CRPG Addict - Review Roundup (Part Fourteen)

Onwards to 1989, continuing with more games played by the CRPG Addict. While compiling these review roundups I really tend to get an urge to try out some of the more well known classics myself, although I'm not sure I could invest ~260 hours in a single game, no matter how replayable it is ...



1989

NetHack 3.0 (1989)

I can see how people become addicted to NetHack. Every time you step into the dungeon and start exploring the first level, you wonder, "What am I going to find? What unique challenges will the game throw at me this time?" (..) But ask me if I really "enjoyed" the 262 hours I spent over the past year ascending, and I don't know how to answer. (..)

I note that the final rating of 44 is 2 points higher than I gave the previous version. My understanding is that future versions will develop more in the quest, character development, and encounter categories. (..) Despite ascending, I still don't feel like I "mastered" the game. There are a host of things I didn't experience or didn't think about until after I won.

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1. Game 71: NetHack 3.0 (1989)
2. From the Beginning
3. Documentation
4. A Guy What Takes His Time
5. Dos and Don'ts
6. He Coulda Been a Contender
7. The Great Heist
8. The Blurst of Times
9. Another Milestone
10. Ascended!
11. Final Rating

Galdregon's Domain (1989)

Galdregon's Domain was too easy not to win. Clearly designed for novices, the game had a simplicity that I found almost almost endearing, although this didn't make up for some awful gameplay and interface elements. (..)

The final score of 18 is the lowest since Times of Lore almost a year ago, and it earns a place in the "superlatives" in the right status bar. The game just seems half-assed. It's name doesn't even make any sense ("Galdregon" is never referenced in the game or manual), and the dragon promised on the main title screen never appears. It feels like Pandora spent a lot of time on the graphics engine and didn't have time for anything else.

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1. Game 72: Galdregon's Domain (1989)
2. Won! (with Final Rating)

B.A.T. (1989)

B.A.T. ought to stand for "Bait and Tswitch." The game promises to be a CRPG/adventure hybrid and almost entirely fails to deliver on the CRPG part. (..) This is the first cyberpunk-influenced game that I've played, and while I'll never love the genre, I am grateful for the chance to play something other than the typical sword-and-sorcery CRPG. (..)


The final rating of 29 puts the game slightly above some CRPGs that I didn't like and didn't finish. That feels right; I didn't hate the game, but I was a bit disappointed by it. Its score is notably below Beyond Zork's of 46; the latter game is really the first RPG/adventure hybrid, and even though it was non-graphical, it showed what a hybrid could really be, with statistics and equipment that mattered, complex (but logical) puzzles, and far more i...More information.

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One of my favorite games of all time. Dark Heart of Uukrul. It deserves that rating and game should have sold better when it came out.

An I'm jealous he has the time to play all of these games. Magic candle one of my favorites. Never plated Uukrul but always intended too.

Yes, NetHack is probably one of the all time best rogue-likes. But I've never been that enthralled by rogue-likes, despite playing them many times. The lack of a social element or even much of plot makes them feel empty. About their only redeeming quality is the exploration aspect, and even that is pretty limited.

Saxon1974 said:

An I'm jealous he has the time to play all of these games.

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IIRC he takes the time, playing at night when his wife is asleep. I'm sure he must suffer from sleep deprivation.

A couple of these I played on the Amiga. Galdregon's Domain was called Deathbringer on it's US release. It was as he described, a simplistic Dungeon Master with a clunky interface.

I liked Bloodwych better. I also played that on the Amiga, as well as the expansion simply called Data Disk Volume 1.

I played Drakhen on the Atari ST but never got too far. It was frustratingly hard at times so I ended up moving on to something else.

How are you compiling these round-ups, anyway? It would seem you're around three years behind the Addict with them.

I think Uukrul's lack of success had to do with the release coinciding with the death of the Apple ][. It just came too late, but as a result it (IMO) epitomizes the highest level the platform achieved - at least the Apple ]['s that weren't the gs.

Moorkh said:

How are you compiling these round-ups, anyway? It would seem you're around three years behind the Addict with them.

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Yes, that's the reason for why I'm compiling them in the first place, as opposed to posting about them individually. I do the latter for most of his current reviews.

Skavenhorde started with part 1 a couple of years ago because we never really posted about the Addict before and it seemed we should. Skavenhorde stopped posting news, IIRC, for personal reasons. As I think those reviews are important enough to be reported at least in some way here, I picked up the trail and continued with the roundups.

So non-current reviews I do chronologically (playing catch-up) in batches of a dozen or so, just for the sake of completeness. (Yes, I'm a completist CRPGer ) While technically "old news", they are probably still new for most of us, me included.


@everyone. I'm jealous that you could play those games back in the day!

Lucky Day said:

I think Uukrul's lack of success had to do with the release coinciding with the death of the Apple ][. It just came too late, but as a result it (IMO) epitomizes the highest level the platform achieved - at least the Apple ]['s that weren't the gs.

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You are right. Dark Heart of Uukrul was the last game I ever bought and played on my Apple IIe. It was a hell of a send off for me at least.

Thanks for clearing that up, Arhu! Only 130 or so left to go, then