Backtracking: Oubliette (1983)

This is one of several mini-reviews of CRPGs I missed in my first pass, which I explain here.

I'm going to go with "rite of passage."

    

Oubliette
United States
Independently developed for PLATO educational system

Released 1977; commercial version released for DOS in 1983
Date Started: 22 July 2010

    

I've coded Oubliette as a 1983 game simply because that's when it was remade for DOS, but the original version was written in a PLATO mainframe in 1977. It and a handful of others were children of a popular game called dnd (based on Dungeons & Dragons, of course) that was written around 1975. Understand that in this era, games were noncommercial, and freely traded and added to by programmers. We might think of dnd as one game or 50 depending on how many variations we want to include. The same problem exists with early Roguelikes. I'm finding a lot of confusion among a number of 1980s Roguelikes: Hack, DND, Telengard, Amulet of Yendor, Heathkit DND, Larn, and so on. Some I may not to be able to play at all. (You Google "DND" or "Hack" and see if you can find a link to an obscure 1980s DOS game amidst everything else.)

Anyway, back to Oubliette (the term is French for "dungeon," but literally meaning "place of forgetting"). The basic game setup is that the game world, called Tokal, is a harsh and cruel place full of monsters and competing tribes of humanoids. A great wizard named Ligne established the world's one outpost of civilization: a town/castle with a deep dungeon in which various monsters were thrown. "As the dungeon and city above matured, it became popular among the young citizens of the city to venture into the dungeon, seeking gold and glory, almost as a rite of passage." You control a party of such adventurers.

My short-lived motley crew. "Crush" is an ogre.

I don't know how much of this game is based on the original code and how much was added for the 1983 DOS release, but either way it's pretty [expletive] cool. I found a text-based manual on a C64 site, and I can't believe the amount of innovation they packed into a game this early--including elements we see in no other CRPG. For instance:

• You choose from eight races when creating your characters: dwarf, elf, gnoll, hobbit, human, kobold, ogre, and orc. The "monster" races advance more quickly in levels but are also short-lived (apparently, characters die of old age frequently in this game, and unlike in Might & Magic, there's no way to reverse it). Elves and dwarves live a long time but also advance very slowly. I know of only one other game--Phantasie--in which it's possible to play so many varieties of "monster" characters.

• There are an incredible 10 classes: hirebrand (fighter), mage, sage, priest, peasant, ninja, thief, paladin, samurai, ranger. The nature of the classes anticipates later, more advanced games, in their skills. Hirebrands are raw fighters, paladins combinations of hirebrands and priests, sages combinations of priests and wizards, and so on.

• The game offers D&D's set of six attributes, and like in Wizardry (in fact, I can see this game's influence on Wizardry) the attributes determine what class you can choose. Your race and sex also modify these attributes. Again, this is very advanced for a 1983 game, let alone the original 1977 version.

• Once you create your character, you have to choose a guild to join for your "apprenticeship." There are 19 guilds, but restricted based on class and attributes, I guess. Once you join, three things can happen: 1) you graduate, and your age and attributes advance accordingly; 2) you fail to graduate and become a peasant (albeit playable); 3) you die during training. The latter is apparently common with some of the shorter-lived races. If you fail to graduate, you can re-enter, but at a cost of time. I created a human samurai who flunked out the first time at the age of 23. I re-enrolled him, and he graduated the second time--but when he was 51. Ouch. Anyway, this guild thing is very creative and unique to this CRPG.

New Player, I hardly knew ye.

• There are six spell levels for both clerics and priests, with three or four spells per level. This is where the game's influence on Wizardry is more obvious (or did Oubliette add them for the 1983 re-release based on Wizardry?), as each spell is given a cryptic name--TOKSHEF, NARFIET, FEHALITO--many of which sound like their Wizardry counterparts.

After you create your characters, you outfit them, of course, but you start with a random amount of gold and who knows what you can afford. Fortunately, Grundig (owner of the general store) sells "pointed sticks" for 2 GP--better than fists, I suppose.

Once you enter the dungeon, you're faced with a familiar screen, if a bit primitive: your party listed up top, a wireframe graphic representation on the right, and a window telling you what's happening on the left. Again, the comparison to Wizardry is remarkable.

 

In combat, you face a group of enemies and have several options, from a standard attack to a more risky one that does more damage. You can also evade, cast a spell, or use an item. Thieves--or specifically female thieves--have the unique option to try to "seduce" the monster. If it works, the monster joins your team and fights at your side for the duration of the combat. If you fail, you die immediately, so it's a risky move. Only your first two characters can attack, unfortunately, and there are no missile weapons, so everyone else pretty much just stands there until they've earned some spell levels (you start off with none). If one of your characters dies, you have the option to (B)ury them in the dungeon! I don't know if this serves a practical purpose or if it's just great role-playing.

Unfortunately, according to at least one strategy guide I found online (remember, the normal rules don't apply to my temporary backtracking), there is no main quest or way to "win" the game. That might be a good thing, because I might be tempted to finish this one if there was a way to finish it. If I was reviewing this in the proper order, earlier in the project, I might play it for a few entries and give it a proper chance, but as it is...well, I've got places to be. Still, if you're into old games and want an original experience, give Oubliette a try.

****

Note: Several years later, I played the original PLATO Oubliette and offered some additional thoughts on this game. Read that review for more information.