Game 410: Siege of Darkwood (1993)

 

Chancellor has moved from La Verne to El Segundo since we saw him last.

          

Siege of Darkwood

United States

Independently developed and published

Released 1993 for Macintosh

Date Started: 20 April 2021
Date Ended: 21 April 2021

Total Hours: 2
Difficulty: Moderate (3.0/5)

Final Rating: 22
Ranking at Time of Posting: 159/412 (39%)

     

Siege of Darkwood is a sequel to 1992's Darkwood from Robert Chancellor, future Blizzard and Amazon Game Studios employee. Like its predecessor, it's an afternoon RPG, competently programmed but somewhat lacking in content.

    

In Darkwood, the main character, Derek Silverhand, rose from penniless orphan to Captain of the Guard by defeating successively more powerful monsters in the arena. Here, in his role as captain, he must oversee the defense of the city as it is besieged by an evil being named Torque. Derek must have gone soft as captain, because as the game begins, he's back down to Level 1 and has 80 gold and no equipment. He has a full set of Dungeons and Dragons attributes, but intelligence and wisdom don't come into play in the game.

      

The quest is introduced.

     

The siege takes 10 rounds, the first 9 of which feature a handful of monster parties scattered around the city of Darkwood. The appearance of the screen initially made me think there was a strategy element to the game, but there isn't. Instead, you simply click on the monster party that you want to fight and hit "attack." Once in combat, you can click on an enemy to make a physical attack, use a magic item, use a potion, retreat, or surrender (which ends the game).

 

Once you defeat each group, you can take whatever time you need to heal at the temple, buy new items, or gamble before engaging the next group. Once all the groups are defeated, the next round starts. The "map" is just an interface for selecting the enemies; you don't move around it at all. Enemy groups move closer to the city as rounds pass, and if any are adjacent to the city, they can attack the city's "hit points," the depletion of which is another way to lose the game. It's easy enough just to prioritize the closest enemies, though.

         

Enemy parties surround Darkwood. The one I've selected has one orc.

        

Until about Round 4, each "group" has only one monster, progressing in order of difficulty from kobolds to orcs, warriors, hobgoblins, ogres, and hill giants. Groups start featuring two monsters in Round 4 and three in Round 7. Higher-level creatures include weapon masters, minotaurs, stone giants, trolls, and stone golems.

        

Winning combats and earning gold is the name of the game.

       

Unlike Darkwood, there's no way to grind against lower-level enemies, so you have to be ready for each new round. Since there are so few tactics in combat, a lot depends on the choices you make between combats, including weapon and armor upgrades, attribute-boosting potions, healing, and magic items. The game's primary strategy is figuring out the best way to spend your limited funds on these boosts. My experience suggests that the order of priority is:

• Fully heal at the temple between each combat.

• Buy at least decent weapons and armor (e.g., long sword and scale mail).

• Buy Potions of Charisma until you have 18 charisma, which makes everything else cheaper.

         

Until your attributes hit the max of 18, potions are a good purchase.

       

• Keep 2 Potions of Heal in your inventory. If you need to use one in combat, buy another.

• Buy Potions of Constitution and Dexterity until you have 18 of those.

• Buy Potions of Strength until that's at 18.

• Buy a Ring of Protection +2.  

• Upgrade weapons and armor to the best available every 2 rounds or so.

• Buy a Wand of Destruction when you can afford it. Ignore Wands of Fire and Lightning.

• Buy the Sword of Justice when it becomes available in the 9th round.

     

The gambling hall somewhat ruins what would otherwise be a tight economy. In addition to simply allowing players to save scum for favorable outcomes, one of the games ("Treasure Hoarde") is rigged for the player. You roll two dice, and if the sum is 10 or greater, you win 1000 gold pieces for 100 bet. That's 10:1 winnings on 6:1 odds, an average return of 167 for every 100 bet. Fortunately, you can only gamble so many rounds before a guardsman arrives to remind you that you have a city to defend. My recommendation is to ignore the gambling hall. That way, the money you earn just barely allows you to stay ahead of the monsters, and creates more nail-biting situations. Even if you have to reload a lot, you'll win within a couple of hours.

          

This one, on the other hand, has exactly 1:1 odds.

            

That's about it. The clanks and screams of combat get a bit repetitive by the end, but the game is over quickly. By the eighth round, when you're facing groups of 3 monsters, the Wand of Destruction mostly carries the day. In Round 10, Torque attacks alone and is laughably easy to defeat, particularly with the Sword of Justice. A final congratulatory message closes the game.

        

Fighting the final boss.

      

On a GIMLET, Siege earns:

    

• 2 points for the game world. I like the whole "city defense" setup, but there still isn't much to the backstory. This game gives Derek himself a bit more of an origin story.

         

Derek reminisces about where he came from.

        

• 2 points for character creation and development. There's no creation. You gain 7 or 8 levels during the game, and advancement is reasonably satisfying.

• 0 points for no NPCs.

         

The character sheet, somewhat late in the game.

         

• 1 point for encounters and foes. The foes are D&D standards with no special attacks. Higher-level monsters just hit harder.

• 2 points for magic and combat. You have a couple of options. There are some limited tactics inherent in the order that you choose to attack enemies in groups.

         

I blast a stack of three enemies with a wand.

        

• 3 points for equipment. Figuring out what to buy, in what order, is the most important part of the game.

• 4 points for the economy. Simple but tightly structured.

• 2 points for a main quest.

     

What happens if you die.

        

• 3 points for graphics, sound, and interface. There's nothing spectacular about any of them but nothing terribly wrong, either.

• 3 points for gameplay. Though linear and not replayable, Siege offers a quick game with a moderate challenge.

    

That gives us a final score of 22, a few points higher than I gave Darkwood, recognizing a few additions. It was a decent title to fill the breaks between grading papers today. 

       

Without exclamation points, it just sounds sarcastic.

          

Let's hope 1993 brings us a lot of one-off titles like this. It will get us through the year a lot faster than the sheer number of games otherwise suggests.