Ishar 2 - Review

Game reviewed: Ishar 2 - Messengers of Doom

Producer: Silmarils

Released: 1993

Formats: Pc, Amiga (AGA), Atari ST
Version reviewed: Pc

Difficulty: 7/10

Est. Playing time: 25 hours

Ishar 2 was actually much shorter than I anticipated when hearing that the game boasted some 100.000 different screens on Abandonia.com. I don´t know where that figure comes from but I certainly know that the game did not make that impression on me.

Gameworld & Story

The story of the game is so simple that it is hard to find. It is not mentioned in the manual at all. In the short intro something is said that you are Zubaran and you must get back to claim your rule of Ishar.Why I should do that I don´t know. And you start out without money or equipment without no one ever acknowledging you anyway.

While in the game, you never meet any person or read anything about your mission either. Everything you do is for pure exploration and curiosity. No one tells you where to go or why. Actually I find this part to be very lacking. It wouldn´t take much for the developers to add more background or texts. They had put much efforts into the graphics department but could not fill in some texts here and there.

The gameworld spans over six different islands, each with its own unique graphics. The first island and the city is the largest of them. The gameworld do change much between the parts and adds a refreshing change of introducing new environments and they are of different sizes with different inhabitants. The good thing about that is that you never really know the boundaries of the game. The maps could be large or small, you never know in advance. I like that.

Overall, with a story as thin and as unelaborating as in this game I cannot give it anything other than a low score. It is among the most lacking I´ve ever seen.

Rating: 1.5

Economy

You have a limited number of miscellaneous items, weapons and armours in the game but the stock is unlimited as long as you can afford them. Money is a first priority in the beginning until the middle of the game and is quite balanced up until after half the game. In the end I had perhaps 80.000 gold after having bought pretty much everything I wanted. Money was not an issue in the last third of the game.

One neat thing is that you can put your money in a bank in the city and get interests rate out of it depending on how many days you have them there. I would recommend to put half your money in the middle game when you could spare them.

You will find much money in the tombs that will quickly give you the opportunity to buy better armour and weapons but to be strong enough to reach those parts you have to grind several levels in the city fighting bandits and getting their money.

Resting and easting costs a lot of money and I did try to avoid it as long as I could. In the beginning it will be the most single expensive post.

Rating: 3

NPC & Interactions

This is a very weak part of the game. There are very few NPC:s in the game and you can not interact with them in any way. For example you have the village leader in the starting island who reward you when finding a necklace or the city mayor who misses his daughter. Apart from that the NPC:s might respond to actions you make like reviving a stoned priest or a sleeping ent. But I would not go as far as calling those fully fledged NPCs.

If you are lucky you can get more than one line of information from them. So sparse is the interaction and information. While interactions with NPC:s are almost nonexistent, the interactions with the environment is a little bit better developed. At certain places you should use items like parrots, eagles, keys, birds, relics and potions with the environment in order to get an effect. Most of those places are pure problem solving places which menas they are mandatory for the story to continue. Or rather, the story will never unfold it will only give you more parts to explore. Two of the islands you discover is by pure coincidence. One is discovered with the release of an eagle and one is an old map a tavern guest is wearing. Neither of them has any reason storywise for you to visit.

The interactions with the environement to solve problems reminds me more of the approach employed by adventure games.

Rating: 2

Monsters, Tactics & Combat System

The combat system in the game is very simple but easy to grasp. When you are within a few hexes most adversaries advance to get into melee combat. Combat is conducted by clicking on your weapons without any possibility to select your foe (except for ranged weapons). Heavier weapons are slower than lighter ones. You see the damage you inflict but have no way to determine how injured your foe is. Strength seems to determine which kind of armour you could wear.

Monsters never retreats and most of them respawn if you come back, sometimes even when you are advanced only a short distance away.  Monsters never drop any loot except the bandits in town that drops gold. Monsters are generally good looking but employes very similar tactics. I have yet to determine if certain monsters are more vulnerable to certain types of magic or weapons than others. Some monsters - like mages - are able to cast different spells at you, from pure direct attack spells to blindness, dizzyness, darkness and god know what. You could use ranged weapons like a bow or throwing dagger but they do less damage and most foes close in for melee attacks anyway so I never found it worthwhile, except the fight in the first island in which you must have a ranger with you.

You can also select which partymember will be in front and which ones you would like to keep in the back. Mages etc are best kept as far back as possible and the rest in the front. The tactical use of that system is very limited though. Overall, combat is really not this series strongest part. Even Bard´s tale excels in comparison.

Rating: 2

Magic System

There are three different spellcasters in the game: magicians, priests and scholars. Paladins have also the ability to heal and protect. While many spells are shared between them there are a few that are unique for each class. Spells come in three groups: attack spells, protective spells and other spells. The other spells are very powerful like teleporting (I never used it!), resurrection and some of the direct attack spells like fireballs. In my opinion I wouldn´t have lasted long without a magician.

Spells costs psychical energy which can only be regained while sleeping or if you cast the spell change of timescale. Higher level spellcasters get more spellpoints. Spells are awarded automatically when gaining a level but not for all characters in the game. It is impossible to know who does not benefit from a levelupgrade.

I think the variations of spells are pretty nice. There is a spell called inversion that I discovered I had at the last level that makes your enemies fight each other. A pretty neat spell. Overall the magic systems works well and there are enough varied spells to keep the spellcasters interesting. It makes them important to have in your party.

Rating: 3

Character generation & development
The short answer is that you don´t generate any characters and don´t make any choices while you level up in this game.

You start with Zubaran which is a pre-generated character with a fixed value in the seven standard skills which are lock-picking, perception, first aid, arms 1 handed, arms 2 handed, throwing weapons and shooting. The five starting attributes are also fixed and they are strength, constitution, agility, intelligence and wisdom.

During your travels you must recruit more characters to increase your fighting power (both melee and magic wise). All the pre-generated characters have fixed attributes and skill sets. If they die they don´t come back so be careful if you early on looses one of the best mages. Anyway, you gain XP from killing enemies and at fixed values (not mentioned in the manual) you are promoted to a new level but don´t get any notification about it. You get more vitality points and - I think - mana but your attributes and skill set remains the same for the entire game. You cannot train or enhance them in any way and no items can affect them.

Actually some skills are pretty worthless. You have lock-picking but I have only found one lock in the game and it required a bird to fetch a key. Perception is working though and several times I have found secret doors because of it. First aid heals so small amounts of injury that I never used it. Besides, the teamembers have their own perception of each other and could very well refuse to heal another partymember. It is just not worth fiddling with in my opinion. The other combat related skills seems to work as announced.

The only development of characters is that you select can select the party composition. You can not switch characters to work with. If you dismiss a character he is gone forever. This side of the game is very lacking and so will yield a below average score.

So to summarise. You have very little control of development of the characters and as the system is implemented it is almost at the bottom score.

Rating: 1.5

Map design
Here I think Ishar 2 succeeds in conveying the feeling of unrestricted maps and levels of varying sizes. You never really know how large the maps are and they varies greatly from island to island. Some of them have several levels but they could also vary in size. The map design in itself is very irregular. Levers are clearly seen and hidden buttons could be seen if you look for them. It´s not a pixelhunting game in that respect.

There is not much logic behind the underground levels. Rooms comes and goes by random even though there are symmetrical places here and there. The overland maps are better. The city tries to look like a city with a lot of cul-de-sac alleys and backyards spawning from the mainstreets. The first island is very large and you can roam around for awhile until you get the bearings.

The so called automap of the game is only doing its job in the city. For all other islands you only see where you are relative to the island. You don´t see the corridors or rooms of the level itself which forces you to draw your own maps anyway.

Rating: 3

Manual
The manual of the game is nothing to write home about. It contains hand-drawn illustrations instead of screenshots and the texts just go on and on without structure. Potions are listed with their names and required ingredients but not what they do. You have to find out ingame. Spells are also described but they forgot to include the matching spell symbols so this part is useless unless you can find the Ishar 3 manual which contains the same spells with the symbols. The manual talks about how important team spirit are but does not actually explain in any way how it works or why I should bother. I have not cared for it much and it went well anyway. The same goes for your skills like lock-picking. This manual is without a doubt clearly below standard for a game such as this.

Rating: 2

Graphics, Sound and Interface
Ishar 2:s greatest strength lies in its graphics. The environment, landscape and adversaries are well drawn and the terrain is marvelous for its time. You also have day-and-night cycles implemented which affects opening hours for the shops. The sound effects are nothing special, a few environmental effects could be heard from time to time but other than that sound are mostly heard from combat. Even though the music is better than the sound effects, the music does not sound as well on the PC version as on the Amiga version but the tunes are very good indeed. I am still listening to them while working from time to time.

For example, this remix  is from the main theme of the game and one of my favourites:

The interface is both good and bad. It is easy to fight, you have the icons for all you members grouped together and just have to click on them to attack (or use F6 - F10 as I do). Managing yoru inventory works pretty well. You have a fixed number of inventory slots and it will be enough during the game. The interface for using gold is cumbersome and transfering several stacked items must be done one at a time. You could pretty easy navigate through spells and the inventory but at the same time each character could have four different tabs showing, instead of the portraits and I found this system cumbersome and disorienting. Overall the inventory works ok. Other than that the game moves along quite well when boosting CPU cycles to over 10.000 in Dosbox.

Rating: 3.5

Gameplay
From the start of the game I had quite fun with Ishar 2. Silmarils choosed to make an RPG in their own way, choosing their own implementation of an RPG. Ishar is not like the traditional CRPGS released prior to its arrival. They should have credit for daring to be different in their approach. Combat is simplified, there are a limited number of items, puzzles are challenging but you are fairly free of when and where to go even if you have to unlock the islands in a special order. I had hoped for better story, interesting NPC:s, more engrossing story driven elements, but still it is quite easy to get into and play. The feeling of gather gold, killing bandits and slowly aquire better equipment and see the noticeable effects of this is very rewarding. 

I liked the graphics and the varied areas. It is just not new textures on the walls it is really new areas, from the starting island's fog and swamp to Jon´s Islands snowy regions where you have to wear fur coats to survive. Since each area was not very large the game never became tedious. Even though you had to run back and forth to solve different puzzles, it took not much time so it could be done within minutes.

Because of the difficult challenges, the reward for solving them is greater, for your own feeling of accomplishment. The game hides much of the game mechanics but you will notice clearly that upgrading weapons and armours really do have an immediate effects of combats. It makes the pursuit of more money all the more joyful. The economy is well balanced and gold will be your top priority during the first two thirds of the game. I have not discovered any more advantages to raise in levels except that you get more vitality points and more spells for the spellcasters.

That being said, the game also have some major drawbacks. It feels much like a combination between an traditional adventure game and an RPG. What comes to mind is the game Elvira - Misstress of the Dark. Even tough that was more heavy on the adventure side it still had attributes and RPG elements. The manual is so poor as to explain the game mechanics that I am not sure your attributes counts for much.

There where much talk about the team spirit in this game when it was released. That the group would vote if you wished to recruit or dismiss a character but I have to say that this was never a problem for me. I find this system overrated even though it was a new aspect built into an CRPG of the time. The team members never speak or interacts with eachother anyway.

The game is hard in the beginning. You will die many times unless you understand that you must first recruit a full group before you could begin to take on anything. Gold is scarce in the beginning and the fight for survival is strong.

My greatest problem with the game is the unbalanced puzzles. For most of them there doesn´t seem to be any logical way in which you could solve them. At best, the solutions are far-reached. For example, you have the lock-pick skill in the game and there is only one locked door but you cannot use the skill because the manual doesn´t say how to do it. Instead you are supposed to buy a thieving magpie to get the key for you. If you don´t bring that bird with you at the time you are stuck forever and have to revert to a previous save game. Or you might discover a door with an ear inscribed on it and the only way to open it is by using a parrot on it. I can understand people got frustrated in 1992 and just waited for the game to get a walkthrough in any game magazine at the time. Or what about a shady figure wanting you to meet him at night in the cul-de-sac for the four towers in the city. Where the hell lies that when every part of town looks the same ?

Even though combat is an important part of the game I don´t think it is too much combat and they are quick and seldom tedious. What I am really disappointed with is the lack of NPCs, storytellers, texts, found parchements or anything that will shed some light on things. You are never told what is happening or why you are supposed to do something. You have to figure out everything yourself. That is a bad mistake. The game should welcome you better and drag you into the story to let you feel immersed. My major motivation was to gather more gold so I could buy better equipment, I didn´t understand much of anything that was around me. If I was attacked I defended myself. I gathered a lot of relics but never understood why or how to use them. Fortunately you could solve the game anyway. The so called auto-map in the game is very, very rough and you have to draw your own maps. The game has more similaritis with an adventure game than I would have hoped for.

I did enjoy it most of the time though. Otherwhise I wouldn´t have finished it. No area was big enough as to make me tire of the game. You will not see spinners, random encounters (every encounter is fixed!) or darkness when you walk in the dungeons. Could I recommend it ? As a different approach to traditional RPGs the answer is yes but with reservation for its weak sides.

Rating: 3.5

Ratings summary:

Section	Rating
Gameworld & Story	1,5
Economy	3
NPC & Interactions	2
Monsters, tactics & combat system	2
Magic system	3
Character generation & development	1,5
Map design	3
Manual	2
Graphics, Sound and Interface	3,5
Summary CRPG value	21,5
Gameplay	3,5 (21,5)

Helpful links:

• DJ Oldgames: Ishar 2 resources like manual, walkthrough and other stuff
• Another good walkthrough
• To complement errors in written walkthroughs you might look at this let´s play

Ishar 2 - Won!

In my last session I was just about to return to the snowisland to try to overcome the vertigo my group felt at a certain place. Therefore, in the city, I bought all ingredients needed to brew five anti-vertigo potions. One of the unique ingredients was of course the hard to get Edelweiss flower and there where only five of them in the game.

Of course! I thought. This must be an important potion for the game so I was almost convinced I was on the right track. I did however only have three flowers but I knew where to find the last two. I returned to Jon´s island and searched for the last two flowers. They where guarded by the dreadful harpies and this time they possessed two of my characters to hit my partymembers. Since I could not cure them and there are no temples that offer those cures, I had to reload the battle several times. But in the end there where still at least one party member getting cursed. I found out that it had nothing to do with the harpies but of the place the harpies inhabited. It was by pure coincident I checked my magicians spells and found a spell called remove curse. It worked!

Now I had all ingredients needed for the potions so I returned to the spot where my group refused to go on and brew one potion for each and everyone of them. I was relieved to see it worked. I continued to map this new area and eventually I found another relic.

My knight with his evening tunic on

I was glad I did find it but I still had no way of continuing my quest. It was then I remembered a hint I got from a tavern that I shouldn´t forget to wear my suits to visit the club blue velvet in the evening. In the city there are a place in which you could buy an evening tunic for 8.000 gc. I bought it to all my characters and we entered the blue velvet at night. We where thrown in jail again by the guards so that solution didn´t work.

At this point I had to look for a hint in a walkthrough and found out that I did the correct thing but I would also have to wear one of my found pendants. I am so tired of these puzzles by now. The pendants have no names indicating anything about their use so wearing one together with the evening tunics doesn´t make sense. But it worked. And this was a breakthrough because I found an old man there that gave me the map for the last and fifth island....the fortress itself!

This man is truly a hero, he gave me a new island to explore

Before I left there I had to check out in a walkthrough where the cul-de-sac of the four towers where in the city. It was there I would meet a person at night for some information. When I found the place I waited until 2 in the morning and a shadowy figure emerged in an alley. He requested 20.000 gold. I was not sure for what but paid him and got a relic from him. I now had five relics with which I don´t really know what to do. But there was this place in the mountains where there where five pillars and the relics could be put upon them so I sailed there and used all my five relics. Nothing happened! I don´t know if they must be in any particular order or not but I took back my relics and headed for the last island.

All my hard-to-get relics for nothing!

The last island took me right into the fortress in which I suspect the last confrontation will take place. I noticed that the difficulty was challenging right from the start. I met a tough opponent which had the ability to turn my group against each other. The only way to beat that foe was a newly discovered spell that freezes the opponent. That battle did not come without losses however. My mage Bormost died and I had to resurrect him with a spell. That goes with a price because his XP is reset to zero which means it will take forever to return him back where he was but I thought it was well worth the effort if this was the last place.

After the battle I had to return to town to rest and eat. When I returned I did not make many more moves until a Red dragon stopped my way. I used the exactly same tactic against him and after a tough fight he was dead. I continued through the corridors and soon met skeletons in hordes that depleted my energy and mana and made my progress very slow while I mapped the place. I had to return back to the city again. This time I bought enough ingredients to make 10 potions of restore mana. I had never tried them out before but as it would turn out I regret I hadn´t used them earlier in the game.   

He looks far more dangerous than he is

With every return trip back to the fortress the major opponents where permanently gone but the skeletons still harassed me. I killed their mage leader and behind him a secret wall lead me to a lever that opened my only door forward in the complex. Behind that door I soon found the stairs leading to another level. Before too long I met a knight that blocked my path. He was tough but if I froze him as before I could kill him and I did. My mana was drained but by using a potion on my mage all mana was restored and I could continue hurling fireballs.

Too bad all the different, good looking baddies only appear once in the end

We moved through corridors that where filled with groups of mummies. Those are tough bastards that are able to inflict heavy injuries on you, or at least that was what I thought initially because it seems that when I fight them half of my group actually fights inbetween ourselves so those mummies are a nuiscance.

My solution for them after trying out different tactics was to throw fireballs at them and then use the spell change of timescale. I discovered this spell too late in the game, and didn´t use it until at this last level. It stops time in the middle of combat or anywhere and let´s you rest, both gaining physical as well as psychic energy. That gave me more mana to throw more fireballs and that was how I used it to move further into the complex.

In order to save my strength I begun to avoid fights and run from them unless it was absolutely neccessary. Since time in the game depletes my physical energy I often do recon patrols to map out the area ahead before going in with my real save. In that way, I optimise my gameplay and preserve the strength of the group as long as possible.

Some things of important in this fortress level

• I found a room with a fountain but I didn´t see any effect when using it and could not use any items on it. I moved on.
• There is a lever in the western part that must be pulled to open up a portcullis in the eastern part.
• There is nothing of importance on the level except 10.000 gold and some arrows.

When going through the portcullis we met yet another type of monster. I don´t really know what to call them but they sure did not look friendly with their huge maces. They inflicted heavy amounts of damage on me and fighting them with my ordinary weapons would only get me a Pyrrhys victory, so I used the fireballs tactics at them and it worked like a charm. After that, I healed up using the change of timescale and moved on.

I found another closed door but it turned out I had to step on a preassure plate in a room full of traps in order to open it. After that part I eventually met a mage of some sort. He spoke but said nothing of importance, just that he´d made it. Made what I wonder ? I didn´t understand.

 He could not be fought and he would not accept any of my items so I just moved on.

What the hell is he talking about ?

I begun to become really excited to finish this game now and rushed on without mapping but was stopped by a door with a huge ear on it. What the hell is that !? It couldn´t be opened by magic or force and I had no keys. I started to use my items on it and tried out the parrot I bought before. Apparently a parrot must speak through the ear to let the door open. This must be the most ridiculous challenge yet in this game. There is absolutely no logic in it. Well, at least I figured it out by myself and stepped through.

The most silly solution yet!

I still had one unused rat and monkey in my inventory. I wonder where I could have used them.

This is the void when you cast change of timescale

I moved through a corridor that opened up into a large hall. And there he was....Shandar himself...or rather I thought so. The nameless shadow just stood there. He could actually be anyone because he didn´t speak or anything. But he sure did attack me! He died at my hands in my first attempt. I threw fireballs at him and when my mana was drained I brew a potion to restore it to full strength and repeated that action. Three times I emptied my mana reserves with fireballs at him and managed to stay alive during his feeble attempts to hurt or immobilise me. I was quite dissappointed but at the same time glad I did it defeat him!

Why does he not say anything ?

Shandar was now dead and I was met by the same image as in the introduction but with a slow shadow emerging from the right side of the screen. I suppose that should remind me of a continuation in Ishar 3 but that won´t happen anytime soon. First I need a rest from this gaming system.

Look out for my review in my next post.

Ishar 2 - Challenging puzzles

In my last post I told you about the new island Jon´s Island that I´ve found. My new goal was naturally to check out that island but I had to prepare myself since it was a snowladen mountainious region. I bought five fur coats for 5.000 gold each to all my members, rested, ate and returned to the island. It had three harbours and I choosed to work from the northeastern one first.

I removed my heavy armours and put on the fur cloaks. Immediately the cold stopped inflicting injuries on me. Now, I grabbed my graphpaper and begun to map out this part of the island. For most parts you walk alongside the mountain cliffs but find passages leading into the mountain from time to time. When walking alongside the cliff you run the risk of slipping and falling off, menaing a certain death. I suppose you might prevent that if you buy ropes for the group but I found that it only happens if you try to step out into nothingness so I choosed the careful approach instead.

Dawn is approaching

On this part of the island all my search eventually come down to the Edelweiss flower. I found five of them in total. However, to reach them I had to fight through groups of dwarves guarding the passages. They where not really hard though, but it still took me one return trip to the city to rest before I could finish this part of the island. The flowers are important ingredients in potions you could brew. But at this time I had yet to find the cauldron to use for it. At one point my party refused to go further because they got giddy. This is the only place on the island in which they reacted that way so I´m not surprised if I have to return to this part later on.

After all my challenges you give in for giddiness !?

The second time I returned to the island I choosed the northwestern harbour. This part of the island was inhabited with harpies. They where not many but very hard. I noticed that they could possess a character into attacking the party and that this condition did not end after some time. Since I had no remedy for such a condition, I reloaded prior to the combat to make another try. This time, more successful.

There where three important places found. The most rewarding one was a living sword (+20). It was guarded by some creatures. At another place I came to what seems like a row of pillars and nothing else. I could not do anything with them but started to experimenting with my items. The only item that would be set on such a pillar was my relic I found with the Golem on the first island. But nothing happens so I suppose I need more relics or this was just a red herring.

I met a floating old man at one place. I could not speak to him, nor did he react to spells or any item I tried to use on him. Hmm. I noticed where he was and moved on.

This holy man is allegedly a "turbulent priest"

The last part of the island - with the southern harbour - contained two important things. First I killed some sort of beast and got its horn. I don´t know what to do with the horn though. Perhaps an ingredient. The other thing that did cheer me up was when I found the cauldron to brew potions with. 

The only cauldron in the game, used to brew potions

Now that I had explored the whole island I had found some important items but no clue on how to go on or what to do from here. After resting in town, I decided to return to the tombs because there was one last door there that I could not figure out how to open. I went there and tried two of my keys, one being the key I stole from the monk at the sacrifice. But nothing worked. I returned back to town to think.

My situation right now is:

• I cannot open the door in the tombs and have no clue of how to do it
• I don´t know how to use the three scales in the sewers. There must be something they do.
• I don´t know if I have done all I should when I stole the key from the sacrifice or if there is more to do
• There is a person in the town I should meet in the night at a special place but I don´t know where that place might be.

So since I couldn´t find a way to move on, I needed a little help. I peeked through a walkthrough to get me only a hint, not to read fully of what to do. And I found one hint. The old man I found floating at Jon´s Island, was described as a priest in the walkthrough. I was to give him a potion called Humbolg which is described as "turbulent priest" in the manual.

Actually I don´t think I could have done that connection. There is no reason why I should give a floating old man - without knowing he is a priest - a potion called "turbulent priest" which in itself does not reveal anything of its use. With challenges such as these I don´t feel too bad of cheating.

 

 

Anyway, I gathered the ingredients needed for the potion. All could be bought in the city. Then I mixed them in the cauldron and wondered. Shouldn´t I be give a new potion out of this ? I wasn´t and then I wondered if I should use the cauldron on a fire or whatever to actually brew the potion but nay, that is not the case. I brought what I had in the cauldron to the floating old man and he thanked me and gave me a map as a reward. I looked on it and saw he had pinpointed a new island for me. Great!

There is room for one more island...

Now I felt I was back in the loop again. I immediately set sail for the new island and went ashore. It turned out to be an island called Thorn´s island that was covered with trees and walkways inbetween. A typical area where you would expect wooden elves to life, except they don´t exist in this game. I started to map this place and found several interesting places.

• A relic guarded by some sort of beast reminding me of a Chimera.

One should be careful travelling at nighttime

• Tales told by some old men that indicates that the mayor in the city is an evil person conducting dark rituals. I have already discovered that to be true.
• I found Zeldy, the daughter of the mayor in the town hall. She was dead but I could take a key from her.

There is certainly nothing wrong with the graphics in the game

• An old unmoving gray man that just stood there.

After having found Zeldy, I returned to the city to let the mayor know. The key she weared opened up the town hall and in there I found an idol. Perhaps it was the idol stolen from the church ? I took the idol and showed them to the religious center. They where overjoyed and gave me a pendant.

I rested and returned to the island. The last thing of interest was a sleeping Ent. I couldn´t do anything with him but I remembered seeing a potion called Ent alarm in the manual and knowing this games´ subtle hints on things I returned to the city and got the ingredients for it and brewed a potion I offered it to the ent....and voila! He took it and woke up to give me yet another pendant. Hmm. So I have gathered a few relics, a few pendants and a few skulls by now. I wonder what to do with these.

Anyway, I was not the wiser after having completed my mapping of the whole island. I still couldn´t figure out what to do next and had to take a hint again about the old, gray man. It turned out I should use the horn I found from the beast in the snowy mountains to get the man back to flesh again. Yet another brutally bad puzzle. You cannot determine that the man is turned to stone to begin with and much less so that the horn would have anything to do with his stone-to-flesh wish. I know where I will hit this game hard on at my review.

When the man finally could speak again he told me he wanted a shield. Strange wish for a man returning from eternal death, but what the hell. I returned to the city and bought an iron shield for 6.000 gold and gave it to him. He took it and somehow bestow some sort of magic on it and returned it to me. It was said to protect me from a dragon´s fire. Would I guess that is how it all will end eventually ?

I left Thorn´s island with a sense that I had completed all my tasks there and returned back to the city. I could either go back to the mountain to try to solve the puzzle with my group refusing to go on OR I could - once and for all - try to solve the problem with the scales down in the sewers. I choosed the latter one.

After ploughing through my skeleton friends I was again standing in front of the three scales. I just had to look up that solution in a walkthrough. It was said I had to put 3.350 gold pieces in each and everyone of the scales, but it turns out it should be 3.550 gold pieces (I learned that from another  walkthrough on youtube).

That is more than what the scale with the gold originally contained which makes it even more difficult to solve this puzzle. When I put that amount of money in the three scales and returned back to the sewers, the water was now drained and the monsterns infesting it was back behind their bars again.

I explored the now drained sewers once again to find anything hidden and found a small sewerhole below water level which we stepped through. We came into a huge room that contained 10.000 gold and a throwing dagger. In the eastern part we met a group of mummies guarding a lever in the wall. I killed them and pulled the wall and moved north through a corridor. A few steps later we where all roasted by an etherical monster casting spells at us and doing huge amount of damage. My party was wiped out after just a few hits and it was impossible to hurt the creature.

 

 

I reloaded and tried out different magical spells on him but could not harm him so I reloaded again and now put all my pendants on me and voila! One of them protected me from even meeting this elemental foe. Another example of using an item you don´t know what it´s for against a monster you don´t know the name of and of course that should solve your problem.

I continued and soon found two new skulls and some money. One of the skulls was protected behind masses of mummies and the other one behind secret walls. So it was these skulls that where so important all the time! All of my problems with the scales to get two more skulls.

 

 

I returned back to the city to heal and rest. My group was now at level 20 and the new mage and priest at around level 14. They had got a lot of new spells since being recruited to the group. I admit I had to go for a hint again. It seems the skulls where important to open the last locked door in the tombs. I returned there and put every skull into every scale I found and that worked. The only logical explanation of this is that there where five scales (or six, I don´t remember now) and I carried at this time of the game the same amount of skulls. That´s all there is. If there at least could be some parchement or riddles you find with some clues. I wonder if anything could be put in the scales. Hmm...

If you didn´t now, I´ll tell you now. Skulls are for weighing down scales that opens doors, Clear enough ?

The door was now open. I entered to find a room filled with gold and yet another relic. Now I had three. So the relics and my pendants are what I have.

Right now I will try to find a way to continue in the snowy mountains because I have no other place to visit. I will brew potions to get rid of my giddy. I found that in the manual there are a potion called anti-vertigo. If that is not the solution the I don´t know. I´ll return in my next post of what will happen.

Ishar 2 - A new island

After getting back to the city from the tomb, I begun re-equipping myself again. I still had some areas umapped of the tomb. I made my way back and begun to explore the levers and closed doors I've found. I tested them one at a time and searched for the effect of each and everyone of them. The first lever opened a door that eventually led me to a crack in the wall where a mageskeleton hided. 

I like this guy´s outfit

He attacked me with spells but I killed him quite quickly. Behind him I gathered around 30.000 gold and another skull that I brought with me. Yet another lever opened up a door with some more gold and another lever. The last lever led to a continuation of the complex. After some exploration Fandhir in my group noted he felt some sort of draught, meaning there must be a hidden wall somewhere. I tried out the walls nearby and found it. This was the first secret door in the game I´ve found so far. I entered.

When you characters succedds a perception test, this might be the result

The corridors led to a spiraling square where the niches where full of gold. I gathered another 30.000 gold here. The corridor ended with a closed door. Some moments later a huge axe-wielding executioner appeared and started to attack me!

As you can see I was killed quite brutally. It was obvious I was not ready for this fight yet. I reloaded prior to meeting this guy and begun to return back to the exit. I had only strength left for one or two fights and had to try to run past the skeletons that now had spawned again. The major problem is not that I am out of hitpoints but out of stamina.

When I got back to the city I bought the most expensive armour I could found, an armour of chaos (+12). I ate and slept and returned to the tomb again. This time to explore the northern part. After fighting through the starting skeletons once again I got to a dead end. But this end was guarded by some sort of magician. He attacked and I fought ferociously back at him and soon killed him. Another secret door could be found in his den that eventually led to the sewers.

This was obviously a new sort of complex. At this time I had used more than half of my stamina and psychic points and therefore it was time for me to return to the city once again. Well there I bought yet another of the best armour to one of my warriors and replaced my fire sword (+12) with another magic sword (+15). I was also not satisfied with my archer. I have never used him in combat. Not since he defeated the goblin leader at the first island.Using bows and arrows in this game comes with a drawback that I don´t appreciate. When you press the attack button of the bow, the mouse pointer changes to an arrow that you manuall have to select a target fore. Menawhile, neither of your other party members could attack. It ain´t worth the extra time in my opinion.

So I wanted to replace him. What I will miss most is that he had advanced to level 14 and probably gained a lot of vitality points, but that couldn´t be helped if he was not adding more to my group.

I replaced him with a mage and also got rid of my existing priest for another priest. The new priest had four spells even though he was only half the level of my existing priest. Somehow you don´t always get new spells automatically when levelling up. So with two new members, my team spirit actually raised from around 19 to 33. I am not sure what effect that has on the game other than that a higer number is better.

A leverl in the complex, Not very difficult to discover

My grinding companions approach, except that I get the grinding benefit

Our first task was to return to the first island and meet the Golem for the third time. I found him at the same place, took the skull cube and he materialised in front of me. The combat begun and this time I attacked him with full strength and healed up my weakest fighter Manatar when he needed it. Soon the Golem perished and we rejoiced! Not that I know what I will do with the skullcube anyway. I was a bit interested - and worried - what happens to partymembers you dismiss so I figured I would see if they returned to their old tavern or was permanently removed from the game.

Unfortunately they where not to be found at the tavern where they where originally recruited, so that means one have to be careful when dismissing (or assassinating) party members. I have no idea when I will need some special character like a thief for example.

The village back at the first island

Since I did not have any good clues or hints of what to do I returned to the tomb and entered the sewers. At some places I found a strange creature behind bars but couldn´t interact with it in any way.

I eventually stepped out from the sewers into a small room with three weighing-plates. One of them had some gold on it and the other two was empty. Every one moved when being weighed down. Hmm. So what should I do with these ? And what do I want to happen ? Well, since this was my last room in the complex I had nowhere else to go so I hoped naturally that a wall would be removed or whatever to allow me to continue.

What am I supposed to do ?

• I counted the money that laid in one of them and split it in three and put it in all three weights. 
• I took all my money and divided in on the three scales. I though they perhaps needed a certain weight. 
• I took the same amount of money as was in the single scale and put in on the other tow. 

I don´t know which of these combinations it was but on one occassion I got back to the sewers and found the creatures gone from the bars, but they turned up in the water instead and attacked me! They where not overly hard and left nothing of value. I inspected the bars but could do nothing about them. This was one effect of playing around with the scales but I am not sure if it has been done correctly.

I returned back to the city again and this time I thought I would revisit the places I´ve already been at. That was a good move because at the temple I found out that the idol had been stolen. Not that I know what to do about it but it indicated that time or other events in the game had triggered this.

Back at the library I got hold of some receipt of potion names and what they do. The manual contains information about the ingredients needed but I haven´t found a cauldron to brew them in, yet.

I searched the whole town after guards I´ve might have missed and found a guard giant or guard captain in the eastern part that I forgot about. I killed him and behind him was the entrance to the tavern Blue Velvet. When I entered I was surrounded with guards and taken prisoner. 

Where they expecting me ?

I had no choice and was sent to prison - wherever that where - behind bars. There was a lock on the door but nothing in the cell and we kept all our equipment and weapons. I tried most things on the lock without success. There is a skill in the game called lock-picking. I thought I would need a thief in order to break free. This is one of the  moments in which you could get stuck forever if you save at the prison. I reloaded prior to entering the tavern but returned to recruit a thief just as a test. Well back in the prison I just stood there as dumb as before. How do I use the skill ? I could not break free in any way.

At this point I actually checked a walkthrough - and I was glad I did. In order to break free I would have to buy a certain bird from the zoo called thieving magpie or something like that. I reloaded, bought that bird and was back in prison again. I released the bird which flew away and returned shortly after with a key in its beak. What the hell!? Not the most logical and intuitive way of solving this problem. But it allowed me to continue.

The prisoner cell

Just a few steps outside my prison cell I discovered a cults' nest. They where conducting a sacrifice. I could do nothing except I could steal a key from one of the participants. I returned back from there only to return back to the cell areas. So how do I get out of there ?

So this is what happens behind the town mayors innocent facade

When I passed the corridor the second time one of my party members said he felt a draught and I knew there where a hidden door somewhere. When I found it and stepped through I was out on the streets again. But this time I had to fight through a dozen guards to get out. I was lucky to have the strength left for that. Another spot in which you could get stuck if you don´t have an old save game. Anyway after breaking free I returned back to heal up and ponder what to do next.

Right now I lack any clear directions. I know there must be something more to the prisoner incident and the club blue velvet. Was it all just to allow me to get the key ? And what should I use that for ? I revisited the temple and the town hall (which now is closed at daytime...hmm) but that yielded nothing.

I decided to return to the first island to pay 10.000 gold for the magician who said something about an eagle showing the way. I had already bought all animals there is after my last experience in the prison so I already had an eagle with me. I paid him and then released my eagle who flew away. It turned up that the eagle discovered another island for me to visit. Perfect! Just what I needed. Somewhere else to go. 

I went there quickly just to discover that it is a snowy mountain region with three separate harbours to dock at. However, I also noticed while being there that my health was drained every three seconds or so.

I suspect I have to protect myself from the cold in some way and then remembered a tavern where I heard rumours of what was needed for an expedition. Furs was mentioned there, so I returned back to the city once again. This time to prepare myself with some equipment before leaving for the new island again.

Before ending this session. Do I like the game ? Well, it certainly has its strength but the lack of a clear mission and the non-linearity, together with the rather challenging difficulties make it a mixed feeling. It is easy to get stuck in the game and the clues and hints are very few. But let me return to that when the time comes to judge this game. 

Time to move on to explore the new island....