CRPG Addict - Review Roundup (Part Thirteen)

1988 was coming to a close and the CRPG Addict introduced GOTY awards for the previous years. He also tracked back to the very first (surviving) CRPG, The Dungeon aka PEDIT5 from 1975.

Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom (1988)

The nature of the inventory puzzles makes the game extremely linear. It has virtually no replayability. If you don't spend hours and hours grinding, it's too hard (especially at the latter stages), and if you do spend hours and hours grinding, it's too long. (..) A challenge is good, but this game ends up being repetitive torture. (..)

This gives us a final rating of 37, equivalent to the first Wizardry. While this game improves upon NPCs, equipment, and a couple other areas, it lacks the first game's brisk gameplay, and many of V's "innovations" annoy rather than impress. I didn't deliberately engineer the rating to come out equal to I, but I think it says something accurate that in seven years, Sir-Tech was unable to fundamentally improve on the experience that they first offered in the CRPG Bronze Age.

1. Game 67: Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom (1988)
2. Home for the Holidays
3. All I Want for Christmas is Two Front Ranks
4. Fa-La-La
5. Oh, Come All Ye Faithless
6. It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Torture
7. Sub-Contracting
8. Wizardry V
9. Won!*
10. Final Rating

The Dungeon / PEDIT5 (1975)

Here I am, nearly two years after starting this blog, doing what I should have done in the beginning: playing the first CRPG, regardless of platform. (..)

I'm actually quite impressed. I would have forgiven the first CRPG for being really basic and dumb: perhaps a text-only game in which you managed some basic attributes against some random encounters. (..) Instead, we get a fairly large dungeon, a solid set of attributes, challenging random encounters, 8 spells, monsters with resistances based on type, and graphics that the DOS platform won't surpass until Ultima III. (..) Obviously, I don't recommend playing it now, except as an archaeological exercise; any roguelike will give you a similar challenge with a better gameplay experience.

1. Editorial: The Earliest CRPGs
2. Game 68: The Dungeon / PEDIT5 (1975)

The Game of Dungeons / dnd (1975)

The title screen calls the game The Game of Dungeons, but the file name was just dnd, and this is what has stuck in history and legend. (..) This may be the first CRPG developed openly as a game, without having to hide under fake file names on the PLATO mainframe. (..) It would be cool, but I suspect impossible, to win this one. (..) I definitely recommend that every true CRPG lover sign up for a Cyber1 account and play a few rounds.

1. Game 69: The Game of Dungeons / dnd (1975)

BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception (1988)

Gameplay. I almost wish I could give a negative score on this one. The game is completely linear, non-replayable, too easy, too short, and it ends with the worst puzzle inclusion I've ever seen in a CRPG: a completely rote, bang-your-head-against-the-wall slog through a twisty maze, involving no intelligence and no tactics. (..)

As it is, I give it a final rating of 37. The scores add up to 39, but I'm using my "bonus" category to take away two points for having such a dumb ending and for essentially betraying its name through some staggeringly awful gameplay decisions. It started out with such promise, too.

1. Game 70: BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception (1988)
2. Graduation Was Ruined
3. Won.
4. Final Rating

Editorial: 1988/1989 and GOTY

Starting with 1988, CRPG Addict named Games of the Year and did so retroactively, so here's his top games from the early years.

• 1981: Wizardry
• 1982: Telengard
• 1983: Exodus: Ultima III
• 1984: n/a
• 1985: Ultima IV
• 1986: Starflight and Might & Magic I
• 1987: NetHack
• 1988: Pool of Radiance

1. 1988/1989