DarkSpyre: Won! (With Final Rating)

DarkSpyre

United States

Event Horizon Software (developer), Electronic Zoo (publisher)

Released 1990 for DOS, 1991 for Amiga

Date Started: 15 September 2013

Date Ended: 30 September 2013

Total Hours: 30

Difficulty: Hard (4/5)

Reload Count: 69
Final Rating: 30
Ranking at Time of Posting: 55/112 (49%)

Ranking at Game #404: 227/404 (56%)

Well, to probably no one's surprise, after ragequitting a few days ago, I calmed down, perservered, and managed to win the game. As you may recall, the game wouldn't allow me to save at any point after entering the puzzle challenge on the "Intellect" level, so I had to re-navigate this puzzle every time I died at any point after entering it, including on the final level. The final level ("Magic") took me two more tries to navigate, but it took me about 18 more tries through the "Intellect" level to even reach the final level those two times.

By the second time, I was sick of the game, so I used a walkthrough to get me through it without dying. The "Magic" level consisted of a series of magic-oriented puzzles, requiring me to mix a potion, cast "Magic Wall" spells to block fireballs, cast a "Disguise" spell to turn myself into a slime and thus get under some movable walls (that was the walkthrough's idea, anyway; I think "Zap-Away" would have also worked), and cast a series of "Knock" spells into a teleporter from various directions.

Yeah, whatever that means. I'm using a walkthrough now, so sod off.

The penultimate door required me to discard my spellbook to pass. Some skulls had previously warned me something like, "your most prized possession must be left, but don't leave yourself unprepared." Not leaving myself unprepared involved memorizing at least one "Knock," for the final door, before discarding my spellbook. I'm not sure I would have deciphered that without the walkthrough. In fact, I'm pretty sure that without the walkthrough, this posting would have been an obscenity-filled tirade accompanied by a picture of me standing helpless before the final door.

Tossing my spellbook down a hole.

 
After that, I wandered through the exit and got an image of the three floating god heads (actually a double image; there was some video corruption here), who said:

Well fought champion! You have earned the right to survive. Not only for yourself, but for your world as well. Lead it true, and pass on what you have learned. For we will take our leave of you now. But who knows when we shall return...Next time???

It's nice to know after all that work, I wasn't even worthy of a final message with proper grammar and syntax.

After that, it dropped me to the main screen. I assume Gideon gets to take the throne and carefully explain to everyone why it's going to be Queen Gideon instead of King Gideon. (There was one final Odin rune in the last level, but it didn't restore my proper sex.)

Nope. Still significantly lacking in the testosterone department.

 
A special "screw you" goes out to:

1. Everyone who insisted that the game incorporates its story and lore in the later levels. Aside from titling the last three "War," "Intellect," and "Magic," and a few oblique references from skulls, there wasn't a soupçon of reference to the game's framing story in the entirety of the game. Yes, "soupçon." If I have to know what it means for crossword puzzles, I'm going to use it in a bloody sentence for once.

2. Whoever told me I had to lug around that damned piece of driftwood. I carried the frigging thing for about 12 levels only to find another piece right next to the door where I finally needed it.

You get on the scoreboard if you die in the game, but not if you win.

 
Time for a GIMLET--and I mean that both ways.

1. Game World. In the opening post, I discussed the differences between back stories and framing stories. This game has the latter. You could have literally constructed any frame--or none--around it, and the gameplay itself wouldn't have changed. Though the framing story is interesting and well-written, it's wholly unconnected with the game and thus feels like a bit of a cheat. Score: 3.

2. Character Creation and Development. Probably the part I liked best about the game. The character creation process cleverly weaves the player's choices into a little fable. "Leveling up," by increasing weapon and spell skills, is frequent and satisfying. I even thought that it was funny that my character changed sex and couldn't change back, although the change had no effect on gameplay. Score: 5.

3. NPC Interaction. No, the skulls on the floor aren't "NPCs" any more than the messages on the walls in Might & Magic are. There are no NPCs. Score: 0.

4. Encounters & Foes. There are no opportunities for role-playing in the game, and no real "encounters." Foes are varied in their attacks and defenses (I particularly grew to hate "jesters," who can cast poison, smoke, and fireballs), but not very varied, and they simply swarm at you mindlessly, though they do try to flee when wounded. All enemies are in fixed locations, and as far as I can tell, none of the enemies respawn, meaning you'd better kill all that you see if you want to develop your weapon skills to the max. Score: 3.

Attacking a gryphon with a spear while a jester waits in the room next door.

5. Magic and Combat. The one other part of the game that doesn't suck. You have a lot of options in combat, from spells to different types of weapons to hurling your shield. Each weapon has a variety of attacks that grow in power as you increase your skills in that weapon type. The size of the levels allows some additional tactics, such as maneuvering enemies behind obstacles, into the paths of rolling balls or closing doors, into teleporters, or even into each others' attacks.
 

Spells are divided into several schools. I don't know if I found all the potential spells in the game, as I never found more than one spell for some of the schools. Certain spells, like "Disguise" and "Invisibility" introduced other options for combat, and the game was clever in its use of some spells to solve puzzles. I wish the game had been more about combat and less about levers and doors. Score: 6.

6. Equipment. The game has a lot of stuff to pick up and use--weapons, armor, shields, amulets, potions, runes, and puzzle items among them--and it was always fairly clear which item was better. I also like that they're at least partially randomized, so you never know what you're going to find. I wish weapons hadn't broken so often, and the game never really did find a balance between feast and famine. I was chronically either broke and down to my last weapon or overloaded. Score: 5.

Gideona and her loot on one of the puzzle-heavy levels. Note the log of driftwood that she's been carrying for no reason since Level 8.

 
7. Economy. None at all. Score: 0.

8. Quests. One main quest, only rarely referenced in the game itself, though I guess it basically works and at least explains the dungeon's challenges. No role-playing, no side-quests, no alternate endings. Score: 2.

9. Graphics, Sound, and Interface. The graphics are pretty good for an iconographic game of the era. The sound is mostly annoying, consisting primarily of obnoxious music that I left off. There is no sound to accompany the most obvious mechanics in the game, such as striking an enemy or casting a fireball--just dumb stuff like walking. I thought the interface had an acceptable balance between keyboard and mouse. I prefer it when games make the two controllers redundant, and allow the player to find a process that uses them in tandem. The dual map/character sheet interface was original and basically worked. Score: 4.

10. Gameplay. Very linear, but in a way that randomizes the level choices so that no two players face precisely the same game. In this, I suppose I have to give it points for replayability even though I wouldn't want to take advantage of it. You know my opinions about the difficulty. It was tolerable until about the mid-game, and then the puzzles became too frustrating and required too much trial and error. There was no excuse for the "Intellect" level. It was also far too long. Score: 2.

The final score of 30, quite low, reflects my opinion that the game really isn't a good CRPG. Since the puzzles are far more difficult than the foes that you defeat in combat, it's much more a puzzle game with an RPG façade. I liked the combat and skill development, and I think there's a place for a third-person perspective with a Dungeon Master approach to skills and combat, but this wasn't it.

But don't take my bile as any kind of gospel. This kind of game is likely to inspire both love and hate depending on the bent of the player. In the July 1991 Computer Gaming World, Todd Threadgill loved it. While admitting that the introductory novella had "little impact on the game," he called it "a fine game, well suited to gamers who enjoy true challenges." Somewhere around the middle of the game, remembering her praise of The Dark Heart of Uukrul's abstract puzzles and her disdain for any actual story or dialogue in games, I thought "I'll bet frequent RPGCodex contributor Crooked Bee loved this game," and I wasn't disappointed. In a March 2012 thread, she said it was one of her favorite games, "maybe even the favorite one." [Later edit: I read the post too fast and missed a few key words; she said it was one of her favorite games "of this type," not in general.] So there you go. I'll leave them to their levers and pressure plates and get back to my NPCs, economies, and role-playing options.

DarkSpyre was the first game from Event Horizon, renamed DreamForge in 1993, and the Holmes/Straka/Namestka team. We'll be encountering them many times in the coming years, including Dungeon Hack (1993), Menzoberranzan (1994), Anvil of Dawn (1995), and Ravenloft: Stone Prophet (1995)--but the first of their games that we'll see is The Summoning (1992), the direct sequel to DarkSpyre. I don't imagine I'll be looking forward to it.

I don't know if my next game will be Dragon Lord or Wizardry VI. I've spent some time with Dragon Lord, and it's only slightly defensible as an RPG. The only characters that you can "develop" are dragons, and technically the development (casting spells on them) isn't a necessary part of the game. But it's an intriguing game, with nice graphics, and I'd like to get out a post on it if it doesn't take too long to win. Otherwise, it's back to Gilgamesh's Tavern.