GOG - Thunderscape Released

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GOG.com has released a classic 1990's dungeon crawler called Thunderscape.



Thunderscape, a classic 1990s dungeon crawler with real-time exploration of a vast and diverse underworld and challenging turn-based combat against many fearsome fiends of chaos, is available on GOG.com for only $5.99.

The world of Aden is in great peril. The demonic, corruptive power known as the Darkfall fills the world with monsters, abominations, and evil-inspiring artifacts. The realm is in dire need of defenders, and it's your job to lead them against the forces of chaos. You will explore a dark and dangerous underground to reach for the power you'll need to bring the light to where darkness reigns. A small party of stalwart adventurers seems to stand little chance against the hordes of evil. It's up to you to prove, that miracles do happen in fantasy worlds.

Thunderscape presents you with many time-proven RPG ideas that work together so well, that it's astounding that anyone would want to modify them. You get a party of six brave champions, a large gameworld to explore, lots of items to collect, stats to build, and enemies to slay. While roaming the world, the game progresses in real-time, switching to turn-based combat whenever you approach (or get ambushed by) an opponent. With everything that made dungeon crawlers so successful in the 1990 and some very distinctive steampunk-ish feel, this game is highly recommended to all cRPG fans looking for a challenge!
More information.
 
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Hmm I bought this when it first came out, what I remember of it was that it was very dark, as in hard to see anything. This was one of the games from SSI and their new thunderscape world....
 
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Did some digging as well, as I never heared of it before despite of having tons of magazines from that era.
German magazins gave it:
PC Joker: 77%
PC Games 59%

and there is also a site about it on mobygames:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/world-of-aden-thunderscape/mobyrank

I'd say that the average rating is ...not good at least.
However in the statements they mostly say that the graphics are bad (and thats a statement from '95), that it's not for beginners, the music doesnt fit, but that it is very big and deep.

But maybe someone actually has experience witht his game and can tell us a bit about it?
 
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I played this when it first came out and was severely underwhelmed!! Nuff said.
 
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I played this when it first came out and was somewhat underwhelmed.
 
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I also played it when it came out and thought it was average at best.
 
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I also played it on original release -- still have the box in the closet, actually. I remember it as a decent game at a time when there weren't a lot of other CRPGs coming out. It had the second worst automap I've ever encountered; only Daggerfall's was worse.
 
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I remember this game and saw it on the store shelves for years (back in the day). The reviews were never that good and there were just too many other games to pick from in those days. But at 6 bucks it might be worth finally trying it out for a weekend or two.
 
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I picked this up as a budget-game back in the day and had quite a lot of fun with it. I especially remember the CD-music and the setting: a fantasy world in which an industrial revolution has taken place. (It's no Arcanum but still). The world is indeed a bit dark, since the game uses 3D, but doesn't render a skybox and uses a lot of brownish / grey tints.
 
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Okay, I just went to Youtube and listened to some of the sound tracks and now I remember one of the mini controversies surrounding this game. The sound track was regarded as having to much Rock and gave the game an "anachronistic" feel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI6YpZ5l4JA&list=PL8735429743DE989D

After gameplay, music is my my thing as far as game immersion. So now the game drops to some kind of big "sales day" purchase. With the idea of adding it to my collection .
 
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Yup, the "redbook audio" was the best part of the game - with some weird industrial vocals :)

As a game, it was messy and clunky - but not entirely without merit. I remember my brother playing it quite a bit, but I didn't really bother.
 
Heh, just watched that trailer - CGI has come a long way, hasn't it? :)
I don't think I ever played this - I did play the other world of Aden game, Entomorph Plague of the Darkfall, and remember not liking that one much as the setting didn't appeal to me. But I think it was a also a very different game, isometric or top down, iirc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvXkVRQC0i8
Oh boy, the combat sounds are painful (unless that is somehow a bug)…

Edit: Somehow when I read the title, I can't stop myself from hearing AC/DCs "Thunderstruck" inside my head. So maybe a rock soundtrack has it's merit ;)
 
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The fresh speampunk-ish setting kept me going through hours of grindy, repetitive combat and bleak visuals - up to about halfway through the game. That's further than I get in 90 per cent of the games I have, so it wasn't so bad.
Wouldn't mind a return to the setting, I even pledged for their p&p kickstarter a while back.
 
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YEEEEAAAAAAAAAHH-

I tried to get this to run in DosBox lately but failed. Instabuy.

Does that mean more SSI titles will be pulled out of limbo?
 
When I played it, I enjoyed it ok, but then at that time there were 10 other turn-based RPGs coming per month. Had I played it, say, 5 years ago I would have loved every second of it, just because I didn't have any alternatives.
 
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As I recall, it took me two attempts to really get into this one. The opening outdoor level was quite promising, and there was some interesting stuff at the beginning of the following cave section, but those caves went on for ages, and were dreadful to navigate.

The almost identikit beige-black colours made progression feel slow as you were constantly waiting for a feeling of "change of scene".

About half way through, you got out of the caves, and started exploring a castle/keep. Whilst it still retained the monotone graphics (mostly black IIRC), the levels and puzzles became significantly more intersting, and the game picked up quite considerably. Sadly I recall a certain quest for one party member seemed to nerf him considerably, and that kind of killed my interest, so I never did complete it.

So, I think these days, it'd be quite hard to appreciate, because those early levels were really hard going, and poor design. controls and lack of variety will really sap your endurance I think.

That said, IIRC the RPG portion - stats, characters, levelling and combat - were reasonably good. This is a game that badly deserved a sequel two or three years later when systems would have been better able to cope with the concept of a 3D world in terms of RAM, storage, resolution (they struggle with 320x200 VGA) and audio.
 
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So after reading the advice of every RPGWatcher who played thegame when it first came out, it looks like the consensus is "Timeless classic, must play!"
:)
 
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