CRPG Addict - Review Roundup (Part Twenty Two)

This week's roundup of CRPG Addicts classic RPG reviews features another Goldbox title: part three in the Pool of Radiance Forgotten Realms series.

 

1990

The Stone of Telnyr (1990)

The Stone of Telnyr, an independent title from an Australian developer, published in a disk magazine, may be the most obscure game I've played since beginning this blog. (..) In basic gameplay and look and feel, Telnyr takes obvious inspiration from Ultima, but with far fewer features and a much smaller game world. (..)

The best I can do on the GIMLET is a 15. It earns something in every category except NPCs, but the game really offers the minimal amount necessary in each category to be considered an RPG at all.

1. Game 161: The Stone of Telnyr (1990)

Secret of the Silver Blades (1990)

SSI has been curiously unable to improve upon the experience of Pool of Radiance. Oh, sure, the graphics and sound have gotten a little better, but the core gameplay experience has degraded slightly with each new title. (..)

The final rating of 50 is reasonably high, though significantly lower than the 60 I gave to Curse and the 64 I gave to Pool. This is the third Gold Box game I've played in 1990, and while all have offered above-average experiences, I worry that the series is resting on its laurels instead of really innovating. Pool of Radiance was a staggeringly good game for 1988, but since then, SSI seems to be content with offering gameplay that is merely competent rather than truly thrilling.

1. Game 163: Secret of the Silver Blades (1990)
2. Here There Be (Weak) Dragons
3. Revealed
4. Enemy Mines
5. Giant Problems
6. Won!
7. Final Rating

Dragon Sword (1990)

The sheer number of enemies offered in the game is a bit ridiculous, and the game tells you nothing about them--but in some ways, figuring out each enemy's special attacks and defenses is part of the challenge. (..)

The sum is 25, but I have to subtract 2 points for the many bugs, including one that constantly brought up the "game over" screen in the middle of combat and exploration, forcing me to reload and re-cast all my buffing spells. This final score of 23 is well below what I would recommend and well below the 37 I gave to Wizardry, the game Dragon Sword seeks to emulate. I admire what Mr. Tieman and Mr. Musa accomplished programmatically--particularly the dedication to create and populate 30 levels and so many different encounters and monster types--but making the game so big and long also made it boring and unbalanced.

1. Game 164: Dragon Sword (1990)
2. The First 10%
3. One Dungeon Down
4. Unmitigated Galt
5. A Crossroads
6. Won!* (with Final Rating)

Crystals of Arborea (1990)

Crystals of Arborea is a weird little strategy/RPG hybrid from the French developer Silmarils. The company would later become semi-famous for the Ishar trilogy. (..)

The final score of 23 is well below what I consider "recommended." The engine isn't horrible, the graphics are nice, and the combat system is promising. It just needed a better-balanced game, with more RPG trappings. I assume this is what we get in the Ishar series starting in 1992.

1. Game 166: Crystals of Arborea (1990)

Saga (1990)

Saga is a bafflingly bad game. (..) Nothing about the game makes any sense whatsoever. (..)

The final score of 15 is the lowest I've given to any game since 1983 with the single exception of The Stone of Telnyr, which was a shareware title.

1. Game 167: Saga (1990)

Fountain of Dreams (1990)

The sum is 35, the score that I generally consider the cutoff between recommended and not recommended. That reflects how I feel. The particularly annoying thing about Fountain of Dreams is that there's a nucleus of a good game here. The story is mostly nonsensical, but it has some decent elements, and it could have been turned into a compelling and interesting plot. The Wasteland-inspired engine and skill system is mostly solid, just poorly used. As such, I must concur with Scorpia's comment in her January 1991 review: "It is the perfect example of grasping the form, but not the substance, of a superior product, and coming up a loser."

1. Game 169: Fountain of Dreams (1990)
2. Won! (with Final Rating)

MegaTraveller 1: The Zhodani Conspiracy (1990)

Well, what a weird little game. After spending about 20 hours on gambling, bounty-hunting, and trading to amass my "Jump 2" drive bank, I only had about 3 more game hours before winning. (..)

If the main plot had required a different variety of skills and the combat had been harder and more interesting, and the rewards had been more balanced, the player would have had a reason to do all of the side-quests to pay for better equipment and skill-development. The developers spent a lot of time on mechanics but didn't integrate them into a sensible, cohesive, balanced game. (..) That gives us a final score of 34, right about where I expected it.

1. Game 171: MegaTraveller 1: The Zhodani Conspiracy (1990)
2. Space Sucks
3. The Journey Re-Begins
4. A Cool $2 Million
5. Won! (with Final Rating)

 

Early Years

Ultima: Escape from Mount Drash (1983)

Naming the game Ultima had been a cheap attempt to cash in on the growing fame of Garriott's series, and while this didn't work in the way Sierra intended, it ironically worked decades later. (..) The final score of 8 puts it at the second-lowest rating I've given. To be fair, it never claims to be an RPG--it's much more an action/arcade game--and as a erstwhile VIC-20 owner, I think I might have had a modicum of fun with it when I was 10.

1. Game 160: Ultima: Escape from Mount Drash (1983)

Warrior of Ras, Volume Two: Kaiv (1982)

Unfortunately, we still have no character attributes and no way to even name your character, but the series is clearly growing. (..) This gives us a final score of 23, surprisingly only one point higher than Dunzhin. The discrepancy is primarily in the 2 bonus points I gave to Dunzhin for some of the innovative elements that didn't fit into other categories.

1. Game 162: Warrior of Ras, Volume Two: Kaiv (1982)

Warrior of Ras, Volume Three: The Wylde (1983)

The games (..) do features some interesting innovations for the era, in particular a complex system in which every body part has its own hit points, armor class, and protection. (..) The final score of 25 is 2 points higher than Kaiv and 3 points higher than Dunzhin, reflecting the continued development of the series. The improvements are modest, but still impressive given the rapidity with which the games were released.

1. Game 165: Warrior of Ras, Volume Three: The Wylde (1983)

Warrior of Ras, Volume Four: Ziggurat (1983)

The final score of 27 is 2 points higher than Wylde. In my post on Dunzhin, I said that the game "has some ideas too good to ignore, but it lacks too many RPG elements to fully enjoy as an RPG." It's in this sentiment that I leave the series. Although it developed some RPG elements, like an inventory system, after Dunzhin, it never really blossomed into a full-fledged RPG.

1. Game 168: Warrior of Ras, Volume Four: Ziggurat (1983)

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin Cartridge (1983)

Treasure of Tarmin seems to be the first RPG ported from a console to a PC. (..) For gaming, the Aquarius had the same clumsy dial-below-keypad controller as the Intellivision, so it's not like the port was a lot of legwork. Nonetheless, it is technically a "first." (..)

The final score of 19 isn't a great one--it is still a console RPG, after all--but it reflects how far things had come in the one year since Cloudy Mountain, which I gave a 9.

1. Game 170: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin Cartridge (1983)

 

Explanation of the the final score: The GIMLET.