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Monday, February 24, 2020
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Realms Of Arkania: Blade Of Destiny: Summary And Rating
Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny
GermanyReleased in Germany as Das Schwarze Auge: Die Schicksalsklinge
attic Entertainment Software (developer); Fantasy Productions (German publisher); Sir-Tech (U.S. Publisher)
Released 1992 for DOS, 1993 for Amiga
Date Started: 13 November 2019
Date Ended: 7 February 2020
Total Hours: 38
Difficulty: Moderate-Hard (3.5/5)
Final Rating: (To come later)
Ranking at Time of Posting: (To come later)
Summary:
First in a lineage based on the German tabletop RPG Das Schwarze Auge, Blade of Destiny is a gem waiting to be cut and polished. A party of six, comprising familiar races but original classes, stops a horde of orcs from razing the city of Thorwal by finding a legendary sword that defeated the orcs in the past. In an effort to offer a computer game that adhered closely to tabletop rules and gaming style, Blade perhaps errs too much towards obtuse statistics, lengthy character creation and leveling, myriad spells, and exhausting tactical combat. Yet the developers managed to create a large, open game world and populate it with interesting encounters of a variety of length and difficulty, thus feeling a lot like a series of tabletop modules. Nothing in the game--first-person exploration (in Bard's Tale style, but with an interface drawn from Might and Magic III), paper-doll inventories (looking a lot like Eye of the Beholder), axonometric combat (clearly inspired by SSI), dozens of skills and spell skills--works badly, but almost every part of the game needed a little tweaking, editing, or tightening. I enjoyed it more as I became more familiar with its conventions, and it left me looking forward to its next installment.
****
I grew to enjoy Blade of Destiny more as the hour grew later (the opposite of what usually happens), although the game never really did manage to solve some of its early weaknesses. In the end, I'm struck at how much it reminds me of Pool of Radiance, the first attempt at a serious adaptation of another tabletop system. Both feature the standard party of six. In neither game do the party members have a direct, personal connection to the main quest. In both, the main quest is somewhat low-key--the fate of a city versus the fate of the world. Both keep character leveling in the single digits, and both err towards keeping faith with their tabletop roots, even when it might have been best for the computer game to improvise a bit.
I don't know whether to blame Das Schwarze Auge or the computer game for my chief complaints, most of which can be rolled up into three words: combat is exhausting. Combat is a major part of any RPG, so you don't want your players doing things like reloading to avoid it, which I did a lot. I abandoned entire dungeons because I was sick of all the fighting, so it's a good thing I didn't need an extra character level to win. The primary issues are:
- The axonometric perspective doesn't work well for combat. It's hard to separate the characters and enemies from each other and particularly hard to move to a specific tile.
- Everyone misses too often.
- Attacks don't cause enough damage.
- Spells, which would make the whole thing go faster, eat up so many magic points that you can rarely cast more than three or four before needing multiple nights' rest to recharge.
In light of these things, the "quick combat" system was a good idea. Unfortunately, combat is hard enough (at least until the end) that you can't really use it until there are only a couple enemies left. Even then, quick combat isn't really "quick." (To be fair, I guess they don't call it that; it's something like "Computer Fight.") You still have to watch the computer take all the actions and monitor your characters' status. It just means you can watch a television show at the same time.
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| If you can make out individual characters in those blobs, your eyesight is better than mine. |
The spell issue had more consequences than just a difficult combat experience. The developers took the time to put several dozen spells into the game, and I never used more than about 5 of them. I kept meaning to find a good place to save near a known combat and then just keep reloading and experimenting, but I never identified an ideal position for this. Most of them would have failed anyway because the nature of the spell skill system means that you can't possibly specialize in more than half a dozen. When I play the sequel, it will absolutely be my priority to more fully investigate the spell catalog.
I had a few lingering questions after the last entry, such as what happens if you try to kill the orc champion with a weapon other than Grimring, and what happens if you don't honor the rule that only your champion fights. Unfortunately, the final save prompted me to overwrite the save game I'd taken just before the battle. My next-most recent save was from before exploring the orc caves and getting the message that led to the endgame. I'm not willing to do all of that again, so we'll have to leave it a mystery unless someone has some experience with it. But I was able to check out the alternate "bad" ending, which I would have experienced had I lingered for an extra year in the quest. As I typed the rest of this entry, I had my party sleep at the inn for batches of 99 days until the game woke me up with the fateful message:
Overall, I felt that the time constraint was generous enough that it wouldn't have impacted my approach even if I'd been more eager to explore every trail and sea lane. This is a good thing because there was quite a bit more to find. I took a look at a cluebook for the game, and among entire dungeons that I overlooked were a "wolf's lair" between Ottarje and Orvil, a six-level "ship of the dead" that I would have found if I'd taken more boat trips, and a three-level "dragon's hoard" on Runin Island. This latter location sounds like it would have been especially lucrative, with an option to do a side quest for the dragon and receive four magic items as a reward.
But I've always been fine with missing content. It's practically necessary in modern games, lest you exhaust yourself before the end. It also enhances a game's replayability. It's nice to see the number of titles with such optional content growing.
Let's give it the ol' GIMLET:
1. Game World. I didn't find the Nordic setting terribly original, but I enjoyed it just the same. The backstory is set up well, and as previously mentioned, I liked the low-key nature of the main plot. The main quest did a good job encouraging nonlinear exploration of the large world. The problem is that the game itself doesn't quite deliver on the backstory (or the tabletop setting in general). The various cities and towns are too interchangeable, the NPCs too bland. Score: 5.
2. Character Creation and Development. Well, I can't complain that it doesn't give you enough options. The leveling-up process in Blade of Destiny is probably the longest in any game to date. Not just longest, but most frustrating, with the caps on the number of times you can increase a particular skill per level (even if you neglected it in the early levels) and frequent failures as you try to increase. The caps in particular make it feel like the characters are never really getting stronger or better. (I think the final battle could be won by a Level 1 character.) Hit points and spell points, in particular, are almost imperceptibly slow to increase.
Still, I like the nature of character classes in the setting, including the use of "negative attributes" and the plethora of skills. I just wish I had a clearer sense of what skills, attributes, and negative attributes came into play in what circumstances, which bits of equipment compensated for them, and so on. The game text is obtuse enough that sometimes it's not even clear whether you succeeded or failed. When it is, it's almost always because you failed. Honestly, how high do I need to jack up my "Treat Wounds" skill before it has a greater than 50% chance of not making the character worse?
Back on the positive side, I think different party compositions would make a considerable difference in gameplay. I think you could have fun with some interesting combinations, like an all-dwarf party or an all-magician party. It's just too bad the different race/class templates didn't have more role-playing implications. Score: 5.
3. NPC Interaction. This was a really wasted area of the game. The developers give you the ability to talk to every bartender, innkeeper, smith, and cashier, but most of the dialogue is stupid when it isn't confusing. I'd blame the translation, but my German readers report that it was stupid and confusing even in German. The few dialogue options are either false options that lead to the same outcome or confusing ones with counter-intuitive results (e.g., asking to see the map makes the NPC give it to you; asking for the map makes him just show it to you). That said, you occasionally get an important hint from your various NPC interactions. I just wish it had been more consistent and that the developers had used the system to give more blood to the game world. Score: 4.
4. Encounters and Foes. The game shines, though sometimes with a marred finish, in this area. I really enjoyed the variety of encounters, some fixed, some random, that the party gets on the road and as it explores dungeons and towns. I like that some of them are a single screen, resolved instantly, and others lead you off on a multi-hour digression. In contrast to the dialogue, the text of these special encounters is usually evocative and interesting, and I can even forgive the occasional shaggy dog joke like the "wyvern" encounter. I just wish for a few more role-playing options in these encounters.
Foes were mostly high-fantasy standards with similar strengths and weaknesses that we've seen in a thousand RPGs but at least they appeared in appropriate contexts. We've come a long way from the days when we were inexplicably attacked by parties of 6 orcs, 3 trolls, 2 magicians, and a griffon right in the middle of town. Score: 6.
5. Magic and Combat. Very mixed. I like the combat options, the variety of spells, and the turn-based mechanics. I just didn't like the execution, which was partly due to interface and partly due to the game rules. Either way, combat was generally a tedious, annoying process rather than the joyful one I typically find in, say, a Gold Box game. As for spells, the game really needs some in-game help to assist with them, perhaps annotating the spells in which each class is supposed to specialize. Every spellcasting session and every level-up was a long process of flipping through the manual. It's too bad because the spells are so varied and interesting on paper. Score: 4.
6. Equipment. Another disappointment. I like the approach to equipment, with a number of slots, but you get upgrades rarely and it's extremely hard to identify them when you do. This is something that perhaps no game has done very well up to this point. I don't mind if it's hard to identify a piece of equipment--if you need a special skill, or spell, or money, or whatever--but I mind if it's annoying. I mind if I have to swap the item around to multiple characters to try different things, especially when the interface makes swapping annoying and time-consuming. I mind when there's no symbol, color, or other mechanism to distinguish weapons and armor with different values.
Blade offers perhaps the largest variety of "adventure" equipment that we've seen so far, which makes it all the more frustrating that either so much of it is useless, or the game doesn't bother to tell you when a piece of equipment has saved the day. Finally the encumbrance system is geared towards making most characters chronically over-encumbered. The ability to make potions is nice, but again the system is a little too complicated. Score: 4.
7. Economy. Blade almost perfectly emulates the Gold Box series here: money is plentiful from the first dungeon and you hardly have any reason to spend it. My party ended the game with well over 1,000 ducats. Even potions don't serve as a good "money sink" because they don't stack and you have the constant encumbrance issue. A rack of +1 weapons, the ability to pay to recharge spell points, or temple blessings that actually did something all would have been nice. Score: 3.
8. Quests. Generally positive. Blade is one of the few games of the era to understand side quests, and they sit alongside an interesting-enough main quest with multiple stages. It just needed a few more choices and alternate endings. Score: 5.
9. Graphics, Sound, and Interface. I know that some readers will defend the game here, but I found all three to be somewhat horrid. Graphics are perhaps the least so. Some of the cut scenes are nice. Regular exploration graphics aren't bad, but the inability to distinguish stores from regular houses is almost unforgivable. Combat graphics are a confusing mess from the axonometric perspective. Any virtues the sound effects may otherwise have are obscured by the jarring three-note cacophony that accompanies opening any menu. And there's no excuse for the interface, which occasionally gives some nods to the keyboard but really wants you to use the mouse throughout.
Aside from my usual complaints about mouse-driven interfaces, the game is full of all kinds of little annoyances. When you find or purchase a piece of equipment, it always goes to the first character. You've got to then go in and redistribute it. It's annoying to transfer equipment between characters, especially if one is over-encumbered. Messages often time out before you're done reading them, or pop up so quickly that you don't have time to read them before you accidentally hit the next movement key, making them disappear. There's a lot of inconsistency, particularly in dungeons, about when you need a contextual menu and when you need to use the buttons on the main interface. There are dozens of other things like this. The developers took the appearance of the Might and Magic III interface but none of its underlying grace.
The auto-map didn't suck. I'll give it that. Score: 2.
10. Gameplay. We can end on a positive note. This is one of the few open-world games of the era, and in between the opening screen and closing combat, it's almost entirely non-linear. The many things that a first-time player doesn't find makes it inherently replayable. And the length and difficulty are just about perfect for the era. I particularly love that you have to lose experience points to save (except at temples), which discourages save-scumming. Score: 8.
That gives us a subtotal final score of 46, a respectable total that would put it in the top 15% of games so far. But I'm going to administratively remove 2 more points for an issue that really isn't covered by my GIMLET: a lack of editing that created unnecessary confusion at numerous points in the game. There are numerous places that go unused, such as the tower and "Ottaskins" in Thorwal. NPCs frequently tell you things in dialogue that aren't true. There are numerous false leads on the map quest, and I don't think they're there to challenge you--I think the developers changed things and didn't update the dialogue. All of the NPCs in Phexcaer were clearly written for an earlier game in which the nature of the backstory and quest were quite different. It's common now, but relatively uncommon back then, to find a game released in what was clearly its "beta" stage.
So that gives us a final score of 44, which still puts the game in the top 15%. It had a lot of promise, and I'm sorry that the developers didn't find more time to tweak and tighten it.
I had a few lingering questions after the last entry, such as what happens if you try to kill the orc champion with a weapon other than Grimring, and what happens if you don't honor the rule that only your champion fights. Unfortunately, the final save prompted me to overwrite the save game I'd taken just before the battle. My next-most recent save was from before exploring the orc caves and getting the message that led to the endgame. I'm not willing to do all of that again, so we'll have to leave it a mystery unless someone has some experience with it. But I was able to check out the alternate "bad" ending, which I would have experienced had I lingered for an extra year in the quest. As I typed the rest of this entry, I had my party sleep at the inn for batches of 99 days until the game woke me up with the fateful message:
 |
| So the orcs are the "Vikings" of this setting. |
Overall, I felt that the time constraint was generous enough that it wouldn't have impacted my approach even if I'd been more eager to explore every trail and sea lane. This is a good thing because there was quite a bit more to find. I took a look at a cluebook for the game, and among entire dungeons that I overlooked were a "wolf's lair" between Ottarje and Orvil, a six-level "ship of the dead" that I would have found if I'd taken more boat trips, and a three-level "dragon's hoard" on Runin Island. This latter location sounds like it would have been especially lucrative, with an option to do a side quest for the dragon and receive four magic items as a reward.
But I've always been fine with missing content. It's practically necessary in modern games, lest you exhaust yourself before the end. It also enhances a game's replayability. It's nice to see the number of titles with such optional content growing.
Let's give it the ol' GIMLET:
1. Game World. I didn't find the Nordic setting terribly original, but I enjoyed it just the same. The backstory is set up well, and as previously mentioned, I liked the low-key nature of the main plot. The main quest did a good job encouraging nonlinear exploration of the large world. The problem is that the game itself doesn't quite deliver on the backstory (or the tabletop setting in general). The various cities and towns are too interchangeable, the NPCs too bland. Score: 5.
2. Character Creation and Development. Well, I can't complain that it doesn't give you enough options. The leveling-up process in Blade of Destiny is probably the longest in any game to date. Not just longest, but most frustrating, with the caps on the number of times you can increase a particular skill per level (even if you neglected it in the early levels) and frequent failures as you try to increase. The caps in particular make it feel like the characters are never really getting stronger or better. (I think the final battle could be won by a Level 1 character.) Hit points and spell points, in particular, are almost imperceptibly slow to increase.
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| No, not now! I have an appointment in 90 minutes! |
Still, I like the nature of character classes in the setting, including the use of "negative attributes" and the plethora of skills. I just wish I had a clearer sense of what skills, attributes, and negative attributes came into play in what circumstances, which bits of equipment compensated for them, and so on. The game text is obtuse enough that sometimes it's not even clear whether you succeeded or failed. When it is, it's almost always because you failed. Honestly, how high do I need to jack up my "Treat Wounds" skill before it has a greater than 50% chance of not making the character worse?
Back on the positive side, I think different party compositions would make a considerable difference in gameplay. I think you could have fun with some interesting combinations, like an all-dwarf party or an all-magician party. It's just too bad the different race/class templates didn't have more role-playing implications. Score: 5.
3. NPC Interaction. This was a really wasted area of the game. The developers give you the ability to talk to every bartender, innkeeper, smith, and cashier, but most of the dialogue is stupid when it isn't confusing. I'd blame the translation, but my German readers report that it was stupid and confusing even in German. The few dialogue options are either false options that lead to the same outcome or confusing ones with counter-intuitive results (e.g., asking to see the map makes the NPC give it to you; asking for the map makes him just show it to you). That said, you occasionally get an important hint from your various NPC interactions. I just wish it had been more consistent and that the developers had used the system to give more blood to the game world. Score: 4.
 |
| This conversation made no sense as a whole, and these individual responses made no sense in detail. |
4. Encounters and Foes. The game shines, though sometimes with a marred finish, in this area. I really enjoyed the variety of encounters, some fixed, some random, that the party gets on the road and as it explores dungeons and towns. I like that some of them are a single screen, resolved instantly, and others lead you off on a multi-hour digression. In contrast to the dialogue, the text of these special encounters is usually evocative and interesting, and I can even forgive the occasional shaggy dog joke like the "wyvern" encounter. I just wish for a few more role-playing options in these encounters.
 |
| These diversions and side areas never stopped being fun. |
Foes were mostly high-fantasy standards with similar strengths and weaknesses that we've seen in a thousand RPGs but at least they appeared in appropriate contexts. We've come a long way from the days when we were inexplicably attacked by parties of 6 orcs, 3 trolls, 2 magicians, and a griffon right in the middle of town. Score: 6.
5. Magic and Combat. Very mixed. I like the combat options, the variety of spells, and the turn-based mechanics. I just didn't like the execution, which was partly due to interface and partly due to the game rules. Either way, combat was generally a tedious, annoying process rather than the joyful one I typically find in, say, a Gold Box game. As for spells, the game really needs some in-game help to assist with them, perhaps annotating the spells in which each class is supposed to specialize. Every spellcasting session and every level-up was a long process of flipping through the manual. It's too bad because the spells are so varied and interesting on paper. Score: 4.
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| I only ever tried about 6 of these spells, which coincidentally is the number of spells I got above 0 in my ability to cast after 5 levels. |
6. Equipment. Another disappointment. I like the approach to equipment, with a number of slots, but you get upgrades rarely and it's extremely hard to identify them when you do. This is something that perhaps no game has done very well up to this point. I don't mind if it's hard to identify a piece of equipment--if you need a special skill, or spell, or money, or whatever--but I mind if it's annoying. I mind if I have to swap the item around to multiple characters to try different things, especially when the interface makes swapping annoying and time-consuming. I mind when there's no symbol, color, or other mechanism to distinguish weapons and armor with different values.
Blade offers perhaps the largest variety of "adventure" equipment that we've seen so far, which makes it all the more frustrating that either so much of it is useless, or the game doesn't bother to tell you when a piece of equipment has saved the day. Finally the encumbrance system is geared towards making most characters chronically over-encumbered. The ability to make potions is nice, but again the system is a little too complicated. Score: 4.
7. Economy. Blade almost perfectly emulates the Gold Box series here: money is plentiful from the first dungeon and you hardly have any reason to spend it. My party ended the game with well over 1,000 ducats. Even potions don't serve as a good "money sink" because they don't stack and you have the constant encumbrance issue. A rack of +1 weapons, the ability to pay to recharge spell points, or temple blessings that actually did something all would have been nice. Score: 3.
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| I just donated 999 crowns! |
8. Quests. Generally positive. Blade is one of the few games of the era to understand side quests, and they sit alongside an interesting-enough main quest with multiple stages. It just needed a few more choices and alternate endings. Score: 5.
9. Graphics, Sound, and Interface. I know that some readers will defend the game here, but I found all three to be somewhat horrid. Graphics are perhaps the least so. Some of the cut scenes are nice. Regular exploration graphics aren't bad, but the inability to distinguish stores from regular houses is almost unforgivable. Combat graphics are a confusing mess from the axonometric perspective. Any virtues the sound effects may otherwise have are obscured by the jarring three-note cacophony that accompanies opening any menu. And there's no excuse for the interface, which occasionally gives some nods to the keyboard but really wants you to use the mouse throughout.
Aside from my usual complaints about mouse-driven interfaces, the game is full of all kinds of little annoyances. When you find or purchase a piece of equipment, it always goes to the first character. You've got to then go in and redistribute it. It's annoying to transfer equipment between characters, especially if one is over-encumbered. Messages often time out before you're done reading them, or pop up so quickly that you don't have time to read them before you accidentally hit the next movement key, making them disappear. There's a lot of inconsistency, particularly in dungeons, about when you need a contextual menu and when you need to use the buttons on the main interface. There are dozens of other things like this. The developers took the appearance of the Might and Magic III interface but none of its underlying grace.
The auto-map didn't suck. I'll give it that. Score: 2.
10. Gameplay. We can end on a positive note. This is one of the few open-world games of the era, and in between the opening screen and closing combat, it's almost entirely non-linear. The many things that a first-time player doesn't find makes it inherently replayable. And the length and difficulty are just about perfect for the era. I particularly love that you have to lose experience points to save (except at temples), which discourages save-scumming. Score: 8.
 |
| This NPC seems to think he's living hundreds of years in the past. |
That gives us a subtotal final score of 46, a respectable total that would put it in the top 15% of games so far. But I'm going to administratively remove 2 more points for an issue that really isn't covered by my GIMLET: a lack of editing that created unnecessary confusion at numerous points in the game. There are numerous places that go unused, such as the tower and "Ottaskins" in Thorwal. NPCs frequently tell you things in dialogue that aren't true. There are numerous false leads on the map quest, and I don't think they're there to challenge you--I think the developers changed things and didn't update the dialogue. All of the NPCs in Phexcaer were clearly written for an earlier game in which the nature of the backstory and quest were quite different. It's common now, but relatively uncommon back then, to find a game released in what was clearly its "beta" stage.
So that gives us a final score of 44, which still puts the game in the top 15%. It had a lot of promise, and I'm sorry that the developers didn't find more time to tweak and tighten it.
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| This is not the sort of game for which you really want to emphasize "conversation." |
Blade of Destiny wasn't released in the United States until 1993, so Scorpia didn't take it on until the October 1993 issue of Computer Gaming World. It's one of her more ornery reviews. After saying that the English translation of Das Schwarze Auge, "The Black Eye," "might be appropriate," she goes on to spoil the entire plot in the next paragraph, including the one-on-one combat at the end. She found the plot unoriginal and wasted three days trying to figure out how to find the orc cave, noting that there are no clues to be found anywhere. (Remember: I had to use a walkthrough for this.) She hated the failures when trying to level up, complaining that one of her fighters "made no advance in swords on two successive level gains." She noted a lot of discrepancies between the manual and actual gameplay, particularly in the area of spells, and she agrees with me that combat is a "tedious, frustrating, boring, long-drawn-out affair."
She liked the automap, the ability to reload in the middle of combat, and the extra experience you get the first time you face a particular monster. That was about it. I was surprised to see how much she hated the experience cost for saving. She says she wouldn't have minded if the creators had awarded a bonus for not saving, apparently seeing a difference there that I don't.
But her worst vitriol was for a bug that I didn't experience: apparently, if you quit in the middle of the final battle, you get the victory screen anyway. "This is not just a scam; it is the Grand Canyon of scams," she sputters. "How did the 20+ playtesters manage to miss this one? If they didn't miss it, why wasn't it fixed?" In summary:
Those who worship at the mythical altar of Realism often end up sacrificing fun and playability on it. That is what happened with Blade of Destiny. In their attempt to make the game "like real life" (something few players want in the first place) the designers went overboard in the wrong direction more than once. I would not recommend Arkania to any game player, but I do recommend it to game designers as an example of what to avoid in their own products. Let us all hope we don't see another one like this any time soon.
Ouch. I don't disagree with the elements she didn't like, but I found more that I did like.
On the continent, the game had polarized reviews. Some thought that the designers went overboard in the right direction, or perhaps didn't go overboard, or perhaps only did it once. Whatever the case, the ASM reviewer (92/100) said that he'd "rarely seen a perfect implementation of an RPG that also remains really playable on the computer." PC Joker (90/100) said that it is "only surpassed by Ultima, leaving the rest of the genre competition far behind in terms of freedom of action and complexity." But not all German reviews were positive. PC Player (48/100) recommended that players "close your eyes, put the lid on, and wait for Star Trail."
(At least there were some positives in the reviews for the original game. A 2013 remake by German-based Crafty Studios came out to almost universally negative reviews despite improved graphics, voiced dialogue, and other trappings of the modern era. It was apparently quite unforgivably bugged. Crafty went on to remake Star Trail in 2017.)
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| Combat in the remake. At least you can identify the squares a bit easier. |
The original game sold well despite a few bad reviews and certainly justified the two sequels, Realms of Arkania: Star Trail (1994) and Realms of Arkania: Shadows over Riva (1996). Together, the trilogy established the viability of Das Schwarze Auge setting, which continues to produce RPGs into the modern era, including The Dark Eye: Drakensang (2008), Deminicon (2013), and Blackguards (2014). Lead developer Guido Henkel would eventually tire of the setting, quit attic, move to the United States, join Black Isle studios, and produce Planescape: Torment.
I haven't attempted to reach out to Henkel, as his work on the Arkania series has been well-documented elsewhere. In his 2012 RPG Codex interview, he explains that the publisher of attic's Spirit of Adventure, StarByte, originally approached the company about creating a series based on Das Schwarze Auge, claiming they already had the rights. The attic personnel were reluctant to work with StarByte after a dreadful Spirit experience ("a horribly crooked company that cheated us and all of its other developers"), so they were delighted to find that the company had been lying about the license. attic managed to get it for themselves, although at such an expense that the three Arkania games barely made a profit despite selling well.
*****
B.A.T. II will be coming up next. For the next title on the "upcoming" list, we reach back to 1981 for Quest for Power, later renamed King Arthur's Heir. Come to think of it, the Crystalware titles are so similar and quick that I might try to cover Quest for Power and Sands of Mars in a single session so I can be done with 1981 entirely. Again.
Thursday, February 20, 2020
Game 116: Shadow Of The Comet (1993) – Introduction
By limbeck
In 1992, Infogrames released Alone in the Dark, which put the player in the role of an unsuspecting investigator who experiences the horrors of the mansion of an eccentric magnate, after said eccentric magnate committed suicide. The player tries to escape from the mansion, the unspeakable lurking fears that haunt it in the dark and from the raving madness that the secrets of the mansion could deliver. It is exciting, deadly and pioneering (Hell, it won our very own Charles Darwin Award for 1992!). It even spawned a few sequels and an Uwe Boll film starring Christian Slater, which, contrary to the series that inspired it, is considered among the worst of all time.
But this is not the story of that game. Andy Panthro played it thoroughly and did a fine job (go read it here if you haven't already). In one of the game posts, Andy referred to a book describing an adventure titled "Prisoners of Ice", which is also the name of a Lovecraftian adventure game by Infogrames, which was published in 1995. This is not the story of that game either.
Within Alone in the Dark there was yet another book. That book's name was "Diary of a Journey" and it was authored by some Lord Boleskine. Not THAT Lord Boleskine, though he was certainly the inspiration, considering that the book was published by Aleister Publications. The book recounts Lord Boleskine's voyage to New England, wherein he observed "signs of degeneracy" among the population of the small fishing village he arrived at.
Lord Boleskine had decided to visit this place (only referred to as I... in another document in AitD) after studying manuscripts of sinister reputation in the British Museum. In the diary he kept, he noted that the stars in this place shine much brighter and appear to be closer to the Earth than elsewhere. His visit to I... took place in 1833, just in time to see Halley's Comet. Oh, and go ravenously mad in the process.
The outcome of Lord Boleskine's encounter with Halley's Comet at the small New England fishing village is not given in the book found in Alone in the Dark. The excerpts were apparently included there as flavour text and had nothing to do with the plot of that game. However, they were the background story of another game by Infogrames, which was probably under development at the time AitD was being polished.
That game was Shadow of the Comet and you will have to suffer several posts on its gameplay while I slowly lead the unsuspecting protagonist deeper into the embrace of unfathomable circumstances, impossible cosmic events and, most of all, unspeakable horrors of the Lovecraft Cthulhu Mythos.
Shadow of the Comet was developed internally by Infogrames and published in 1993 for PC. The next year a CD-ROM version was released which added mouse support, voice acting, a new intro sequence and some bonus material in the form of a "Lovecraft Museum". In this playthrough I will be playing the original game, as released in 1993, provided by GOG, along with the CD-ROM version if you get the game.
I will try to have a parallel run in the CD-ROM version and check what differences there are, but please don't judge me too harshly if I fail to keep up. My understanding so far is that the overall artwork and puzzles are the same in both versions, so I will only play the CD-ROM version to check the voice acting and to evaluate how using the mouse can affect gameplay. Onwards to madness then!
It is now 76 years after Lord Boleskine's fateful journey to New England. Halley's comet had done a full trip to beyond the orbit of Pluto (though nobody on Earth was aware of Pluto's existence, excluding some Mi-Go brain collectors) and was returning to a much different Earth than what it had left. Industries have spread on the globe and new marvels of technology, such as powered flight, radio and the automobile, were appearing. People were looking to the future with hope.
There was one man, however, who was looking at the past. This is the protagonist, Mr PARKER, who has studied Lord Boleskine's account of his journey to New England and believes that he can get the best pictures of the comet if only he could go back to that exact spot in the village of Illsmouth that Lord Boleskine lost his mind. What could go wrong?
PARKER has persuaded W.B. GRIFFITH, the editor of the "British Scientific News" to fund his little fancy, by promising him the most spectacular pictures of the comet. He has even booked his accommodation at the house of DR COBBLES in Illsmouth, before he gets the blank cheque from the editor.
So, after taking the first steamship across the Atlantic, I (PARKER) arrive at the quaint little town, where I am greeted by DR COBBLES and the Mayor, Mr ARLINGTON.
After a short dialogue, in which I have minimal input we get on a carriage and have a short trip through the sparsely built Illsmouth.
Another short dialogue outside the Doctor's house and I am finally led to my room. I will stop this post here, inside the (quite spacious) room that DR COBBLES has prepared for me (and GRIFFITH pays for), before I touch anything that could drive me mad. MAD!
Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There's a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no CAPs will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. As this is an introduction post, it's an opportunity for readers to bet 10 CAPs (only if they already have them) that I won't be able to solve a puzzle without putting in an official Request for Assistance: remember to use ROT13 for betting. If you get it right, you will be rewarded with 50 CAPs in return. It's also your chance to predict what the final rating will be for the game. Voters can predict whatever score they want, regardless of whether someone else has already chosen it. All correct (or nearest) votes will go into a draw.
In 1992, Infogrames released Alone in the Dark, which put the player in the role of an unsuspecting investigator who experiences the horrors of the mansion of an eccentric magnate, after said eccentric magnate committed suicide. The player tries to escape from the mansion, the unspeakable lurking fears that haunt it in the dark and from the raving madness that the secrets of the mansion could deliver. It is exciting, deadly and pioneering (Hell, it won our very own Charles Darwin Award for 1992!). It even spawned a few sequels and an Uwe Boll film starring Christian Slater, which, contrary to the series that inspired it, is considered among the worst of all time.
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| Don't worry, we'll get our share of celebrities (and monsters) in the game as well (Image from here) |
But this is not the story of that game. Andy Panthro played it thoroughly and did a fine job (go read it here if you haven't already). In one of the game posts, Andy referred to a book describing an adventure titled "Prisoners of Ice", which is also the name of a Lovecraftian adventure game by Infogrames, which was published in 1995. This is not the story of that game either.
Within Alone in the Dark there was yet another book. That book's name was "Diary of a Journey" and it was authored by some Lord Boleskine. Not THAT Lord Boleskine, though he was certainly the inspiration, considering that the book was published by Aleister Publications. The book recounts Lord Boleskine's voyage to New England, wherein he observed "signs of degeneracy" among the population of the small fishing village he arrived at.
 |
| This is a more recent specimen, the current Mayor of Illsmouth |
Lord Boleskine had decided to visit this place (only referred to as I... in another document in AitD) after studying manuscripts of sinister reputation in the British Museum. In the diary he kept, he noted that the stars in this place shine much brighter and appear to be closer to the Earth than elsewhere. His visit to I... took place in 1833, just in time to see Halley's Comet. Oh, and go ravenously mad in the process.
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| Now who's showing "signs of degeneracy"? (CD-ROM version) |
The outcome of Lord Boleskine's encounter with Halley's Comet at the small New England fishing village is not given in the book found in Alone in the Dark. The excerpts were apparently included there as flavour text and had nothing to do with the plot of that game. However, they were the background story of another game by Infogrames, which was probably under development at the time AitD was being polished.
That game was Shadow of the Comet and you will have to suffer several posts on its gameplay while I slowly lead the unsuspecting protagonist deeper into the embrace of unfathomable circumstances, impossible cosmic events and, most of all, unspeakable horrors of the Lovecraft Cthulhu Mythos.
 |
| And ominous owls |
Shadow of the Comet was developed internally by Infogrames and published in 1993 for PC. The next year a CD-ROM version was released which added mouse support, voice acting, a new intro sequence and some bonus material in the form of a "Lovecraft Museum". In this playthrough I will be playing the original game, as released in 1993, provided by GOG, along with the CD-ROM version if you get the game.
I will try to have a parallel run in the CD-ROM version and check what differences there are, but please don't judge me too harshly if I fail to keep up. My understanding so far is that the overall artwork and puzzles are the same in both versions, so I will only play the CD-ROM version to check the voice acting and to evaluate how using the mouse can affect gameplay. Onwards to madness then!
 |
| Lord Boleskine has a headstart, so we need to catch up (CD-ROM version) |
It is now 76 years after Lord Boleskine's fateful journey to New England. Halley's comet had done a full trip to beyond the orbit of Pluto (though nobody on Earth was aware of Pluto's existence, excluding some Mi-Go brain collectors) and was returning to a much different Earth than what it had left. Industries have spread on the globe and new marvels of technology, such as powered flight, radio and the automobile, were appearing. People were looking to the future with hope.
 |
| Not pictured: the future |
There was one man, however, who was looking at the past. This is the protagonist, Mr PARKER, who has studied Lord Boleskine's account of his journey to New England and believes that he can get the best pictures of the comet if only he could go back to that exact spot in the village of Illsmouth that Lord Boleskine lost his mind. What could go wrong?
PARKER has persuaded W.B. GRIFFITH, the editor of the "British Scientific News" to fund his little fancy, by promising him the most spectacular pictures of the comet. He has even booked his accommodation at the house of DR COBBLES in Illsmouth, before he gets the blank cheque from the editor.
 |
| Warning: Initiative is not well rewarded in Call of Cthulhu stories |
So, after taking the first steamship across the Atlantic, I (PARKER) arrive at the quaint little town, where I am greeted by DR COBBLES and the Mayor, Mr ARLINGTON.
 |
| You look familiar Doctor. Have I seen you in one of those motion pictures everybody is raving about? |
After a short dialogue, in which I have minimal input we get on a carriage and have a short trip through the sparsely built Illsmouth.
Another short dialogue outside the Doctor's house and I am finally led to my room. I will stop this post here, inside the (quite spacious) room that DR COBBLES has prepared for me (and GRIFFITH pays for), before I touch anything that could drive me mad. MAD!
 |
| This is definitely bigger than my studio back in London |
Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There's a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no CAPs will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. As this is an introduction post, it's an opportunity for readers to bet 10 CAPs (only if they already have them) that I won't be able to solve a puzzle without putting in an official Request for Assistance: remember to use ROT13 for betting. If you get it right, you will be rewarded with 50 CAPs in return. It's also your chance to predict what the final rating will be for the game. Voters can predict whatever score they want, regardless of whether someone else has already chosen it. All correct (or nearest) votes will go into a draw.
Missed Classic 81: The Growing Pains Of Adrian Mole (1987)
By Ilmari
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| Let the year 2020 begin! |
I considered saving my take on this game as an April's Fool post. I would have pulled a trick on you readers and published my previous Adrian Mole -post second time, with just some necessary modifications. It would have been a faithful reflection of my own feeling of dejavu, after playing this game, and reading the book the game is based upon, and watching the TV series based upon the same book.
To start with the book - well, it's a bit of rehash. Sure, the historical events have progressed somewhat - instead of Charles and Diana wedding, it's all about Falkland wars - but otherwise, nothing of real relevance in the main character dynamics has changed. Adrian is still in love with Pandora, manages to bungle their relationship and then in a couple of pages they are back together. The Mole family is again in a shambles, because the escapades of Mr. and Mrs. Mole in the previous book result in birth of two babies with uncertain parentage. This time the roles are reversed - it is Adrian's dad who moves away, while his mother has to be the single parent with insufficient economic means.
Adrian is again an insufferable person, and his constant moaning for sex is just pathetic - especially as his main motive is his spotty back, which would, he assumes, greatly benefit from a proper release of hormones. The most cringeworthy episode in Adrian's life is the last, which coincidentally is also the most original. It all begins rather innocently, when Adrian writes a poem on the wall of school bathroom, is immediately recognised as the author and suspended from the school. During his suspension, he starts to spend time with the local gang - because he thinks it is a good expression of his existential nihilism. Pandora doesn't like this turn of events and leaves him (booooring) - and Adrian decides to run away and see the world. When he eventually returns home, he is apparently taken over by depression, although you are never sure whether Adrian is really disturbed or whether this is just another attempt to follow existential nihilism to its final conclusion.
Once again, the TV series manages to make the best of what the book has to offer, and the only criticism I can think of is that in the first few episodes the camera occasionally pans disturbingly close to the cleavage of young actresses - I get it that they are trying to show Adrian's hormone-induced mindset, but these are minors we are talking about. Despite these leering shots, it is incredible that the TV Adrian is actually quite a likable character. Just take the final episode I just described. It is quite clear in the series that Adrian is truly disturbed by everything that has been happening around him, and while the words of the book Adrian seem just oblivious about all the surrounding family drama, the acting of TV Adrian reveals his tender mindset.
And it's not just drama. The series manages to make throwaway lines of the book into brilliant comedy. The fight of Mrs. Mole with the British bureaucracy in her quest to get social security is a specially delightful scene.
Once again, the game, produced by Level 9 and published by Mosaic Publishing, manages to be the most worthless of all the incarnations of the story. There's really not that much to tell about it, since it's again a retelling of the book in a Choose Your Story -format, and the only major difference from the previous gaming experience was that this time my copy of the game wasn't faulty and I could see all the four sections. Onward to PISSED-rating!
Puzzles and Solvability
The puzzles, if one can really use the word here, are again nothing but simple CYOAs. A particular problem is that it is usually way too easy to pick the correct answer - just try to be as helpful and considerate as possible. The few times the choice is not obvious, it happens to be obtuse.
Score 1.
Interface and Inventory
As far as I see, interface has changed in no way from the simple 1, 2, 3 of the first Adrian Mole. I didn't like the interface then, because of its overt simplicity, and my feelings haven't changed.
Score: 1
Story and Setting
When reading the second book of Adrian Mole series, I noticed that Level 9 had borrowed some events from it to their first game, which just adds up to the feeling of first game being a mess of not so well connected events. The second game, I feel, follows the chronology of the second book more faithfully, which at least adds some kind of coherence to proceedings.
Although the coherence of the plot might raise the score, the unoriginality surely lowers it. While in the first game the additions to the material from the books were farcical, here they are mainly humdrum.
Score: 2
Sound and Graphics
I congratulated the previous Adrian Mole game for being a bit more creative than a regular Level 9 game in describing more the current theme than just any room. In principle the same thing could be said of this game, but somehow I felt that the dog motive in each picture is just droll.
Score: 3.
Environment and Atmosphere
The main fault of the game is that you get higher scores by keeping Adrian away from troubles, while the charm of the original - and even more of the TV series - is that Adrian runs into troubles, no matter how intelligent he imagines himself to be. The outcome of this design choice is that while you seemingly do better in guiding Adrian through life, there's no interesting results to be expected storywise. Of course, this is quite realistic - a childhood with just school work and no silly escapades is not bestseller material - but you'd expect something else from a game trying to entertain the player.
Score 1.
Dialogue and Acting
I really don't know what I should add to what I said about the previous game, so I'll just bow to the inevitable and quote myself: "Considering that lot of the game's text has been taken directly from Sue Townsend, it cannot be that awful. Then again, I cannot give very high credit for copying someone else's witticism, especially as the text provided by Level 9 doesn't compare well with the text from book."
Score 4.
(1 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 1 + 4)/.6 = 12/.6 = 20.
Well, it was a new low for Level 9. Fortunately for myself, I've heard that from this point onward Level 9 games changed radically for the better.
To start with the book - well, it's a bit of rehash. Sure, the historical events have progressed somewhat - instead of Charles and Diana wedding, it's all about Falkland wars - but otherwise, nothing of real relevance in the main character dynamics has changed. Adrian is still in love with Pandora, manages to bungle their relationship and then in a couple of pages they are back together. The Mole family is again in a shambles, because the escapades of Mr. and Mrs. Mole in the previous book result in birth of two babies with uncertain parentage. This time the roles are reversed - it is Adrian's dad who moves away, while his mother has to be the single parent with insufficient economic means.
Adrian is again an insufferable person, and his constant moaning for sex is just pathetic - especially as his main motive is his spotty back, which would, he assumes, greatly benefit from a proper release of hormones. The most cringeworthy episode in Adrian's life is the last, which coincidentally is also the most original. It all begins rather innocently, when Adrian writes a poem on the wall of school bathroom, is immediately recognised as the author and suspended from the school. During his suspension, he starts to spend time with the local gang - because he thinks it is a good expression of his existential nihilism. Pandora doesn't like this turn of events and leaves him (booooring) - and Adrian decides to run away and see the world. When he eventually returns home, he is apparently taken over by depression, although you are never sure whether Adrian is really disturbed or whether this is just another attempt to follow existential nihilism to its final conclusion.
Once again, the TV series manages to make the best of what the book has to offer, and the only criticism I can think of is that in the first few episodes the camera occasionally pans disturbingly close to the cleavage of young actresses - I get it that they are trying to show Adrian's hormone-induced mindset, but these are minors we are talking about. Despite these leering shots, it is incredible that the TV Adrian is actually quite a likable character. Just take the final episode I just described. It is quite clear in the series that Adrian is truly disturbed by everything that has been happening around him, and while the words of the book Adrian seem just oblivious about all the surrounding family drama, the acting of TV Adrian reveals his tender mindset.
And it's not just drama. The series manages to make throwaway lines of the book into brilliant comedy. The fight of Mrs. Mole with the British bureaucracy in her quest to get social security is a specially delightful scene.
Once again, the game, produced by Level 9 and published by Mosaic Publishing, manages to be the most worthless of all the incarnations of the story. There's really not that much to tell about it, since it's again a retelling of the book in a Choose Your Story -format, and the only major difference from the previous gaming experience was that this time my copy of the game wasn't faulty and I could see all the four sections. Onward to PISSED-rating!
Puzzles and Solvability
The puzzles, if one can really use the word here, are again nothing but simple CYOAs. A particular problem is that it is usually way too easy to pick the correct answer - just try to be as helpful and considerate as possible. The few times the choice is not obvious, it happens to be obtuse.
 | |
| No matter what your mom says, she wants to have a gift |
Score 1.
Interface and Inventory
As far as I see, interface has changed in no way from the simple 1, 2, 3 of the first Adrian Mole. I didn't like the interface then, because of its overt simplicity, and my feelings haven't changed.
Score: 1
Story and Setting
When reading the second book of Adrian Mole series, I noticed that Level 9 had borrowed some events from it to their first game, which just adds up to the feeling of first game being a mess of not so well connected events. The second game, I feel, follows the chronology of the second book more faithfully, which at least adds some kind of coherence to proceedings.
Although the coherence of the plot might raise the score, the unoriginality surely lowers it. While in the first game the additions to the material from the books were farcical, here they are mainly humdrum.
 |
| Like this one, where Adrian takes an American visitor to an amusement park |
Score: 2
Sound and Graphics
I congratulated the previous Adrian Mole game for being a bit more creative than a regular Level 9 game in describing more the current theme than just any room. In principle the same thing could be said of this game, but somehow I felt that the dog motive in each picture is just droll.
Score: 3.
Environment and Atmosphere
The main fault of the game is that you get higher scores by keeping Adrian away from troubles, while the charm of the original - and even more of the TV series - is that Adrian runs into troubles, no matter how intelligent he imagines himself to be. The outcome of this design choice is that while you seemingly do better in guiding Adrian through life, there's no interesting results to be expected storywise. Of course, this is quite realistic - a childhood with just school work and no silly escapades is not bestseller material - but you'd expect something else from a game trying to entertain the player.
 |
| If you want to aim for a high score, you don't want to run away from your parents... |
 |
| ...especially if you don't want to spend the rest of your life with your conservative grandparents. |
Score 1.
Dialogue and Acting
I really don't know what I should add to what I said about the previous game, so I'll just bow to the inevitable and quote myself: "Considering that lot of the game's text has been taken directly from Sue Townsend, it cannot be that awful. Then again, I cannot give very high credit for copying someone else's witticism, especially as the text provided by Level 9 doesn't compare well with the text from book."
Score 4.
(1 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 1 + 4)/.6 = 12/.6 = 20.
Well, it was a new low for Level 9. Fortunately for myself, I've heard that from this point onward Level 9 games changed radically for the better.
Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure Free Download
Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure - In August 2017, Microsoft announced that Rush: A Disney–Pixar Adventure without the usual Kinect name would be remastered and re-released for Xbox One and Microsoft Windows 10.
Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure invites families and fans of all ages to experience the worlds of six beloved Disney Pixar films like never before. Team up with characters from The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up, Cars, Toy Story, and Finding Dory to solve puzzles and uncover hidden secrets & you and your favorite Pixar character can interact on screen and play cooperatively to solve challenges. Move from fast-paced puzzle-solving to moments of pulse-pounding agility and speed. Download this awesome video game on your PC for free.
• Save the day in your own Fast-paced adventure. Invite your family to join Woody, Lightning McQueen and others.
• Join forces with Characters to Help you through each challenge, or play on the same screen through split-screen.
• Explore and discover the sights and sounds of each Pixar World as you solve puzzles and search hidden secrets.
• Players and their favorite Disney Pixar character can interact on screen & play cooperatively, to solve challenges.
• Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure invites Families and fan of all ages to experience the world of six beloved Disney.
Game is updated to latest version
2. GAMEPLAY AND SCREENSHOTS
♢ Click or choose only one button below to download this game.
♢ View detailed instructions for downloading and installing the game here.
♢ Use 7-Zip to extract RAR, ZIP and ISO files. Install PowerISO to mount ISO files.
RUSH: A DISNEY PIXAR ADVENTURE DOWNLOAD LINKS
PASSWORD FOR THE GAME
Unlock with password: pcgamesrealm
4. INSTRUCTIONS FOR THIS GAME
➤ Download the game by clicking on the button link provided above.
➤ Download the game on the host site and turn off your Antivirus or Windows Defender to avoid errors.
➤ Once the download has been finished or completed, locate or go to that file.
➤ To open .iso file, use PowerISO and run the setup as admin then install the game on your PC.
➤ Once the installation process is complete, run the game's exe as admin and you can now play the game.
➤ Congratulations! You can now play this game for free on your PC.
➤ Note: If you like this video game, please buy it and support the developers of this game.
Temporarily disable your Antivirus or Windows Defender to avoid file corruption & false positive detections.
(Your PC must at least have the equivalent or higher specs in order to run this game.)
• Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 | Windows 8.1 | Windows 8 | Windows 7
• Processor: Intel Core i3-3210 @ 3.2 GHz | AMD FX-4150 @ 4 GHz or equivalent
• Memory: at least 4GB System RAM
• Hard Disk Space: 24GB free HDD Space
• Video Card: Nvidia GT GTX 650 | AMD R7 260 or faster for better gaming experience
Supported Language: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Spanish (Mexico), Polish, Czech, Russian, Danish, Dutch, Portuguese-Brazil, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese Traditional.• Processor: Intel Core i3-3210 @ 3.2 GHz | AMD FX-4150 @ 4 GHz or equivalent
• Memory: at least 4GB System RAM
• Hard Disk Space: 24GB free HDD Space
• Video Card: Nvidia GT GTX 650 | AMD R7 260 or faster for better gaming experience
If you have any questions or encountered broken links, please do not hesitate to comment below. :D
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