Lure of the Temptress was a hit in England and paved the way for Revolution to make bigger games, like Beneath a Steel Sky and the Broken Sword series. Its a pleasant little game with some ambitions that occasionally exceed its grasp, like the NPC pathfinding. The writing and art style are good, the music isn't great played through SCUMMVM, but it wasn't a dealbreaker. I liked it, but it wasn't mind blowing. It is freeware, so I definitely recommend it, at least for a try.
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