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⬅️ Previous capture (2023-01-29)
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Summary: Namtar, the evil wizard, has unleashed his legions over the land of Dilmun. Your object in this Bard's Tale style RPG is to find and kill him. Plot: You control a group of players out to get Namtar; four are of your own creation, but you can pick up NPC's at various places. You go through a three-level game(towns on the surface, underground below that, and the Magan Underworld below that) searching for clues. There is one item you have to build and some things to avoid; often you can achieve something by brute force, but solving the puzzle is more satisfying. There are some puzzles to make the game easier(how to raise characters from the dead? There's no resurrect spell!) and some that get you a special spell(you get skill points with each level, and they can be spread among various skills. But having a magic skill only allows you to read scrolls you may find--it doesn't give you any of the spells!) There are bureaucrats and tired old dragons and even a good deal of Babylonian mythology. Many dungeons/puzzles are one-way, and this forces you to make a decision and hope you've found everything, which is a downer, but the puzzles are always captivating. And finding quick ways to get around the kingdom is nice--you don't always "have" to go one annoying, long way, except maybe the first time. For instance, guards might be posted at one entrance to a city, but there might be a secret door around them where you can disarm a trap or maybe suffer minimal damage from it--which is safer than a fight. Controls: combat options are all displayed on the screen, to the right of the graphics. The program asks you if you want to climb any stairs you might come upon, or drink from a pool. You just use the keyboard to turn and go forward. One great thing about improving your players is that you can wait until you know what your party might need, and then you can improve a character. Also there is no clearly "best" armor--plate mail gives better protection than chain but lowers your quickness, so you need to decide. Score a strong one for realism... Graphics: the Magan Underworld is very well-done. You are always shown the world in perspective, although you have auto-mapping too until you leave an area. The monster pictures that appear during an encounter are well-detailed, and that Dragon Wars often uses a paragraph book helps copy-protect and save more memory for special effects. There are mountain 3-d graphics, forest graphics, and general "outdoors" 3-d graphics. Replayability: very high. You can even start over from scratch with adventurers who have won the game. There are enough places to go that you won't get tired, and because several puzzles have multiple solutions(which can use multiple traits or items or spells) and can be done in flexible orders, you can try them just for fun, too. Also, although not picking up a certain item may mean your party cannot win the current game(it's a bit unfair in this respect), you can re-start your party with the same characters and abilities, although they will lose some items. Reviewer's Score: 10 / 10