Chaos Strikes Back: Better Equipped

Leyla tries to decide among all the weapons suddenly available to her.

I was hit last month with a heavy load of work that kept me from investing too much time in games, and when I finally got out of the pile, I felt I was a little too exhausted to head right back into Chaos Strikes Back. Thus, I tried a number of alternatives:

• I made a final attempt on Dragons of Flame, but I still couldn't get the controls to work right.
• I tried to download an Amiga emulator for the first time to try both Heroes of the Lance and Dragons of Flame, but I kept getting some error message about ROMs that I didn't have the patience to solve.
• I tried Girlfriend Construction Set and actually wrote an entire posting about it before I realized I didn't want to pollute my blog with a posting about a crude, juvenile non-CRPG.
• I strove to get further in NetHack but kept dying.
• Seeing that it was intended for novices, I downloaded Tangled Tales and started writing an entry about it.

About this time, I realized I was putting far more effort into avoiding Chaos Strikes Back than I would if I simply played it. So I reluctantly fired it up and found I was in a better mood to play it than I had been last month. I still don't really love the game, but it's possible that it and I might reach some kind of accord.

I decided I hadn't gotten so far in my previous outing that it would be a horrible idea to start over. The events of my first journey had left me hopelessly lost on an unknown level, and multiple commenters were telling me that I'd missed a host of things in the first level. (For the record, since I made everyone self-conscious about spoilers, telling me about stuff after I've already passed it isn't a spoiler. It's my choice if I want to turn around and go back.)

I was about to call "liar" on the anonymous commenter who told me there were more secret doors in the starting area, but after circling the room a few times, I found there was one that opened when I shoved a torch into a wall sconce. It led to a corridor that ended in a quickly appearing-and-disappearing pit, and a message on the wall helpfully told me to "Run and Jump." I spent a while poring over the game documentation before coming to the conclusion that there is, in fact, no way to "jump" in the game (please tell me if I'm wrong); I suspect the sign just means to book it down the hall. There's a pressure plate just in front of the pit that closes it for a micro-second, at which point you can cross if you really haul it.

Knowing that torch sconces do something is valuable intelligence for later.

On the other side, I was assailed by these flying eyeball things (I really wish the game had named the damned monsters), but I was able to take them out fairly easily with melee attacks and fireballs. I was surprised to find a stairway up. I had assumed I was starting on the top level of the dungeon and had to work my way down. [Later edit: This had been spoiled for me, but I had forgotten.] This means the game's opening act makes even less sense. The stairs just end in a closed, locked door, so I must have to approach from another direction later.

I like the scratches and dents in the door, as if someone's been beating at it to get through.

Beyond this was the "Supplies for the Quick" area that Petrus had talked about. A sword gleamed ahead of me in an alcove, but I suspected that the moment I entered the room, something would happen to make it live up to its "quick" name, and I was right. I managed to grab the sword and nothing else before a pit opened up below me and dropped me screaming to the next level.

Moments before I have to run for my life.

My rules prevent reloading except in cases of full-party death, but wouldn't you know my party rather lost the will to live after that. The pathetic losers couldn't even be troubled to avoid pits. In a few minutes, I had another shot at the room. After another few bouts of falling and suicide, I got the hang of it. Basically, after you enter the room, you have time to grab one thing before running for one of the exits, at which point the pits stop opening, but you can re-enter the room as many times as you need to. My inept flailing about (I keep confusing the strafe keys for the turn keys) didn't help, but it did accidentally lead me to a secret area that I wouldn't have otherwise found if I had turned (like I had intended) instead of moving to the left.

My map of the opening area. The yellow indicates something still left to explore: there were a bunch of keyholes on the first level that I wasted keys on and couldn't figure out what they did.

When I finally got out of there, I had a host of items I had missed the first time, including a Staff of Irra, a mace, a Vorpal Blade, an axe, a waterskin, a "Claw Bow," a "Staff of Claws," a "Stormring," a bunch of food, and a couple of potions. As I've mentioned repeatedly, although I can tell the special uses of these items from the menu options that appear when I equip them, I have no idea which of them perform best in combat.

Mapping around the rest of the areas accessible from the start, it soon became clear that everything funneled me to a single square on a level below the starting area, labeled "To the junction of the ways." Ultimately, I had to step into a teleporter in this square, taking myself to an unknown level in relation to the opening one.

What I had taken in the first game for a square that always faces me in one direction was actually a square with four adjacent one-way doors. Each of them faces a corridor with an alcove and a symbol representing, I assume, the four different classes. I don't know which one is best to explore first, but since the corridor closed behind me, I could only choose one. Remembering the difficulty I had with the armored fellows last time, I went the opposite direction (south), which the game informs me is KU. I assume this is the way of the fighter, since the alcove in front of me held a sword called "Biter."

I hope it's not called that because it bites.

The corridor ended in a dead-end with a shield on the ground, but I soon found a secret door to the south. As I passed through it, I heard a familiar and infuriating sound: the chortle of a "giggler," an enemy so annoying I put him on my list. Fortunately, I had some fireball spells ready and loosed them at him. When he died, I looted an onyx key and a second Stormring from his corpse.

I'm not pleased to discover I'll be facing these little bastards again.

The level beyond featured a few interesting encounters. I entered an area with a message on the wall that said "NO FIREBALLS." I wasn't sure why, but beyond a series of grates was a room full of those sword-wielding armored guys stuck in alcoves. They wouldn't leave the alcoves in response to my presence, but if I cast fireballs at them, the fireballs would fly back in my face--as did every other spell I tried, plus throwing items. The fighters did leave the alcoves if I walked up to them.

Moments after lightning-bolting myself.

Also in the room was an axe called "Executioner" in a niche on the wall. Taking it released the fighters and closed the grate out of the room.This was a turn of events I could survive for exactly three seconds. Since I was capable of lasting against any one of them in melee combat for only slightly longer, I either had to find a creative way to kill them or abandon the area for later.

It took a long time, but I ultimately killed them with the old trick (used extensively in Bloodwych) of leading them down a looping corridor and poking at them from behind and the sides, then darting away. It was worth it. They had fantastic armor, and I got what at least looks to be a cool axe.

Leyla dressed up in her enemy's armor.

As I wrap up for now, here are two questions that I won't mind spoilers to:

1. Are there any places in which a pit is the only way from one level to another (or to a section of another)? I'm not sure if I should painstakingly note and number all of them, trying to fall down each one in case it leads to a secret area.

2. I've found a couple of magic weapons that have special attacks, but I've been reluctant to use them because I don't want them to disappear if they run out of charges. So I guess this is a two-part question: a) do they even have charges, or will the sword called "Storm" cast lightning forever; and b) if they do, and they do run out of charges, does the weapon disappear, or does it just cease to work as a magic item?

The torch-sconce-secret-door thing has made me paranoid about every little mark on the wall...

What is it? How do I manipulate it?! WHAT DOES IT WANT FROM ME????!!!

...but otherwise I feel like I'm settling into the game's groove, now that I have the proper time to devote to it. It's largely a matter of being methodical, testing different routes and options, and not being afraid to commit suicide and reload if I want to try something different.