RPGWatch Feature - Dungeons of Chaos Review

Good job bro. Keep up the good work for us niche RPG fans who like this sort of thing! :party:
 
Would be. That's another one I have to play soon. Love what I heard about the D&D implementation in it.

It has great systems, but the UI was very exhausting and the font gave me eye-cancer, so I had to stop. Patiently waiting for KotC II.
 
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Would be. That's another one I have to play soon. Love what I heard about the D&D implementation in it.

I think you'll enjoy it when you get round to it. It's a very challenging game with great DnD combat, it should be right up your street really.
 
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Nice review!

The mechanics and character development certainly seems interesting, but nostalgia can't really carry me past the mid-to-late-90's, so I'll likely stay clear. At least for now.
 
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I think you'll enjoy it when you get round to it. It's a very challenging game with great DnD combat, it should be right up your street really.

Definitely. My biggest "problem" is that I have too many games to get to.

After I finish the BG Trilogy I'm not sure what to play next. Does Knights of the Chalice have overworld exploration and elements other than combat? Is it something like ToEE where you explore dungeons and maps, etc.?
 
Primarily it's about combat. There's an overland map that links the different areas and has random encounters. The dungeons are well designed, memorable and often challenging. It isnt always an option to rest, so resource/spell management plays a major role. You talk to other characters as you explore and this opens opportunity to take certain decisions etc, but I don't remember there being any convo skills like intimidate etc. There are secrets etc though. It's a lot of fun but mainly fighting and exploring.
 
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Primarily it's about combat. There's an overland map that links the different areas and has random encounters. The dungeons are well designed, memorable and often challenging. It isnt always an option to rest, so resource/spell management plays a major role. You talk to other characters as you explore and this opens opportunity to take certain decisions etc, but I don't remember there being any convo skills like intimidate etc. There are secrets etc though. It's a lot of fun.

Sounds great. I was just hoping there was exploration, trap-finding, secrets, etc.. And an overland map.

Sounds good, it's probably the next thing I play. Unless 20 other games catch my attention. :D Was thinking Goldbox might be next but eh.

Here's a good one. Would you recommend playing the Goldbox games for the first time or KotC first?
 
Knights of the Chalice is more accessible I think. The goldbox games are definitely worth playing though. I still go back to Pool of Radiance every now and then - I'm sure there's an element of nostalgia here but I just think it's brilliant.

If you play the gold box games I'd advise installing the companion:
http://personal.inet.fi/koti/jhirvonen/gbc/

You don't need to use it to "cheat", exactly, but it's nice to have some options for gameplay. The original system for memorising spells gets old fast, for example, and if you want to play through the series I'd suggest removing the racial level caps.
 
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Thanks. I was going to use the Companion, for sure. I'm just wondering which ones I should go through first (will eventually do all, in time.)
 
I suggest going through them in order and carrying over your party, ie starting with Pool of Radiance and then Curse of the Azure Bonds, secret of the silver blades, pools of darkness. Some classes are only available in later games though (Paladin, ranger, not sure if others) so you might want to factor that in.
 
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Sounds great. I was just hoping there was exploration, trap-finding, secrets, etc.. And an overland map.

Sounds good, it's probably the next thing I play. Unless 20 other games catch my attention. :D Was thinking Goldbox might be next but eh.

Here's a good one. Would you recommend playing the Goldbox games for the first time or KotC first?

I haven't played Knights of the Chalice. Somehow I'm still hoping in vain that it will eventually come to Steam and GOG.

I haven't played Pool of Radiance for years, but I did go back and play Champions of Krynn, another Gold Box game, since I didn't play it back in the day. I have to say there are some things that I found very annoying as a modern player. First many of the longer texts aren't actually part of the computer game, but are found in the journal,(now in a .pdf). I also think the UI is not very friendly for a modern player. I did finish Champions of Krynn, but I didn't have an itch afterwords to play the sequel.
 
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I haven't played Knights of the Chalice. Somehow I'm still hoping in vain that it will eventually come to Steam and GOG.

I haven't played Pool of Radiance for years, but I did go back and play Champions of Krynn, another Gold Box game, since I didn't play it back in the day. I have to say there are some things that I found very annoying as a modern player. First many of the longer texts aren't actually part of the computer game, but are found in the journal,(now in a .pdf). I also think the UI is not very friendly for a modern player. I did finish Champions of Krynn, but I didn't have an itch afterwords to play the sequel.

Thanks for the info. I'll print out the journal in that case. And I'm pretty sure I bought KotC directly from the creator for $11 a few years back? Would be great if it came to Steam, though!
 
Oh, no way in hell - those graphics are way too damn primitive and retro for my taste! You gotta be kidding me…call me a graphics whore, if you must, (even though I have played and appreciated games like Eschalon, which no one would call advanced or say they are "eye candy") but the graphics can't look twenty to thirty years out of date if you want to catch my interest and attention…

Good to know that I wasn't the only one thinking this… A well writen review, but this game isn't for me. Graphics are just too "old school" for my taste. :p
 
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Those graphics look perfect for me - the kind of thing I want on my Android.

But if its strictly combat and character creation that's going to get tiring quick.

This is the kind of retro nostalgia that works for me - and I think that's perfect for mobile. There's no way I'm going to play Knight of Chalice.
 
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Great review, forgottenlor. Unfortunately, I don't think the game is for me either, too old school for me :) In saying that, I wish someone will port some of the Goldbox games like Dragonlance series into NWN module.
 
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