1989/1990

Good or bad, 1989 games took risks. Instead of a pile of Wizardry-derivatives and entries in established franchises, the last year of the 1980s, and the decennial of the first commercial RPGs, produced highly-original games with innovative elements.

Early in the year, we had B.A.T., a cyberpunk adventure-RPG hybrid. The Magic Candle arrived with its complex plot, innovative magic system, and memorable finale ritual. The Dark Heart of Uukrul structured its corridors as puzzles. Hero's Quest, Tangled Tales, The Third Courier, and Keef the Thief blended adventure and RPG elements but all had something new to contribute that went beyond simple hybridization, such as B.A.T.'s macros and Keef's near-real-time combat. Chaos Strikes Back used a familiar engine in a challenging way. Hillsfar tried to make a D&D game out of minigames, with limited combat and magic. Knights of Legend went the other way and introduced mind-boggling length and complexity in the combats. Sword of Aragon crossed RPGs with strategy games but still favored the RPG parent. Space Rogue brought real-time space combat to the RPG world. And Don't Go Alone and Windwalker offered alternatives to the traditional high-fantasy and science-fiction settings.

Drakkhen...I can't even think of a pithy way to summarize it.

But this screen shot does a good job.

Unfortunately, a lot of these games, though innovative, simply didn't work well for me. In innovating, the developers forgot to retain enough elements of the classics. Drakkhen, a game of beautiful graphics and an exciting interface, could have been good with a less senseless plot and a less blunt approach to combat. Knights of Legend could have been good if they'd focused on something other than just the combat. Hillsfar could have been good with a little variance to the "dungeons," maybe a little combat there. Don't Go Alone could have been good if the horror theme was more than just a facade on a traditional dungeon-crawler. The Land could have been good with smaller cities and dungeons, and not quite so many foes. Mines of Titan could have been good if the last third hadn't descended into pointless dungeon crawling and a sudden ending. Windwalker would have been a little better if it had taken itself less seriously; Keef would have been a lot better if it had taken itself more seriously.

Still, I'm glad to see that the top six rated games--all the ones with scores above 50--include a mix of classic series done particularly well (Curse of the Azure Bonds, Starflight II, Dragon Wars) and highly original games that still managed to preserve what I love about RPGs (The Dark Heart of Uukrul, Hero's Quest, The Magic Candle).

Game of the Year Nominees

Choosing a "game of the year" is not a matter of simply choosing the highest-rated game. In such a designation, I look for quality, originality, and a certain timelessness. I want a game that defines the year, that people still remember fondly, and that (ideally) had an influence on other games. I chose Wizardry for 1981 partly for what it offered, but also partly for what it spawned: the entire first-person dungeon-crawling genre, including The Bard's Tale, Might & Magic, and Dungeon Master. Ultima IV was an obvious choice for 1985 because of its highly-original quest and because practically every RPG player who was alive in the 1980s, when asked about their favorite RPGs from the era, would at least put it in the top five.

With these criteria in mind, a couple of my highest-rated games, Curse of the Azure Bonds and Starflight II, have to go. I already gave the award to their predecessors, and while both were tremendous fun, they didn't offer much that was truly new. My finalists are:

1. The Dark Heart of Uukrul. It's my highest-rated game of the year and my third-highest rated so far in my chronology. If the game had simply offered a traditional dungeon-crawling experience, it would have done it well, with an evocative setting and SSI-style tactical combat. But the real joy of the game came first from its magic system, blending deterministic wizard magic and non-deterministic priest magic, second from its frequent encounter options, and third from its highly-original and fun puzzles. In its hallways, you navigate a crossword puzzle, a cube, a pyramid, and several challenging mazes--and all of these elements are given logical explanations in-game. Unfortunately, the game is little-remembered today and was barely played in its own time, meaning it had limited influence on the RPG genre.

 
2. Hero's Quest: So You Want to Be a Hero. In a year full of adventure-RPG hybrids, Hero's Quest was the only one that really worked, demonstrating that a "hybrid" doesn't necessarily mean that we have to make sacrifices. In addition to offering adventure game puzzles, it presented a character development system that beats most RPGs, and it's one of the few games in which the choice of character class actually matters in terms of plot and puzzle-solving. From an RPG perspective, the combat is a little weak, and from an adventure perspective, the puzzles were a little easy, but overall it was a great blend. The four games that followed proved its success and staying power.

 
3. The Magic Candle. I have the same compliments for The Magic Candle as I do for The Dark Heart of Uukrul. It took a familiar interface and style and imbued it with a well-written plot, an original spell system, solid tactical combat, and several other innovations that make it transcend its sources. I unabashedly love games that force me to take notes and hunt down clues, and only the Ultima games rival The Magic Candle in this area. It was weak in some traditional RPG categories, such as equipment and economy, but it made up for that with some excellent features that even today hardly appear, such as the ability to split the party.

 
There are a few other games that I was tempted to put on the list. Dragon Wars exceeded its Bard's Tale heritage and offered some excellent encounters, role-playing options, and multiple paths to the endgame. Sword of Aragon, though not as high in its final rating as the three finalists, was the first game that seemed to be a true RPG-strategy hybrid and not just a "strategy game with RPG elements." Chaos Strikes Back offered one of the most challenging experiences of the year and it's hard to find a game from 1989 with a more rabid modern following. I even toyed with writing up a case for Knights of Legend; it wasn't the game I liked most from 1989, but it might be the game that I ultimately remember the most. Ultimately, though, I knew I couldn't find any reasons to elevate them above the three finalists, so there was no point in toying with them.

I'll announce the winner below, but first let's talk about:

Staying in the 1980s

We're not fully leaving the 1980s, probably not for a long time.

I have by now accepted that my decision to play on PC and DOS games was a horrendous mistake, and if I could start over again, I wouldn't make the same decision. I might still limit my list to non-console games, but I'd take the time to learn Apple II, C64, Atari ST, and Amiga emulators. For the last year or so, I've been slowly trying to rectify my mistake by catching up on non-DOS/PC games, but without some kind of way to prioritize them, I've been giving equal attention to the classics and the dregs, and I remain stuck in 1981.

My master game list now has a second tab for "other platforms," and it includes every additional RPG I've been able to find for any platform, plus a few DOS games that I overlooked on the first pass but didn't think were significant enough to make a u-turn for. It also has DOS games that I played briefly but not long enough to give a rating (e.g., my "backtracking" posts from 2010).

Like my master list, I've simply culled this one from MobyGames, Wikipedia, and other sources. I've made no effort to verify that these are RPGs, nor for the foreign games any attempt to determine if there's an English translation. I don't know if emulators exist for some of the platforms. This is all stuff to worry about later.

There are twice as many games on this list as I've played on the DOS/PC list since starting this blog, so there's no chance that I'll ever catch up if I simply keep going in order. I need a way to prioritize which of these games are the most interesting, noteworthy, and important to the development of the RPG genre.

I've created a quick survey for you to fill out to prioritize which games from this list I should play when I feel like departing from my DOS/PC list. [Ed. I later changed my approach and the survey is no longer useful.] You can fill it out any time while I'm still in the 1990s; I'll keep a permanent link on the sidebar and dip into the list, considering your votes, whenever I want to pluck out a 1980s game. Like I've been doing throughout the past year, I'll probably cover it in a single posting (if sometimes a long one).

(There are console games on the list, but I imagine giving them a low priority even if they get a lot of votes. Zenic is already covering them well over at "The RPG Consoler." Nonetheless, I might be persuaded to play some of the landmarks, if only to contrast them with computer RPGs during the same era.)

If it works out well, I'll update the list for 1991 and re-issue it during every yearly transition.

1990 Preview

Here's what happened to me, in order, in 1990: my Commodore 64 broke, I went to basic training, I started my senior year in high school, and I got a girlfriend. My CRPG addiction was temporarily cured, and I went from spending hundreds of hours per year to 0.

This didn't change until 1998, when I bought my first PC and quickly relapsed. While I did catch up on my favorite series, I don't think I played any games that were not sequels to 1980s titles. Soon I was playing the new classics, like Baldur's Gate and Diablo.

Thus, we are now entering a "dark period" of CRPGs for me. Looking at the 1990 list, I see only a handful with which I have any experience: Champions of Krynn, Ultima VI, probably Secret of the Silver Blades, and Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire. After more than 13 years playing them, I barely remember the plots and gameplay elements, but fortunately, I don't remember disliking any of them.

Everything else is going to be brand new. That doesn't mean I'm not looking forward to some of them. I hear that the next Wizardry finally transitions out of the same game mechanics and elements that the series introduced in 1981. I'm interested to see what Escape from Hell does with the Wasteland engine. The spiritual ancestor of the Heroes of Might & Magic series, Kings Bounty, is on the list even though it probably shouldn't be, and I've always wanted to try it. I have a fondness for Arthurian literature, so Spirit of Excalibur ought to be interesting. And I can't wait to see how the Magic Candle story continues in Keys to Maramon.

Are there games I'm not looking forward to, the way I was dreading Keef the Thief? A few. I looked at the Worlds of Ultima games a few years ago and thought they were breathtaking perversions. The appeal of Elvira was always lost on me, and I can't imagine loving her game. Ditto Buck Rogers. Someone already spoiled that Eye of the Beholder has an awful ending, so I'm sure that will be on my mind no matter how good the gameplay is. Just like apostrophes in fantasy names, CamelCaps names always strike me as the last refuge of the desperate, and we have both DarkSpyre and MegaTraveller coming up. But if the past is any indication, I'll end up loving a lot of these games and disliking some of the games I'm eagerly anticipating.


Game of the Year

I present to you my selection for Game of the Year for 1989:

For good or ill, the blend of RPG and adventure game was a major theme for 1989. My posts this year were (unintentionally) bookended by them: B.A.T.  at the beginning and the combination of The Third Courier and Keef the Thief at the end. All three of these games are artifacts of the 1980s in their gameplay, themes, and graphics (not to mention hair). Hero's Quest is the only exemplar of this theme that today seems timeless.

Nonetheless, I know the choice is a bit unorthodox. It's small, short, and a hybrid besides. It lacks the tactical combat, dungeon-crawling, and world-exploration of great RPGs. But to my mind, these factors are outweighed by the things it does right, starting with an unparallelled skill- and attribute-development system. We've seen games where skills develop based on use before, all the way back to Wizard's Crown and notably in Dungeon Master and The Magic Candle. But Hero's Quest beats them all with the variety of ways that the skills can develop and the synergistic leveling of both attributes and skills. Consider, for instance, how both strength and climbing increase when you climb a tree, or how agility, weapon use, and throwing jointly increase when you throw daggers at foes.

Although the combat isn't great, it's one of the first truly good examples of action-oriented combat that still manages to draw from an underlying skill and attribute base. The speed at which the player hits dodge, parry, or attack doesn't matter as much as the relevant skills that he's developed. In any events, it succeeds well as an RPG in other ways: the path to success varies depending on the choice of character class; enemies respawn fast enough to allow plenty of opportunities for grinding; and it creates interesting new monsters (some, admittedly, a bit goofy).

In an era when you generally had to turn off the sound in DOS games, Hero's Quest not only offers decent sound effects but fun leitmotifs for various characters, places, and themes. It has memorable NPCs with keyword-based dialogues, and unlike the game that I just spent so much ink complaining about, the Coles had a mature sense of humor and employed it effectively.

The game is tightly programmed, with nary a flaw nor bug, and it avoids the problem so common in adventure games (especially those with text-based inputs) in which you frustratingly try to get the game to understand what you want it to do.

The 1990s would see the decline of the classic "adventure game," at least in the west, but Hero's Quest showed that its best elements could be blended with RPGs. The impact of this game on the RPG genre is something I'll have to assess later, as I become more familiar with 1990s RPGs.

Speaking of the 1990s, it's time to get started on a new decade, commencing with a game I know I'll like: Champions of Krynn.