Reviews

A three part dungeons and dragons game , released 24 years ago for less than £2 , can’t be any good ? Or can it ?

Well you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find out that it is a gem of a game , the aim of the game is to find the Elixir of Hagar which has been stolen and taken to a castle far off to the North.

You start the quest off in a dark dank smelly dungeon , you control your character with the cursors , blindly working your way through each level trying to find gold , gems , keys and potions. The potions can either be good or bad , poison or refreshment , occasionally one turns out to be a genie who will offer you an escape or gold coins , taking this route out of the dungeon is the easiest way of escape , otherwise you can find yourself searching level after level for the exit.

Onto the second part , you find yourself in a market town , you place an advertisment for a party of men to join you in your quest , hopefully you have enough gold collected from the dungeon to create a fearsome posse to take with you , each man also carries certain spells which are useful later on.

If you find yourself a bit short on cash you can always pop down to the local race track , this is a basic sub game enabling you to gamble on the outcome of a rat race , it’s a bit of fun and can pay dividends if you’re getting low on funds.

Once your party is complete , your off to the next stage , each man has a strength rating , this can decrease via the turn based battles (think of a very early final fantasy 7 style battle) , through hunger or lack of sleep. You move your party again with the cursors and have two major quests in this section , find the bridge across the river , then find a way into the castle , its not to difficult but quite a lengthy hike , you do get help along the way though from the mystical golden trees which offer direction, food and spells , once you get across the river and into the castle the game style changes again !

The last part of the game is a series of mini games , you’re inside the castle now and moving from room to room via a series of corridors full of bouncing balls , each time your hit the strength of your party decreases until unfortunately one or more start to feel the grim reapers touch , the main rooms offer games such as find the keys , coded doors and rooms filled with gas to escape , all good fun ! Finally making it to the end room depending on how many men have survived you get a final battle with a dragon guarding the elixir.

Overall it’s a great game , some parts can get a bit tedious (especially if you get bogged down in the dungeon) , but its got some really neat touches and ideas , smart functional graphics , it is very addictive and its quite a challenge to complete and at the time represented amazing value for money.

Quite an interesting RPG although it can be a bit of a slog at times. The dungeons in the first part are randomly generated which is a nice idea although there's a lengthy wait whilst the dungeon is generated. This part of the game can be frustrating as you can lose a lot of energy and the potions dotted around will either kill or cure you with no way of knowing beforehand.
The second part of the game sees you amassing a party of warriors and trying to find your way to the castle. I never made it to the final part as the slow pace of the game finally got on my nerves. The battles which occur frequently take too long and made progress very very slow.

This game is one of the cutest things ever seen on a Speccy !!

4 / 5 .

It's a decent game and I certainly enjoyed this more than my previous review Nightshade, but it's just lacking in lasting enjoyment. I felt part 1 was better than part 2, part 1 I at least was able to enjoy, part 2 on the other hand was a drag. I feel I would have enjoyed this 30 years ago but it doesn't hold up to much now. Still it wasn't a bad game, I just don't fancy spending too long at it personally.