Evets: A Surprising Second Posting

Leveling up is surprisingly satisfying.

I didn't expect to play Evets for as long as I have, but damned if there isn't something addictive about this game. I actually feel a little guilty playing it after Rogue and NetHack. With multiple characters, the ability to reload, and no food, I feel like Babe Ruth playing t-ball.

That isn't to say the game is easy. Even on the first couple of levels, I occasionally ran into monsters that slaughtered me: the latest was a party of red dragons that wiped me out in one attack. I just don't have to create a brand new party when it happens. I mean, what, really, is the virtue of permanent death anyway? Just to prove how tough we are?

If I have to be killed by something...

In my last session, I made it to dungeon Level 6 and character level 7. Here are the new things that I discovered:

• There are special encounters in the game. Here I am bathing in a fountain that restores all my health.

I think I'd frankly be suspicious of a crystal-clear fountain in the middle of a dungeon.

• As you descend through dungeon levels, the game seems to adjust the difficult of the toughest encounters on that level, but not all the encounters. You still occasionally stumble into low-level parties even on high dungeon levels.

• On tougher levels, monsters begin attacking in multiple groups. I usually die in these battles.

"'Cause in sleepy London town, there's just no place for...a small flying man!" Maybe it was just me.

• Every level has at least one trap door that dumps you to a lower level. If there's a way to avoid these, I haven't found it yet.

• There are secret doors in the game. You can't search for them, but they ultimately appear if you just hang around long enough. I don't know if the presence of a thief speeds up this discovery, but it would make sense.

• I also mentioned yesterday that I wasn't sure thieves actually did anything. Well, color me wrong, but the manual is horrible about explaining any of these things.

• You gain attribute points when you level up, just like in Demon's Winter.

• My priest, mysteriously, doesn't seem to have any mana. I'm not sure what that's about. He's too high level for me to want to ditch him, and he fights well, but I suppose I'll have to dump him eventually so I can have a better healer.

• Magic hasn't played much of a role in the game so far. But here's the neat thing: mages can equip any armor and weapons that you want, but if the armor is too heavy, they can't cast mage spells. It's like the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition here in 1988.

• There's a kind of "fog of war" that keeps you from seeing monsters until they're right on top of you. As far as I can tell, there's no light spell or anything that ameliorates this. It's rather annoying, because monsters suddenly leap on you as you walk down a corridor. It's rather like Wizardry, where you can't see the monsters coming at all.

• Although there is a store every few levels, they seem to sell the same basic items: no Swords +3 as you get on lower levels, for instance. This means I have rather a lot of gold with nothing to spend it on except to identify the occasional item I pick up from fallen foes (so far nothing good but a ring of anti-stoning). I hope the game surprises me by changing that.

Altogether, a surprisingly good entry for a shareware game (and I don't mean to dis' independent CRPGs, but come on, this was the 1980s). I'm surprised there isn't more about it online. I'm going to keep playing a bit to see if much more develops on the next few levels. I can't see making it all the way to Level 25, but who knows--I've made it this far, and some game called Freedom: Rebels in the Darkness doesn't exactly fill me with anticipation.

Steve Ackerman gets his $10 if he writes back.