The Keep - Review

Game reviewed: The Keep

Version: 1.0.6
Created by: Cinemax
Released: 2017

Formats: Pc

Difficulty: 6/10

Price: $14.99

Another Dungeon crawler arrived just a few weeks ago and I bought it almost immediately having only read one or two Steam reviews of it. The game is very similar to last years dungeon crawlers. It is short, linear, limited character development but fun. So let´s dwelve a little deeper into it and see what it brings to the table. And can it compete with the previous ones ?

Gameworld & Story

The gameworld consists only of underground environments so there will be no score in that field. The story for being a dungeon crawler is above average. Between every level you get some new graphics and voices detailing what is happening and how you proceed in your quest. While it is short and have no bearing on the actual play it brings some atmosphere and immersion. Also add the readable plaques found in the mazes that you read out loud like in Stonekeep and that also adds to the atmosphere and feel of the place. The dungeons don´t feel som randomly built with those comments.

Rating 1.5

Economy

There is no money in the game and therefore no shops and no economy.

Rating: 1

NPC & Interactions

There are no NPC in the game at all. But some of the oppnonents you meet will say something to you in short dialogues which adds to the atmosphere. Interactions in the game consists of pulling levers, pushing buttons and weigh down preaussure plates. You can throw items short or long distances and often have to do that or put things behind bars to weigh down preaussure plates. You could also grab torches to light your way instead of using magic.

Rating: 1.5

Monsters, tactics & combat system

The game contains enough different monsters and humanoids to make it interesting. Many of the have their own strength and weaknesses. For example, the ghosts can move through walls which is very dangerous since they also can attack you by surprise. Some use long range magic even though there are very few magic users. Some could heal themselves which I had much problem with initially and had to save after every fight.

Monster never uses any particular tactics. They all fight to the death and will not try to surround you in any way. You could however use some tactics against them. Either by using square dance which works pretty well as long as you have room to manouver and no other monster joins the fray or by using a combination of your magic. I played a character where 2/3 of my skill points where put into melee attributes and the rest in magic abilities. I always used a combination in fights, often beginning with magic. My favourite the last half of the game was to freeze the opponent and then cast lightning on them for more damage. Then shift to melee and empty my stamina before going back to magic again.

Regeneration is slow for both stamina and mana but can be increased by increasing attributes like intelligence. You will need to use potions in tougher fights to be able to survive though.

I think the combat system worked pretty well. What I really liked was the fact that it was possible to use traps against the monsters. In some of the later levels there are some real tough fights but I were able to destroy a lot of enemies by luring them into rooms where I could open trapdoors and let them be spiked. Sometimes I just had to escape from them in order to proceed.

Rating 3

Magic system

By gathering runes - which are quite rare - and finding scrolls with spells you could learn how to arrange the runes on a grid to create the spell you want. When you want to cast the spell you swipe across the bord just like an attack. You have room for  around 4-5 spells at a single time but will seldom have the amount of runes to make so many spells at once.

Mana regenerates faster the more intelligence you have but it will never be fast enough and enemies are tough and require some time to defeat so you will have to learn ways to circumvent them, run around, using melee or whatever to let your mana regenerate enough for new attacks.

I haven´t kept count but believe there are a dozen or so spells in the game. From healing to freeze, lightning and different kinds of fire based attacks. I am not sure if different monsters have different resistances to them though.

In overall, while I am not fond of the swiping effect to attack and cast spells (probably because this is a mobile game in the first place) it did work out pretty well in the end.

Rating 2.5

Character generation & development

You start off with one pregenerated character so there is no character generation. You are a fixed person in the story. When you level up you get some attribute points to spend on strength (increase damage), intelligence (increase mana regeneration and mana points) or dexterity (to increase critical hits and stamina regeneration).

I do feel you have a balance and an interesting choice here but I also feel that it will be very hard to specialise in just a melee or mage way. At least I feel I won´t have come as far without the help of my magic event though I spent the most part on melee.

Rating 2

Map design

The maps are of no predetermined size in x and y widths which is good. You never know when or where it will end with the staircaise down to the next level. There are even maps that spans several levels. The design creates some variety. Especially those where you have to coordinate activities through several levels to succeed.

Rating 3.5

Manual

I was quite astonished to see a really well done manual to this game which was both colorful and with images. Really nice for a change.

Rating 4

Graphics, sound and interface

Graphics in the game are pretty simpel and not very detailed but it is very functional. The sound effects are good and there are some music but nothing that really stucks. The interface is large and clear and is quite easy to use but I don´t like the way you use runes and cast spells. It reminds me too much about Dungeon Master 2. I would prefer to just select a spell but I like the fact that you have to look for the ingredients in the form of runes.

Every three levels or so the style of the graphics in the dungeons change.

Rating 3

Gameplay

Since the game was so short - ten levels - it held my attention to the end and took me only around a dozen hours to complete. I like the game. I was hooked in the beginning when everything felt new and fresh and that feeling sustained for the coming levels. I felt the game was fairly easy combatwise until around level 7 when the difficulty was sharply increased. I had then only spent a fraction of the attribute points I earned when levelling so it wasn´t a surprise but at that point I had to invest all of my saved attribute points into melee in order to succeed in progressing. It was well worth it and I felt the balance in the game is very well made. I had some really tough fights but none that was impossible.

Each level have a few secrets and I managed to uncover most of them until the later levels where my only wish was to survive to the next level. The puzzles in the game was very well made. They are of the typical stuff found in all dungeon crawlers but what I found particular good in this game was that you could use traps against the enemies which is very seldom an option since Dungeon Master.

The fights was pretty nice too with the comboeffects building up after a few hits and which differs with different weapons.

If I compare this game with the other dungeon crawlers released and reviewed the past six months this game has the most simple graphics. Probably because it is ported from a mobile device. The soundeffects are ok and I really liked the digitized voices which reminded me of Stonekeep every time. There are no maintune which is strong enough that I will remember though.

I think it is extremely hard to compare this game with the other crawlers like Ruzar the lifestone, The Dark Path, Heroes of the Monkey Tavern. All are good but I would rank Ruzar, Dark Path and The Keep at around the same level of enjoyment even though they differ slightly in gameplay. If this game would have contained 20 levels I would surely tire before the end and the gameplay value would risk degrade by 0.5 point. I think the this game is a little pricey for the length of it. A better price would have been $9.99.

Anyway, this is a solid bug-free game (for me at least) and I recommend it.

Section	Rating
Gameworld & Story	1.5
Economy	1
NPC & Interactions	1.5
Monsters, tactics & combat system	3
Magic system	2.5
Character generation & development	2
Map design	3.5
Manual	4
Graphics, Sound and Interface	3
Summary CRPG value	22
Gameplay	4

Heroes of the Monkey Tavern - Review

Game reviewed: Heroes of the Monkey Tavern

Version: 1.0.4
Created by: Monkey Stories
Released: 2016

Formats: Pc

Difficulty: 5/10

Price: $9.99

The last week I have played the dungeon master clone Heroes of the Monkey Tavern. Of all the clones I have played this autumn the graphics are the most similar to Legend of Grimrock. The game is very simple and quite short but give you value for your money.

To tell you the truth I have already forgot the so called story of the game. You will never - ever - be reminded of it once you start the game so it doesn´t matter. What matters is that this is a real-time dungeon master clone with excellent graphics and good sound effects. It is simple and straigh forward. Too simple in my mind because you automatically level up without having to choose anything. You are granted a few attribute upgrades and a new skill or spell depending on your class. Which by the way is the only choice you make in the beginning of the game. You have four characters to choos but more classes. I choosed a warrior, barbarian, priest and elementalist. I could have choosed a Paladin, Monk or Rogue instead.

When I got into my first fight I suffered tremendous amount of party damage and thought something must be wrong until I understood that this is the games punishment for square dancing. If you disengage from the enemy you receive fleeing damage which is quite heavy. You get that every round your are out of melee distance. The short story is that I never disengaged a single fight after that. This makes fights pretty boring. You only click on your weapons or spells frantically. At least they have kept the cooling times for different weapons so you have some choices to make which weapons should be used but other than that you are very limited in how you use the few items you find. I say few because apart from a few weapons and armours on each levels there is NOTHING more to loot. Needless to say there are no encumbrance or anything to sell or buy either in this kind of game.

Gameworld & Story

The introductions is quite good but once you start there is not a single reference to what you are doing there. And it doesn´t matter at all. This is a pure dungeon crawler. The game world consists of 8 levels each taking about 1 hour to complete. The dungeons are roughly squares but with irregular corridors and rooms.

Rating: 1

Economy

Economy in this game is nonexistent. There is no gold and no shop. Ruzar the lifestone and Dungeon Master 2 is the exception to this.

Rating: 1

NPC & Interactions

There is no NPC (Non-Person-Character) in the game to talk with. Interactions with the environment is only possible when it comes to opening doors, pulling levers or pushing buttons. You cannot throw objects or close doors on the monsters like in Dungeon Master but you can use the dungeons fireball or poison traps against the enemies which is cool.

Rating: 1.5

Monsters, tactics & combat system

Each level often has at least one unique monster type. Since you are more or less forced to fight a static fight against them - I never had any ranged character - I cannot see any tactics these could use in any way. They never flee or retreat. There is no monster with ranged capabilities.

They have somewhat different capabilities in that some try to poison you and some have group attack capabilities. I never really understood how to use the shields.

It would be nice if there where a way to see the health of a monster so you will know wether poison, fire or ice attacks are more or less effective against them. As it is now I have no idea if there even is different kind of resistances. You do see how much damage you are doing though but since you have your eyes on your own party weapons you never have time to analyse the floating damage points inflicted.

Combat system is very static. You only click your characters weapon icons as soon as they are ready to strike again. The only tactics lies in how to use your spells or which character to heal. You have a very limited stock of potions in the game so you have to carefully choose where and when to use it. I saved as much of my potions as possible to use on the level bosses.

You have different kind of weapons like swords, warhammers and 2-handed weapons. Priests are more adept with warhammers and I put my 2-handed weapons with my Barbarian. The elementalist used staffs or ordinary swords to have something to use when the mana was drained.

Armour comes in heavy and light types and my figher could use the heavy stuff and my barbarian only light armour.

Rating: 1.5

Magic System

You have mana which - together with health - are slowly regenerated by time or by sleeping. Sleeping could be done anywhere outside of combat without drawbacks. Mana is based on intelligence and you will find both magical items that will boost your intelligence and your mana directly. This is important because your priest will be totally occupied in healing your other members during combat and your elementalist will have to throw his most offensive spells.

Spells comes automatically when levelling up and you choose which hand will be able to cast which spell. Spells could be used both at range or in melee. Some creatures where only possible to kill by slowly moving backwards and hurl spells while emptying the mana pool before entering melee combat. In the end I found that it was best to lure the enemies to different traps in the game. In a few places it was the only way to defeat them.

I like the spells but it´s too bad you cannot customize anything.

Rating: 1.5

Character generation & development

Unfortunately this aspect is the single biggest drawback with the game because the core definition of an RPG is that you can develop and customize your characters when they level up. Here you will never be able to do that so the game is very static. The only good thing is that there are a few more classes to choose from than the initial four you have so you can vary a replay somewhat. But I haven´t ever replayed a game and don´t see any reason to do it now.

When characters increase in level they get a few attribute increases and a new skill or spell. It is fun to level up because you don´t know what you will get so it is always a surprise.

Rating: 1.5

Map design

The maps are filled with corridors and rooms in a very random pattern as is usual in these kind of games. At certain points they are filled with furniture or more elaborate graphics. Most of the however contains traps, puzzles or monsters. Fortunately an automap is included.

Rating: 3

Manual

The manual are almost non-existent. You have to rely on tooltips. There are however a very short manual containing the shortcuts for the game. Here is a also a list of the abilities gained for each level but no description of them.

Rating: 1.5

Graphics, Sound and Interface

Graphicwise the game is on par with Legend of Grimrock. The graphics is very good and it is fast. Speaking of fast, the game loads extremely fast when you start the game or reload a save. The monsters are very well made and with nice animations. That goes to all environmental things like fires as well. 

Sound effects are good. There are monster growls and other effects which is well made. There are a few different background musics playing during the game which is totally ok. There is not a single strong tune I have been affected to like in The Deep Path: The Labyrinth of Andokost.

The interface is clean and I think it works pretty well. 

Overall this game is definetely above average regarding both for its genre and for the time it was released.

Rating:  4

Gameplay

While the CRPG value above only tell you how strong the different core RPG ingredients are the gameplay value is always the single most important rating since it actually tells you how good the game is. I had great time with this game. It is easy to play and somewhat rewarding when finding loot. But I never managed to clear more than one or two floors at a single playthrough since it became repetitive pretty fast. I mean, there is not much variety at all between the levels. 

The puzzles are mostly easy with a few of normal difficulty. I like the fact that there are secret rooms and treasures and that you don´t need to clear a full level before progressing to next level. For $9.99 I think the game is somewhat pricey but I do believe it is worth it on sale. The game is rather short. Only 8 full levels.

Each level contain one healing fountain which can be used once to ressurrect dead partymembers. This means you can allow one tough fight to kill any of your members. I thought this balance was pretty good and the challenge just about right on normal difficulty.

While I do like the game I would like to see a successor with more content, story and where you have control over levelling. It would also be nice with some outdoor areas. I am also taking into account that I this autumn have played several realtime dungeon crawlers already so I have gotten a little tired of them. If I have to choose I would say Labyrinth of Andokost is a little better and it was more of a challenge than this one. Having said that. This is a solid game without any bugs and you won´t get dissappointed but you won´t be positively surprised about its depth either.

Rating: 3

Section	Rating
Gameworld & Story	1
Economy	1
NPC & Interactions	1
Monsters, tactics & combat system	1.5
Magic system	1.5
Character generation & development	1.5
Map design	3
Manual	2
Graphics, Sound and Interface	4
Summary CRPG value	16.5
Gameplay	3

Ruzar - The life stone - Review

Next dungeon crawler up is the indie game Ruzar - the life stone, a game which also pays homage to the original dungeon master. It is very similar to my last game The Deep Path: Labyrinth of Andokost (TDP:LoA) even tough there are some major changes.

First off, in this game you play one character that you will create by spending your starting points between the attributes. There are are a skill tree in the game for a path of warrior, rogue and wizard so you might want to spend your points on the attributes most likely to resemble your playstyle of these three classes. You are free to specialise or spread these points though.

The main story is presented during the start of the game but never after that. In these kind of games the story gives you just a reason for being where you are. The game style is the same regardless. Fight your way through each level and foe blocking your path, plunder and loot everything you can and become as powerful as possible. 

Very good autoamp

The shopkeeper give you some sidequests

You start out in the mountains but will eventually enter the temple, sanctuary, mines and caves. Each of them contains several levels and their own graphical style. The whole games is full of the small kind of puzzles we´ve become accustomed to, like pits that needs to be closed, buttons and levers that either opens secret doors, reveals treasures, closes pits or bring forth teleporters. There are larger doors here and there which requires specific kind of keys to advance. Those are often buried deep in the hardest parts of the game behind traps and puzzles or carried by tough monsters.

Since I just a few weeks before played TDP_LoA I cannot but compare the games. Both have their own style and there are several things that differs between the games worth mentioning:

For example:

• You have merchants where you can buy better equipment (weapons, shields, armour, magical items, spells and the like) which makes this game more varied.
• Instead of continously regenerating as in TDP:LoA you must either heal with potions, spells or by lit a campfire and stand nearby. You need to find the campfire first and then you need to have a torch ready.
• You could store items in a storage section and upgrade the number of items you could store there by paying more money.
• All items have weight and your attribute Endurance control how much you could carry before you are gradually slowed. This is one of the best implementations I have seen of overloading in these kind of games. Instead of giving you penalties of fighting you move more slowly and it comes in gradual steps. If you are too heavy loaded you could forget to accomplish your square dance and barely manages enter fights without heavy losses, since you will be too slow to attack and retreat before the enemy attacks.
• Automap is here. Hurrah!
• Skill tree which give you some variety and replayability even though it is very streamlined within a class.
• Coolness of weapons. With knives you attack faster but inflicts lesser damage, with two handed weapons you attack slower but inflict a lot of damage.
• Special binding stones that allows you to teleport back and forth without having to travel through each level.
• Some sidequests to give you more XP. Delivered by a few NPC.

You could put items into a storage but have to pay for the room

I really like that the game plays so much faster than TDP:LoA. You move around quickly and can even navigate when showing the automap.

The interface is pretty good with the standard movement of the WASD keys. The character screens are clean and easy to understand. The sound of the game is ok and the music does not stand out and are not as good as in TDP:LoA. I do have to say though that it has strong resemblance to the music found in Legend of Grimrock.

Graphics in the game are generally good with much better framerate and animations than in TDP:Loa. But the different environments are not as clear and textures are not always as good as the single one in TDP:LoA. So comparing them a single level to each other TDP:LoA wins easily because it is much sharper and clear.

Hmm...how to get across this ?

The game is filled with puzzles and hidden items but they repeat themselves a lot. For example. Hidden items are almost always revealed by pressing a hidden button. Traps are always disarmed with putting weight on a preassure plate and you almost always have to manually fall down in every pit because they reveal new sections of the map you have to explore. Having said that, the game uses teleporters in a very good way. There is even sections of evil disorientation when you suddenly find yourself travelling backwards in a corridor if you are not observant enough. Such things was part of the old school games like Bard´s Tale.

Your character and inventory

I have never got trapped though and never found any bug except for a crash to desktop once. You only have 3 save game slots so you have to carefully choose which to replace so you always have a save when you are safe and can return home.

I opted to play a mage in the game but I found it underpowered compared to a fighter. The spells do little damage and costs much mana. Mana is only restored by drinking potions or by standing beside a campfire (of which there are few). Unless you use a staff which slowly regenerates mana but that would require you to run back and forth between fighting and retreating and it would take too much time. There are several combats in which you are totally locked up in a room or in a confined space. To run around holding a staff and wait for your mana to regenerate while the staff itself inflict around 50 % damage of a melee weapon was never my choice of play. I thought I had the best combination as a warriormage because I could still retreat and heal myself using the staff which regenerated my mana.

As a warrior you could fight as much as you want and the fights are actually too easy with the squaredance tactics so I found myself always fighting in melee. The only difficulties I had was when the space was too limited to use the squaredance tactic.

I saved most of my skill and attribute points and think I ended the game at level 21. There are three skill trees for a playing style of warrior, ranger or mage. I begun to put some points into the magical tree but spells are still too weak. You will also get a lot more good weapons when exploring than good wands. I have no idea how it is to play a ranger using ranged weapons. There are some good ranged weapons hidden in the game though.

Temple

Mines

Caves

Featurewise the game is far more developed and advanced than TDP:LoA but I found it only slightly better. Also the price tag is much higher. I found the game a little too short. There are only a few different areas with a few levels each. Together I think the number of levels are almost the same as in TDP:LoA and it took me 11 hours to complete.

I would like to see a sequel though because this game has good potential to be developed further. I would suggest the enemies gets a little faster so square dancing would not be so easy. Or that they possess more abilities like freeze or slow. You have a bestiary in the game and when you have fought enough of a given creature you will see its relative strengths and weaknesses. My hardest opponent was the moving green garbage slimes because they leave a trail of poison and have poisonous attacks which drain you quickly. Fighting several of them in confined spaces was tough.

Also, more NPC with more elaborate dialogues would enhance the game as well. There are no lore or other information found during your explorations so you quickly forget about your main quest.

Overall, this was a good dungeon crawler that comes highly recommended.

Section	Rating
Gameworld & Story	1
Economy	3
NPC & Interactions	2
Monsters, tactics & combat system	3
Magic system	3
Character generation & development	2.5
Map design	3
Manual	-
Graphics, Sound and Interface	3
Summary CRPG value	20.5
Gameplay	4

Ruzar - The life stone, another good dungeon crawler

Just after finishing the last dungeon crawler, I immediately started to looking for another in the same genre. After a brief research I came up with Ruzar - The life stone, a dungeon crawler released in 2015. The major difference on the surface is that you only control one character. After a couple of hours I am hooked with this game as well. It offers several features that where non-existent in The Deep Paths: Labyrinth of Andokost, like a shop where you actually buy and sell items, quests, automap, teleporter stones, cooldowns for weapons, square dancing, spells and a skill tree just to name some of the major changes. The game is more expensive so this is to be expected.

I will return with more information about my progress in this game and my views on it but I feel that so far it delivers. It contains puzzles, preassure plates, traps and all you expect from this game. 

I created a mage like character spending my attribute points purely on intelligence (to boost spell damage and the amount of spell slots you can have), Spirit (to increase my mana) and constitution (to get more health points every level). I am playing on normal difficulty and so far the fights are a littel on the easy side because of the square dance tactics. Monsters do however have different abilities and speeds so this might change.

I am at level 6 and have saved my attribute points (except for increasing endurance to carry more items) and skill points. I always do that until I know where and when I really will need them. As you are all aware many games are not equally balanced between different classes and playstyles.

Take a look at the trailer and read some info below from the developer:

Ruzar - The Life Stone is a first-person, grid-based dungeon crawler inspired from the famous Dungeon Master Series.

Being a big fan of this genre since it came out (1987), I always wanted to create my version with my own flavor. Two years ago I decided I should try it, It has been a long and fastidious process, but here it comes. I hope the community will enjoy it!
One of the major element I wanted to change is the number of character you play. Instead of having the four classic characters, I wanted to have only one! I wanted a deeper conection with the main character so by focusing on it, it was easier to develop a skill system that was more elaborated than the most common dungeon crawlers in the genre. I also wanted to create a different spell system, more similar to the classic rpg game genre.

Here are some new gameplay element you can find in Ruzar - The Life Stone.

• A Storage System to be able to store your items you want to keep

• An Economy where you can buy and sell items

• A binding stone system to help you travel through the dungeons

• A Quest system

Review: The Deep Paths: Labyrinth Of Andokost

The last couple of years have seen a tremendous increase in indie developers tackling the CRPG nische market. After completing The Quest I was looking for another RPG to sink my teeth in. First I tried Paper Sorcerer but never got hooked by it. It was by pure accident I found this game on steam for only $7 dollars to be released very soon.

The Deep Paths: Labyrinth of Andokost is a dungeon master clone with a four party assemble trying to solve a mystery below a city. The game is developed by only one person but still manage to achieve well respected graphics and sound. The game is far from as polished as Legend of Grimrock but still manages to hold on its own and the price tag is really attractive.

It reminds me very much of Crystal Dragon and Black Crypt for the Amiga. Not the least because of the colour palette used which is light brown. The game is extremely simple, yet functional with only three classes (Warriors, Rogue, Wizard). You are allowed to re-roll your attributes as much as you dare to and then the game begins. The four attributes wither helps to increase your damage output, armour class, mana or health.

While the game is realtime in the way that monsters move even if you are stationary it turns to turn-based during combat which allows everyone - including monsters - to attack before you can move or attack the next round. This means it effectively kills the hit-and-run tactics used in these sort of games. You could still sneak around and hit the nemies from behind for backstabbing damage though but the enemy is always given one retaliatory attack. 

One thing you do not have to think about here is food. No one will starve to death. No one even permanently dies unless all characters dies in a fight. Unconscious characters will return to life after a brief period of rest, even in the middle of fights and regenerates health and mana slowly over time.

There are no spells but simple wands to use for your mages and ranged weapons for the rogue which is also necessary to open chests. Apart from that anyone can enter melee combat but I believe the front row has a greater chance of hitting. Weapons and armours are not found frequently. There are not a lot of items lying around. Most of the times you find arrows, pick-axes or ingredients to brew mana and health potions. But apart from that there is not much loot but I find it acceptable because there are also games that have som many items that you barely notice the effects when equipping them which also degrades the enjoyment of finding them. 

The levels are quite small but there are no automap available, unless you find a map which often are hidden. I think that is good compromise because today there is just no patience to begin drawing maps with pen and paper again. It seems there exists a map on every level but it is often hidden behind a puzzle or hidden door.

Sometimes you will find objects or trigger other events which will lead to dialogues between your party. They help to build on the story and adds a littel variety. Every level contains some sort of challenge to get through which mostly requires you to find the keys necessary to progress. Those keys are either hidden or lies behind rooms full of traps, skulls shooting magical missiles or huge monsters guarding them. I find the so called puzzles to be relatively easy. Only once I got really stuck when I had to find out a combination of clicking four buttons. My only strategy was by pure force of going through all combinations. That is not fun, only frustrating. If at least there would be a riddle or some sort of hint to help you.

Combat is overall relatively easy but tedious. There is no strategy involved at all. Just pure strength where you try to get in more hits than you receive. You could always run away and as long as you can get far away the monsters will stop chasing you. The best tactic is to use a 2x2 area and move around each creature to attack them from behind to receive backstabbing damage. 

Mages are very underpowered with only weak wands. There is no difference in cooling down times of any weapons or magical wands used so you should always choose the one which inflicts the most damage. Therefore mages are worthless. They have no spells or any advantages over other classes. Their poison wand vastly underpowered and not better thant the rogues bow. At least the rogue is necessary in order to open chests. If I where to replay this I would use 3 warriors and 1 rogue.

Despite those minor drawbacks I had great fun playing this game. It reminded me of old good times and the game was bugfree for me. I also love the loading screens which have sampled the sound of an amiga discdrive loading. The title music to the game is very catching and good and I found myself listening to it a lot by itself.

The game also lacks any manual. I won´t say it was necessary. Much of the information is explained by tooltips but a short manual is always appreciated and it helps potential buyers to get a good overview of what the game offers.

 I highly recommend this game for anyone who loves a dungeon crawler.

Section	Rating
Gameworld & Story	2
Economy	1
NPC & Interactions	1.5
Monsters, tactics & combat system	2
Magic system	1
Character generation & development	1.5
Map design	3
Manual	-
Graphics, Sound and Interface	3
Summary CRPG value	15
Gameplay	3.5