Game 559: Daemonsgate (1993)

       

Daemonsgate

United Kingdom

Imagitec Design (developer and publisher) 

Released 1993 for DOS 

Date Started: 4 August 2025  

        

I have never once cracked the manual of a new game, read a one-page backstory that boils down to, "an evil wizard has moved into the bottom floor of a 10-level dungeon," and thought, "This will be a great CRPG." At the very minimum, greatness requires a compelling story and setting. It requires a setup—once delivered by manual, these days delivered on-screen—that makes you want to inhabit its world, not just fiddle with its mechanics. The top-rated CRPGs on my blog so far—Ultima V, Ultima VI, Pool of Radiance, Dark Sun: Shattered Lands, Ultima Underworld, The Dark Heart of Uukrul—all have solid backstories, full of maps and lore. (Might and Magic breaks the pattern when it comes to the story, at least until III, but it still has those awesome maps.) The bare minimum that I want from a great CRPG is to be able to trace my finger over a map, touch upon a mysterious region called something like "The Veld," and wonder, "I wonder what lives there."

   

So I'll give Daemonsgate this: If my only exposure to the game was to its materials, I'd want to play it more than any other game since Ultima Underworld, perhaps even more than that. Its attention to story and setting are easily in the top five of any game my blog has covered so far. The box shipped with a couple of evocative maps, a two-page setup of the main story, a nice opening cinematic, 30 pages of history and lore at the back of the manual, and a 10-minute video on VHS tape. Getting confused about all the people and places? Well, there's even an in-game encyclopedia that keeps track of what the main character has learned. (Such a device is now common, of course, but this is the first time we've seen it, right?) GOG charged me $7.99 for the game; I would have paid $79.99.

           

The first appearance of an in-game encyclopedia. I think.

      

Of course, the whole thing is inevitably going to collapse under its own ambitions. There are signs of it even in the first couple of hours. For one thing, it's a British game (and not by Mindscape), so you know already that character development is going to be infrequent and nebulous. Then you have the fact that the designer had never worked on an RPG before, and never did again. Neither did the development company, for that matter. There's the fact that the back of the box calls the game "Volume One," yet I know for a fact there are no other volumes. Then, of course, I have all the comments from readers warning me how disappointing it is.

      

(As for that developer, there's something weird going on. Some of the materials name the company as Dream Weavers or Dreamweavers, and the logo is clearly a "D," so Imagitec was either in the process of changing its name to or from. But MobyGames catalogs Imagitec offerings from 1987 through 1996, so maybe they changed their minds about the change? But there are actually two Imagitecs on MobyGames, one with an "Inc." and one with an "Ltd." That would normally make me think that the "Inc." was an unrelated American company, but some of the materials that came with the game give the developer as "Imagitec Design, Inc." I didn't think the U.K. used "Inc." at all. So we're going to have to sort all this out before the final entry.)

         

The mystery deepens.

       

But let's start with the positives. As I said, I love the backstory. The player takes the role of Captain Gustavus, head of the imperial guard of the city of Tormis. Tormis is one of half a dozen warring city-states that make up the Civilized Kingdoms in the land of Hestor. As the game opens, the city has been besieged by an army of demons from the distant land of Elsopea, a strange and isolated kingdom with which contact was lost two months ago. (The manual leaves it nebulous where the demons came from, but the cinematic clearly shows a wizard opening a gate and letting them through.) Tormis has sent to its longtime rival, Attiea, for assistance, but the tyrant king Hellast refused. However, rumors have reached Tormis of a single Elsopean refugee arriving in Attiea.

       

The trouble begins.

          

The council has placed on Gustavus a near-impossible quest: gather a band of mercenaries, find some way to get out of the city despite the encircling horde, make it to Attiea, find this Elsopean, learn what he knows about the demonic invasion, and pray that it provides some kind of edge in the war to come. Already I love the bleakness of it.

      

This is supposed to be a shot of the besieged city. I couldn't time the screenshot right.

      

All of that is conveyed by the opening cinematic and opening pages of the manual. But there's still a lot more to explore before firing up the game. You have the map of Hestor with mysterious places like "The Wall" at the far north end of the land and "Terra Incognita" beyond. There's the icy island of Soramuth and a rocky island called Barghetta with a single port. Far to the southeast, apart from either the Civilized Kingdoms or Elsopea, the cities of Ast and Dooranekan sit in what looks like a jungle. What is to be found on Scholar's Isle, or the distant island of Sgaith?

       

The world of Hestor.

       

There's also a detailed map of Tormis, a city bisected by a River. The quest is supposed to take us out of the city, but it looks like there's so much to do here! I see a prison, a royal palace, an arena, a university, and places mysteriously named "Angel of Death" and "Harvester of Sorrow" (the map reminds me a bit of Legends of Valour, but there's no sign of that game's influence on the interface). The entire city is walled, but for a few gates. Both river exits have guard towers on either bank. This is a place I want to explore.

        

The map of Tormis.

        

I'm going to skip for now the 30-pages at the back of the manual that deepen the history and lore. I'm not sure how much relevance they have to the game. I'll bring them up when a relevant person or place is mentioned. Suffice to say that the founding myths of the world feature the ancestors of men conquering demons, and that the city-states appear to have originally been outposts of the Elsopean Empire before it collapsed.

     

I also don't really have anything to say about the 10-minute video except that it's completely mental. You can watch it yourself. It's set many years after the events of the game, with a writer named Randolph Ninefingers tracking down Travis Sewerbreath, one of the companions Gustavus supposedly took with him on the quest. The video is full of anachronisms; although they're ostensibly in a medieval tavern, Randolph records the story with a modern tape recorder and microphone. There's at least one good (if sick) joke, when a patron demands "Black Dog Pie" and a black lab sadly rises from a straw mat to pad into the kitchen. Overall, it doesn't contribute anything to the story except to make me not want to take that NPC into the party.

 

There is, alas, no character creation. The game begins in media res, with Gustavus in a tavern looking for potential allies. The tavern, you soon learn, is called The Pigge and Ballbearing.

     

The game begins in a tavern, with Gustavus surrounded by NPCs.

     

Characters in the game have strength, dexterity, endurance, wounds, wisdom, mana, charisma, and reactions (speed), with values measured by meters. These fixed attributes help determine their total hits, fatigue, and magic. Each character also has a selection of skills from 19 possibilities: thrown weapon, first aid, brawling, missile weapon, one-handed edged, one-handed crushing, foraging, hunting, survival, two-handed edged, polearms, two-handed crushing, haggle, pick locks, physician, tactics, daemon lore, elemental lore, and herb lore. Gustavus comes with first aid, brawling, one-hand edged, haggling, missile, leadership, and lock picking. Skills are rated on an ordinal scale from "Inept" (presumably still better than not having it at all) to "Master." I get the impression from the manual that the only form of character development is through increases to these skills, which can increase through use or by characters at "Master" level training other characters.

    

The first pill in the ointment is the interface, which in broad strokes (particularly the perspective, which is top-down with a very slight rotation) seems to have been inspired by Interplay's two Lord of the Rings titles; see this entry for comparable screen shots. It is mouse-heavy. Movement can be done with either the arrow keys or the mouse, but many commands must be selected from drop-down menus. Some commands have keyboard backups, but mapped to ALT-F# keys and thus not only hard to remember, but interfering with some commands native to DOSBox. As always, I want to shake the developer by his lapels and demand to know what would have been so hard about C)onversation and I)nventory, especially since the letter keys are otherwise used for nothing.

    

There are a lot of things that look interactive, but they're just for show. I have not found any place in which clicking on the screen accomplishes anything except for movement.

          

There are a lot of chests, but no way to interact with them.

       

As you might expect with a 1990s DOS program, the mouse programming is janky, and the menus don't respond to clicking about half the time. The menus are a bit weird, too. "Load/Save" and "Quit to DOS" are on the "Control" menu rather than the "System" menu like you'd expect. The "Objects" menu has only a single command: "Pick Up." You have to go to the "Inventory" option on "Commands" for anything else. At least ESC works to back you out of most screens.

       

The interface has an interesting approach to place, again similar to Lord of the Rings and to Microprose's Bloodnet (1993). As long as you're in the general area, commands like "Conversation," "Unlock," and "Pick Up" apply to anything in the room. You don't need to sidle up to every NPC scurrying around the tavern and initiate a separate conversation; you just click "Conversation" once and then can cycle through the NPCs in the resulting interface.

   

The conversation interface is interesting. You can ask each NPC about a selection of people, place, object, and miscellaneous keywords that you've picked up elsewhere—and you start with a pretty healthy batch, like "Daemons," "Hestor," and "Escape." A lot of NPCs say the same things when you ask about a term from this word bank, not unlike the later Morrowind (2002), which I was just re-playing on the Xbox.

        

The conversation window. I accidentally clicked on "TO"; it is not a real keyword.

           

You can also ask generically about "Gossip," "Yourself," and "Time." Each keyword might solicit a paragraph or two (in another weird design choice, you have to right-click on the paragraphs to scroll). You can then click on any word or term in the NPC's speech to add to the "Temporary Words" list, and then ask them about those items. Many of the words they use are bolded to give you a hint. Overall, it's sort of like Ultima VI (1990) crossed with Prophecy of the Shadow (1992).

      

Here's what I pick up in the tavern. It's quite large, and I don't get everyone in one room, but it only takes a few visits to the "Conversation" menu.

   

• Jeremiah Nameless. Formerly of the Yasimallar family, now disowned, seeking to restore his honor. Has no idea why the daemons are attacking. He recommends that I seek mercenaries at the Mercenaries Guild, but he'll join the party. He clarifies that the Harvester of Sorrows and the Angel of Death are both pubs. I enlist him into the party, but he only has four skills (first aid, brawling, missile, and two-handed edged), none higher than "Adept."

• Vlad. Serves drinks in the tavern. Has heard that the library is hiding books to preserve them against the city's fall. The merchants' guild is dumping grain in the river to artificially drive up the cost of bread.

       

Some of those books might be skill books!

      

• Svalla. Serves drinks in the tavern. The thieves' guild has been using the sewers for "nefarious activities"; the militia might know more about that.

• Graf. Doesn't want to talk about himself. The guards aren't letting anyone out of the city, but some people have been escaping through the sewers. The thieves' guild might know a secret way out of the city. 

• One Horse. A brewer. Confident that the ancient walls of Tormis, of Elsopean construction, can withstand the demonic horde, which is good because the council has passed a resolution not to surrender. 

• Anvil Sigmundson. Owner of the tavern. Has a long story about his time in the Tormis military, when they defeated the Attieans. Got kicked out of the city watch for intoxication, but says that he was framed by someone spiking his punch. He joins me. He has only a few skills (throwing, first aid, one-hand edged, one-hand crushing) but is at a high level with all of them.

       

Anvil's statistics.

       

• Andre and John. Guards. Heard that the cities of Anchor, Eloran, and Pesturs Wake have formed a relief army and will be here within a week.

• Nobby and Raven. Won't talk about themselves. Repeat gossip already heard.

• Hans. A brewer. An Elsopean has been seen in Attiea. Mashan is sending a fleet to attack the demonic hordes from the sea. 

• Cid. Serves drinks. Butchers have run out of beef and are serving dog.

   

The only sign that I have three people in my party, at least from the main screen, is that I can rotate through the portraits in the lower-right by clicking on them. The selected portrait is the "leader," I guess. I don't fully understand the inventory interface, but it appears that they all come with their own armor and weapons.

       

There are detailed item descriptions, too, which you know I love.

       

Finally, we exit the tavern to the street. There are NPCs wandering here, too, but the first three I talk with, named Henglebert, Boris, and Arnora, just say "my business is my own" and repeat standard gossip. I'm beginning to wonder if it really is feasible to talk to every NPC, or indeed what percentage are fixed versus randomly generated, again like Legends of Valour.   

   

I find the tavern we just exited on the north part of the map. I check out a nearby gate and, sure enough, it's closed and locked. The physical space of the game is quite large. Look at the map above and see the "Militia Headquarters" building. It takes four full screens to travel up the east or west wall and three to cross the north or south wall.

       

There's a distinct lack of hordes on the other side of this gate.

       

While I'm at the Militia Headquarters, I enter and ask about the thieves' guild. A sergeant tells me that he knows of a lady named Moll who is associated with the guild. She hangs out at the Harvester of Sorrow. I ask him to join, but he says that duty prevents it.

       

The Harvester of Sorrow is in the northwest of the map, but I want to explore a bit. I can't get over how large the city is. Every one of the buildings shown on the map takes up several large screens, teeming with NPCs and the occasional unlabeled shop. It's easy to get lost. There are a lot of fences and walls that don't appear on the map, too. The game gives you little messages as you cross the thresholds of certain buildings or pass certain landmarks. For all that, though, I don't find the graphics particularly inspiring. They have some of the same bland, uniform quality that I complained about in Lord of the Rings. Every building is absurdly spacious and colorful, with multiple rooms. There are no cracks in the sidewalk or piles of trash in the corner. It doesn't look like a "lived in" city. 

       

The 3-for-1 tequila deal and broken foosball table were also hints.

          

I find a truss bridge crossing the river. The library also crosses the river, adjacent to the bridge, but its only entrance is on the south side. I poke into a bunch of rooms, but the only book I find is The Arte of Locks. Skill books are one way to increase skills, according to the manual. 

      

Architecture 101, kids.

     

The game has a day/night cycle, and night starts falling, which causes a lot of buildings to close their doors, so I stop at a tavern called Sawbones for the night. The camping menu is reminiscent of The Magic Candle series in that each character can occupy himself with different things for portions of the night: practice skills, read books, teach other characters, study spells, hunt, forage, sleep, or guard. Anyway, it turns out that I camped too early. A "watch" is only six hours, so if you go to sleep too early, you wake up in the middle of the night. Also, you need food in your backpack to rest and restore fatigue.

      

Having Gustavus spend all night reading is going to bite me the next day.

      

Other findings in the city:

   

• The Central Bank. Has a large vault door that I can't pick because I have no thieves' tools. I do pick up a pickled fish from the desk. 

• Palace. On the grounds, I find a naginata just lying on the ground. I spend an entire morning wandering the rooms of the palace interior, but the only person I find is the governor, and he has nothing special to say. I loot a pouch with 16 gold pieces from his bed. (I've seen no sign that there's any kind of crime-and-punishment system in the game.) There's a locked door to a vault full of gold.

      

I'm on a quest to save the city. This door should be open to me.

         

• A large university in the southeast is made even larger with dormitories and even a campus pub (Twitching Dig) on the outskirts. The interior is the same as the palace; this is a shortcut the author seems to have taken in several buildings.

      

Looks like one of my classrooms in the last week of April.

    

• Flea's Discount Books, near the university, offers only one book for sale: Arte of Ye Sword. I buy it for 34 gold pieces, about a fifth of what I have.  

     

I've hit most of the labeled places, but certainly not all the buildings, when we cross the river and head back to the northern part of the city. We start moving slowly, and I get repeated messages that "the party is tiring and needs to rest." Really, it's just Gustavus, who spent the night studying lockpicking.

   

While trying to find an inn or other place to sleep, I stumble into the (unlabeled) Mercenaries' Guild. So that was a bit of luck. I strike out with the first two mercenaries that I find, Ingolf and Bork. But a woman named Cyless and a man named Dark Sky say yes. (You can apparently tell instantly whether an NPC will join because he or she does not have any GOSSIP to spread.) Cyless seems to specialize in scouting, foraging, and survival; Dark Sky is just a mediocre fighter albeit with a lot of hit points. Anyway, that's five characters. I don't know how many I'm supposed to recruit. I don't even know how many I can recruit. I could still use a rogue character, and none of my party members have any magic skills despite some of them having at least modest magic bars.

     

Uh . . . good luck with that.

      

By now, the game is telling me that the party is "desperately" tired, so I make my way back to The Pigge and Ballbearing, where we rest for 12 hours. I have everyone sleep for 6 and then a combination of practicing, reading, and learning. The next day, we're back out on the street.

   

• The prison has two large locked doors. The duty officer has nothing to say. I hoped to find a rogue character here. 

• The market is a large open area with multiple vendors selling various types of items, including weapons and armor, some worth saving for. None of the vendors have any thieves' tools.

        

Is that supposed to be "enchanted sword?" Or does the sword enchant things?

         

• The arena is alas closed for the duration of the siege.

        

That's what I said.

      

• A warehouse near the docks has multiple locked doors with goodies on the other side. When am I going to find some thieves' tools?

    

Eventually, we arrive at the Harvester of Sorrow. Moll is hanging around by the bar. When we talk to her, the first thing she says is, "I am the master of this guild," so I guess she doesn't try to keep it a secret. When I ask about the guild, she says to return here at midnight tomorrow.

       

Wait . . . "midnight tomorrow" as in, like, 14 hours from now, or 28 hours from now?

       

I had really hoped to get to at least one battle before wrapping up the first entry, but I guess it's not going to happen. I end still feeling slightly positive about the story, a little disappointed there wasn't much to do in what started out as an interesting city.

    

Time so far: 3 hours