E-DND II
Last time on e-DnD we concluded that AD&D: Pool of Radiance did not, for what ever reason, really capture the spirit of Dungeons & Dragons.
Undeterred your author presses on. Next up to bat is Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonlance: Heroes of the Lance.
This is another SSI licence for the ZX-Spectrum released way back in 1988, the same year our old friend Pool of Radiance won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game. One can conclude then that the wise judges of Origins thought our current subject inferior to PoR then…
Oh goody…
Immediately the game begins we are introduced to the eponymous Heroes of the Lance. Now I don’t know Dragonlance from toffee but even I’ve heard of Raistlin Majere – if memory serves he was quite an unpleasant chap. Nevertheless, he, and seven of his yobo friends are here and ready to go!
HotL does not allow one to create original characters, this is the party and we are stuck with it. Having been introduced I watch as this gallant mob kick in the door of the local dungeon.
Let’s do this thing!
Right-o, this is the lady Goldmoon – I think. At least, I think it is not any of the others, put It that way. Aparantly one can only have one Hero of the Lance active at any one time – where the other seven are is anybody’s guess. I set of to explore the dungeon – note the big pit to the right of the screen? Well, I saw it, and innocently decided to wander over. This was to be my first, but certainly not my last lesson in the lethal controls of this game.
Y’see, when moving left or right, the character walks three steps, and then, quite without warning, breaks into a run.
And so dies the Lady Goldmoon – she threw herself into a pit exactly 15 feet from the entrance to the Dungeon. That’s not exactly a heroic death…
This guy is Sturm. His Wisdom and Dexterity are both pretty fair, so with luck he will be able to avoid the fate of Goldmoon.
With nothing besides the pit to explore in this room, Sturm headed south. Moving through a door involves standing in front of it and holding the Down button for about three seconds – I won’t tell you how long it took me to discover this.
The next room is mercifully pit-free.
Suddenly I am confronted by a man in very short shorts!
Ha! You shall taste my blade!
The combat lasts maybe twenty seconds, and consumes a quarter of Sturm’s hp – battle in HotL consists of hammering the ‘B’ button until you, or your foe falls over – I still don’t know what the ‘A’ button does… Still, good show Sturm! You defeated the anonymous weirdo hanging out in the Dungeon.
I elect to switch characters at this point – I will choose someone with full hp.
I go for Flint the Dwarf.
Ah, another man who likes to show off his legs… Only from Dwarf-height it is even worse, shielding his eyes Flint instructs Raistlin to give this idiot a dose of eldritch pain.
Ah, Magic Missile – where would we ever be without the spell of spells?
Cook ‘im Raist…
The spell hits, but if it did any damage, there was no way of knowing. Time for some old fashioned axe-work.
Flint swiftly hews the guy’s legs off and all is right with the world.
Continuing along Flint encounters another identical foe – this time, despite my most frantic of button hammering Both Flint and Caramon are dropped to negative hit points, and Raistlin is dead. This is serious because of course Goldmoon the Cleric is lying broken at the bottom of a pit in the first room.
I run like a girl. This does not represent a significant breakthrough, since In the next room I encounter whatever this is. You will note that I abandoned Flint and Caramon and thus they are now dead. This is getting less heroic by the minute.
The monster attacks with some sort of ranged spell which cannot really be seen in this picture. I try to close to mellee range.
Charge!!!
I back the evil creature toward an oddly familiar pit – now it will have to taste my blade!
It’s a hard fight, two more of my brave adventurers drop to negative hp – why oh why did the party Cleric take her own life???
Those things on the ground are my fallen freinds.
All I can do is soldier on.
Argh! It’s another, thing! Ooh! And some sort of, erm, thing, behind the thing, maybe it is treasure…
Charge!!!
By the luck of the brave I manage to defeat the monster without loosing another Hero. My reward is this gem.
So far six brave adventurers have died, and this is what they have died for. It’d better be the bloody koh-I-nor.
Moments later our brave remaining twosome is set upon by a Dwarf.
And here ends the tale of the Heroes of the Lance my children. Let it be forever more said that they were, well, a bit naff…
That’s it: 470 points and one gem. Is that truly worth the lives of eight people?
Fun Rating 0/10
HotL is probably the least amount of fun I have ever had playing a computer game. Remember those games they had in school? The ones designed to teach you maths or some such? Those games are more fun. I was not at all disappointed to see that final screen, because it meant I could stop playing this abomination forever. The buttons pressed seem to have only a mild correlation to the action performed by the character onscreen and even then it’s not like the actions performed can have any reall impact on the game.
D&D rating: 1/10
This game has AD&D written on the title screen – after that it has as much connection to D&D as it does to shredded wheat or the number nine.
Undeterred your author presses on. Next up to bat is Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonlance: Heroes of the Lance.
This is another SSI licence for the ZX-Spectrum released way back in 1988, the same year our old friend Pool of Radiance won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game. One can conclude then that the wise judges of Origins thought our current subject inferior to PoR then…
Oh goody…
Immediately the game begins we are introduced to the eponymous Heroes of the Lance. Now I don’t know Dragonlance from toffee but even I’ve heard of Raistlin Majere – if memory serves he was quite an unpleasant chap. Nevertheless, he, and seven of his yobo friends are here and ready to go!
HotL does not allow one to create original characters, this is the party and we are stuck with it. Having been introduced I watch as this gallant mob kick in the door of the local dungeon.
Let’s do this thing!
Right-o, this is the lady Goldmoon – I think. At least, I think it is not any of the others, put It that way. Aparantly one can only have one Hero of the Lance active at any one time – where the other seven are is anybody’s guess. I set of to explore the dungeon – note the big pit to the right of the screen? Well, I saw it, and innocently decided to wander over. This was to be my first, but certainly not my last lesson in the lethal controls of this game.
Y’see, when moving left or right, the character walks three steps, and then, quite without warning, breaks into a run.
And so dies the Lady Goldmoon – she threw herself into a pit exactly 15 feet from the entrance to the Dungeon. That’s not exactly a heroic death…
This guy is Sturm. His Wisdom and Dexterity are both pretty fair, so with luck he will be able to avoid the fate of Goldmoon.
With nothing besides the pit to explore in this room, Sturm headed south. Moving through a door involves standing in front of it and holding the Down button for about three seconds – I won’t tell you how long it took me to discover this.
The next room is mercifully pit-free.
Suddenly I am confronted by a man in very short shorts!
Ha! You shall taste my blade!
The combat lasts maybe twenty seconds, and consumes a quarter of Sturm’s hp – battle in HotL consists of hammering the ‘B’ button until you, or your foe falls over – I still don’t know what the ‘A’ button does… Still, good show Sturm! You defeated the anonymous weirdo hanging out in the Dungeon.
I elect to switch characters at this point – I will choose someone with full hp.
I go for Flint the Dwarf.
Ah, another man who likes to show off his legs… Only from Dwarf-height it is even worse, shielding his eyes Flint instructs Raistlin to give this idiot a dose of eldritch pain.
Ah, Magic Missile – where would we ever be without the spell of spells?
Cook ‘im Raist…
The spell hits, but if it did any damage, there was no way of knowing. Time for some old fashioned axe-work.
Flint swiftly hews the guy’s legs off and all is right with the world.
Continuing along Flint encounters another identical foe – this time, despite my most frantic of button hammering Both Flint and Caramon are dropped to negative hit points, and Raistlin is dead. This is serious because of course Goldmoon the Cleric is lying broken at the bottom of a pit in the first room.
I run like a girl. This does not represent a significant breakthrough, since In the next room I encounter whatever this is. You will note that I abandoned Flint and Caramon and thus they are now dead. This is getting less heroic by the minute.
The monster attacks with some sort of ranged spell which cannot really be seen in this picture. I try to close to mellee range.
Charge!!!
I back the evil creature toward an oddly familiar pit – now it will have to taste my blade!
It’s a hard fight, two more of my brave adventurers drop to negative hp – why oh why did the party Cleric take her own life???
Those things on the ground are my fallen freinds.
All I can do is soldier on.
Argh! It’s another, thing! Ooh! And some sort of, erm, thing, behind the thing, maybe it is treasure…
Charge!!!
By the luck of the brave I manage to defeat the monster without loosing another Hero. My reward is this gem.
So far six brave adventurers have died, and this is what they have died for. It’d better be the bloody koh-I-nor.
Moments later our brave remaining twosome is set upon by a Dwarf.
And here ends the tale of the Heroes of the Lance my children. Let it be forever more said that they were, well, a bit naff…
That’s it: 470 points and one gem. Is that truly worth the lives of eight people?
Fun Rating 0/10
HotL is probably the least amount of fun I have ever had playing a computer game. Remember those games they had in school? The ones designed to teach you maths or some such? Those games are more fun. I was not at all disappointed to see that final screen, because it meant I could stop playing this abomination forever. The buttons pressed seem to have only a mild correlation to the action performed by the character onscreen and even then it’s not like the actions performed can have any reall impact on the game.
D&D rating: 1/10
This game has AD&D written on the title screen – after that it has as much connection to D&D as it does to shredded wheat or the number nine.
posted by Anonymous at
6:03 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home