BRIEF: Lords of Doom (1990)

       

Lords of Doom

Germany

Attic Entertainment Software (developer); Starbyte (publisher)

Released in 1990 for DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, and Commodore 64

Rejected for: No experience, leveling, or other character development

    

Games taken in isolation are often less impressive than games taken as a group, and such is the case with the output of Hans‑Jürgen Brändle and Guido Henkel at attic Entertainment Software in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the space of only three years, they went from the all-text Die Drachen von Laas (1991 but written in 1989) to the graphic RPG Spirit of Adventure (1991) to the much more complex graphic RPG Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny (1992). Between those first two titles is this game, the graphic adventure Lords of Doom. It's not an RPG, and in my opinion not a great adventure game, but you can see them developing the type of interface and programming skills that they'll need for Spirit. Overall, the four games show remarkable growth in a short period of time.

     

The attic team advertises their next game in their current one.

     

Doom takes place in a hamlet called Vertic, which has suddenly become flooded with zombies, werewolves, mummies, and vampires. Two survivors of the apocalypse, Sharon McGillis and Charlie Jackson, team up to find the hideouts of the monsters' leaders--the four titular Lords of Doom--and slay them. Early in their adventure, they find the address of famed vampire hunter Abraham Van Halen (yes, the game is full of this type of humor). A few minutes after he's wired from the telegraph office, he shows up with his assistant, Susan Leicester, to lend his aid.

   

Although the four characters form a team, each navigates the city independently; there's no way to move them together or engage in combat together. None of them have attributes or particular strengths or weaknesses, so I guess the only reason to have four of them is that you need all of the inventory slots for the few dozen items that you have to find and use. I also read on a web site that only Charlie can defeat the Lord of the Werewolves and only Abraham can defeat the Lord of the Vampires, but I don't know why in either case.

   

The core of gameplay is exploring the streets and shops of Vertic, clicking on cabinets and drawers to find items, and assembling weapons and other puzzle-solving tools. As you explore, you're occasionally attacked by a random mummy, vampire, werewolf, or zombie, and you need to use whatever weapons you have to kill them by clicking on the chosen weapon, clicking on the "use" icon, and furiously clicking on the monster. You get no feedback during this combat, so I don't know how often your clicks are necessary nor how many the game registers. Eventually, the monster crumbles to ash. If you kill the "lord" monsters, then none of the lesser ones appear in the game thereafter.

        

Fighting a random monster . . .

. . . and eventually killing one.

     

Killing the four lords involves special tools. For instance, the Lord of the Mummies must be killed with a flamethrower, as a book in the library relates. Flamethrowers are not often to be found in sleepy hamlets, so you have to assemble one by looting a nursery for a hose and hose head, then assembling them, then using a pipe ripped from a sink in a barber shop to siphon gas from a car. That sentence perfectly describes why I am an RPG addict and not an adventure game addict. I suppose I would have eventually figured it out just by clicking on things at random. Then again, maybe not--I thought the car was just a part of the background. 

       

What's the ignition source? What is putting the gas under pressure? How is the operator's hand not burned if the trigger is so close to the outlet?

       

The Lord of the Vampires has to be killed with a wooden crossbow bolt (which you have to make starting with an axe and some logs). Killing the Lord of the Werewolves involves melting down some silver jewelry to make a silver bullet. I'm not sure how the Lord of the Zombies is killed.

         

Well, that's convenient. Now, where do I melt it?

     

In addition to the core puzzles, hunger, thirst, and health are a logistical challenge. You can find food and drink in various locations (restaurant, theater, kitchen of the mansion), and there are even a couple of places, like a broken hydrant, where I think sources of sustenance are endless. You restore health by eating or drinking when your food and water meters are already at maximum.

   

The authors put their humor on display throughout the proceedings, and one thing I like about the game is that a lot of things give you messages when you click on them, just like Quest for Glory. But my absolute favorite part of the game is that the developers included a "boss key" to quickly hide the game if someone walks into your office behind you, only instead of simulating a return to DOS (like most games with "boss keys" do), the key combo actually quits you out of the game without saving and dumps you to DOS. Talk about a Sophie's choice.

    

I nearly got caught in the trap of playing this one to the end despite its lack of RPG credentials. It doesn't seem very big, and I suspect it could be won in just a couple of hours. But I got to a point where I just couldn't find anything, particularly the Lords of Doom. Maps online show places that I can't figure out how to get to. I marked a lot of my squares "instant death" because the game warns you not to try going in that direction and then kills the character if you do. Maybe there's a way to "unlock" these squares that I'm not figuring out. 

      

My map of Lords of Doom.

    

Anyway, I shouldn't allow myself to get sucked into games after I've rejected them. I leave this one for The Adventurer's Guild and move forward.