Conan: The Samaritan

Conan rescues a pirate queen from a demon, in a scene that feels appropriately Howard-esque.

       

I'm having authentic fun with Conan, and I'm having a hard time putting my finger on exactly why, other than it being a relatively undemanding game at a time when I'm feeling mentally lazy. It's a sharp contrast to Deathlord, which always makes me feel like I must be missing something. Conan has plenty to criticize, and yet I don't really feel like criticizing it.

Using my paper map of Shadizar, I kept exploring the remainder of the city, annotating various buildings and collecting their treasures. I didn't really cover this well in prior postings, but when you enter a house, you have to click on all of the objects on the screen. Treasures might lie behind books, in chests or baskets, or under beds (among others). Some of the locations, I discovered belatedly, might offer multiple treasures, and you have to keep clicking on them.
      

This message has become my worst enemy.

    

Random thugs, thieves, and guards continued to attack me as I explored. Since there's no point to combat except to get past the enemy, I found myself fleeing whenever possible and trying to lose the pursuing enemies in the maze of buildings. When my health got low, I chugged white lotus potions or stayed at an inn.

By the end of my explorations, I had nearly 3,000 gold pieces. Once I was reasonably satisfied that I didn't need gold for any plot purposes--just potions, inns, equipment, and training--I spent 1,200 at the master swordsman's house, improving my skills with each style of combat. I was tempted to spend 1,600 on an "enchanted sword" at one of the shops, but I seemed to get relatively swift upgrades in swords anyway, so I think it would have been a bad purchase.
     

Tempting.

      

The southwest section of the city is called the "Inner City" and it contains the governor's palace and several homes belonging to high officials. Guards patrol the obvious entrances, but I found a back way from Snake Alley by climbing up to the outer wall, following it down to the Inner City, and climbing down a ladder. Still, I couldn't find anything productive to do here. Guards chased me all around the area, and attacked me in every building that I entered. The governor's place had two locked marble doors, so I clearly need to return when I have the appropriate key.
 

A common message in this area.

    

When I had finished exploring the surface, I decided it was time to hit the underground. I returned to the master thief's house and followed his directions down. I had found a Gem of Light in one of the city's houses, and using it provided light for almost my entire exploration of the underground; only at the very end did it go out, and I had to light a torch.
      

     

The underground was full of those lion-rats, and like the enemies on the surface, I tried to run away from them when possible. Sometimes, battle couldn't be avoided.
      

Nice random visual here from the Temple of Set.

    

I expected the underground to be long and mazelike, but it was actually fairly small. It took virtually no effort to find the secret entrance to the Temple of Set. I guess what I was supposed to do was enter the Temple of Set, kill the priest holding the jade key, return to the underground and open the jade door, find the Snake Sword behind the jade door, return again to the Temple of Set, find the snake guarding the Eye of Set, and kill him with the Snake Sword. However, I ran into the snake first and was able to kill him just fine with my regular sword.
    

Exhibit A.

     
I guess maybe the Snake Sword would have made it easier. I did ultimately find it and discovered that it did +35 damage compared to my starting sword, so it was still a good upgrade. At some other point, however, I found a Steel Sword that offered +50 damage.
      

      

When I picked up the Eye of Set, the plot took over and related that I returned the Eye to Taurus (the master thief), who gave me 200 gold and promised his assistance against Thoth Amon. My "defense" rating moved from 50 to 55.
     

That's not much of a "life's savings" for a master thief. I earned a lot more than that in about 3 days.

      

The game automatically moved me back to the Red Dog Tavern, where I got my second major quest. Vicarus the Sage told me that north of Shadizar, I would find an ancient crypt in which a great king was buried. The king's crown would allow me to walk past undead creatures "as if I were invisible." But to get it, I'd have to defeat the mummified king.
    

   

Before I embarked on this adventure, I wanted to clean up a couple of side-quests in Shadizar. The first involved the recovery of a ruby amulet, also said to offer some power against undead. It was supposed to be in the underground, but I hadn't found it on my first visit. Looking at the map, I realized I had annotated more entrances to the underground than exits I had found while exploring there. I realized there were multiple section of the underground that didn't link with each other.

Anyway, I ultimately found the ruby amulet in a chamber guarded by yet another giant snake. This time, I had the Snake Sword, and he died in just a few hits.

       

Second, the priests of Ishtar had asked me to find an emerald amulet in the Temple of Set. I hadn't found it in the "secret" area, so I tried the normal entrance. This just led to two rooms and one fight with a priest of Set--no treasure. It turned out that I needed to use a Teleport Scroll to get to the top of the temple (from the outside), where there was a doorway leading to an otherwise-inaccessible room and the amulet. The priests of Ishtar gave me a nice gold reward.
     

I couldn't even see this one from the ground.

     

I was getting lots of "inventory full" messages at this point. In addition to the items I've already mentioned, I've been toting around several keys, a coil of rope, flint and steel, several torches, a regular staff, a Staff of Power, various gems, various keys, a Gem of Sight (shows an area map) and several types of lotus potions. White lotus heals; purple lotus offers a boost to defense; red lotus offers a boost to attack ability; and black lotus poisons. (I clearly don't want to use the latter on Conan, but I don't know if there's a plot reason to keep it for later.) To make room, I sold all of the items I assumed I was done with (and could be repurchased), including my inferior swords, common keys, and gems.
    

For the first time since the game's beginning, I returned to the world map.

     

I expected the king's crypt to be large and sprawling, equal in size and intensity to the game's first scenario, so I was surprised when it turned out to be just two rooms. The door locked behind me as I entered the first room. The second room held the king, sitting on a stone throne, the crown on his head and a sword at his feet. Behind a gargoyle statue, I found a rope and some flint and steel.
      

Approaching the undead king.

     

Picking up anything in the room caused the king to awaken and attack, and I soon found that he wouldn't die by my sword. But since I'd found the flint and steel in the crypt, it wasn't hard to figure out the solution. I had to lead him back to the first room, where the floor was covered in flammable debris, and light it. The fire destroyed him, and I was able to recover his sword (+70 damage), his crown, and the steel key to let myself out. When I did, the game automatically transitioned to the next scenario.
      

Fire solves everything.

      

Conan was back in the Red Dog Tavern, where a corsair named Jalek related that his company, led by Queen Belit of the Black Coast, had been traveling up the River Styx to "aid the Kushite forces fighting Thoth Amon." (Belit appears in Robert Howard's Conan stories as a major love interest for the barbarian.) On the way, they investigated a ruined pyramid, where an ape-demon took Belit captive, holding her near a black monolith, "which seems to trap all those who approach, holding them for the beast to slay at will."

Back on the world map, Conan traveled to the jungle ruins surrounding the pyramid. Again, I was hoping for a large map with side-quests and multiple encounters, but it pretty much just held the pyramid, the monolith, and a lot of random guards.
  

Wandering the jungle ruins.

      

Belit was tied to the ground by the monolith, guarded by a "priestess" who shed her clothes and turned into a demon. Approaching the monolith led to my being trapped and slain if I had any metal in my possession, including my gold and sword.
            

Showing images like this just cost me $200 per year.

                 

The pyramid had multiple entrances, including one that led to a door locked by a copper key that I had to leave for later. The top room, accessible by climbing vines along the sides, held an Obsidian Sword.
    

That sounds like it would be awfully heavy.

      

I dumped my metal objects here, picked up the sword, and returned to the monolith. With it, I was able to kill the demon, recover a copper key from its body, and free Belit.

       

       

I expected to be able to loot the pyramid and retrieve my equipment, but I was immediately taken to a long series of text screens that related how Conan joined Belit in her voyage to aid the Kushites. Conan took command of the corsairs, distinguished himself in battle, and returned to Shadizar two months later with Belit's promise to aid him against Thoth Amon.

   

It would have been nice to actually play this.

       

Again, my defensive abilities improved.

     

There's very little character development in the game, so you're grateful for what you get.

      

Back at the Red Dog Tavern, where Juma, a Kushite warrior, related how he had been escorting Princess Zasara of Turan to her wedding to Kujala, Great Khan of the Kuigar nomads. They were beset by Thoth Amon's forces and the princess was captured ad taken to the "cursed city of Zamboula."

I was surprised to find that my inventory included all of the items that I'd dropped back in the pyramid, so I didn't have to go back to retrieve them. At several points during the transition between the scenarios, however, the game teased me with the memory of all the treasure that must lie behind the copper door. It seems to be offering a role-playing choice about whether to waste time returning to the pyramid to retrieve the treasure, or to head directly to rescue Princess Zasara. Conan is torn, but I think I'll probably err towards rescuing the princess.

       

Conan gets his next quest.

    

Part of me wants to be disappointed in the game for turning so linear, with such small episodes, after the relatively open first chapter. That same part wants to comment on the relative ease of the puzzles. But I like it anyway. So many of the games on my list, including Synergistic's previous offerings with this engine, have felt like work, and this one definitely doesn't.

To get into the proper mood for the next (last?) entry, I'm going to read a couple of Howard's stories and re-watch the Arnold Schwarzenegger film.

Time so far: 13 hours

*****

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