Gimme some CRPG man!

KidD01 · Post by **KidD01** » Fri Feb 15, 2002 2:08 pm

Ubik & Salma

Welcome back Ubik !

I bet you're bored with Salma since you come back here again.

WOW ! Wafflefry on the rampage when Ubik is back !

Demis · Post by **Demis** » Fri Feb 15, 2002 4:09 pm

Originally posted by Ubik

I just bought myself a new comp (actually I bought the pieces and assembled it myself) and it's a pretty fast sob. Athlon XP 1800+ 256 RAM, a 40MB ATA 133 HDD, a GeForce 2 (not MX) video card and lots of goodies - it took me several days to get it together, up and running.

I haven't bought any game the last couple of months (save Civ3) due to little free time, but now things are getting back to normal and I think I'd like to try a good RPG.

So, first thing to get: The Darkest Day expansion for BG2 (damned... no TOB support yet?) and then... what? What RPG have you (if) played lately?

Well, this is not an RPG but it's a great game worth buying. You should try out Blade of Darkness. Codemasters did an excellent job once again

and it might give a little bit of challenge to your newly-bought computer.

Minerva · Post by **Minerva** » Fri Feb 15, 2002 5:20 pm

U... UBIK!? Wow, you are alive!!

I can't help you about games as you know, still, nice to see you again.

fable · Post by **fable** » Fri Feb 15, 2002 6:59 pm

Nice to see you back, @Ubik. We'd all wondered if you'd fully escaped.

As for your question: I've had Wizardry 8 up and running. It's fun, but more of a dungeon crawl than a true CRPG. Gorasul has some good ideas, but its graphics are a cheap (and I mean, cheap) ripoff of BG2, and it lacks the kind of BG2 character interaction that was great. The translation also sucks, though I understand a new, improved

one is being worked on.

You could always take a glance at King of Dragon Pass. Fascinating RPG/Strategy hybrid, totally unlike anything I've seen since the old KOEI games: http://www.a-sharp.com/kodp/

Lots of good strategy games out there, but the next big CRPG titles will probably be NWN and Morrowind, this fall (unless you consider IWD 2 a CRPG, which I don't, though I like it well enough).

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Sat Feb 16, 2002 6:42 pm

Originally posted by Gwalchmai
I've just realized what Waverly is doing with his left hand in his avatar, and I must say I am impressed!

LMAO

@Demis I completely agree, it is one of my favourite games ever, i have completed it about 4 times now, the only thing i want is the Shark Sword at the start but i can't get the cheats to work

Demis · Post by **Demis** » Sun Feb 17, 2002 2:46 am

@Mr Sleep

I see that your favourite character is the Barbarian !!

i like this guy.
I don't recall any cheat that gets you to have the Shark Sword at the beginning but the big sword cheat would do the job

if you want to have some fun.

Have you tried it with the Amazon. You would be amazed how easy this girl can mutilate any opponent. You should try it out if you haven't.

Dottie · Post by **Dottie** » Sun Feb 17, 2002 2:49 am

@Sleep&Demis: Whos favourite isnt the barbarian?

Tried the Amazon once but although shes fun to play, the first map with her is so damn boring i didnt continue

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 7:33 am

Originally posted by Demis
@Mr Sleep

I see that your favourite character is the Barbarian !! i like this guy.
I don't recall any cheat that gets you to have the Shark Sword at the beginning but the big sword cheat would do the job if you want to have some fun.

Have you tried it with the Amazon. You would be amazed how easy this girl can mutilate any opponent. You should try it out if you haven't.

Well you have to have completed the game and then they unlock, but it never worked for me

Yeah i did the big sword thing, that was really funny

, but the humor quickly wore off

Yeah i did it for a bit with her - she was the easiest at dispatching people, which actually added to the boredom a little bit.

Demis · Post by **Demis** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 10:44 am

Originally posted by Mr Sleep

Well you have to have completed the game and then they unlock, but it never worked for me

I have completed the game but i didn't notice that some kind of cheats were unlocked????

i just used the cheat codes.

KidD01 · Post by **KidD01** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 1:11 pm

Originally posted by fable
Nice to see you back, @Ubik. We'd all wondered if you'd fully escaped. As for your question: I've had Wizardry 8 up and running. It's fun, but more of a dungeon crawl than a true CRPG. Gorasul has some good ideas, but its graphics are a cheap (and I mean, cheap) ripoff of BG2, and it lacks the kind of BG2 character interaction that was great. The translation also sucks, though I understand a new, improved one is being worked on.

You could always take a glance at King of Dragon Pass. Fascinating RPG/Strategy hybrid, totally unlike anything I've seen since the old KOEI games: http://www.a-sharp.com/kodp/

Lots of good strategy games out there, but the next big CRPG titles will probably be NWN and Morrowind, this fall (unless you consider IWD 2 a CRPG, which I don't, though I like it well enough).

Fabster, KoDp got some interesting things but I got bored of it easily due of certain factors in the game

Ubik · Post by **Ubik** » Wed Feb 20, 2002 1:46 pm

Heya lads and lasses! Minerva, your grace

how are you doing? Still a regular of the madhouse GB? Heya Kiddo, how are your attempts at knighthood fairing? Fable, I think you given me a good hint. If this game is anything like the old KOEI games, I shall surely love it. Only problem... I can't find it around here

And I don't trust the net for my credit card number

I haven't got any RPG yet, I am too busy replaying Civ3 and taking care of wife and all (no silly comments kids, or dad shall come over and spank your butt). And working

Demis, interesting nick... Greek?

And the game you are talking about is action? or Diablo-like? FYI I hate'em both

ALL: Stop being so harsh to Wankerly! He is a good kid. Possibly misguided. But wouldn't you be misguided if you were 28 and a virgin?

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Wed Feb 20, 2002 2:04 pm

Originally posted by Demis

I have completed the game but i didn't notice that some kind of cheats were unlocked???? i just used the cheat codes.

I only heard about it but i could never get it to work, i wonder if it is a US only thing....who knows?

Aegis · Post by **Aegis** » Wed Feb 20, 2002 2:22 pm

Now this is the SYM I remember. Although, usually it's followed by screams of terror, and cold sweat, but hey. At least it's familar.

Welcome Back Ubik.

Demis · Post by **Demis** » Wed Feb 20, 2002 4:21 pm

Originally posted by Ubik

Demis, interesting nick... Greek? And the game you are talking about is action? or Diablo-like? FYI I hate'em both

I don't like these kind of games either, but this one is somewhat different from any other action game, and i just love it.

, and it is totally different from diablo-like games.

Yeah i'm Greek

but not with AEK

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Feb 21, 2002 10:46 am

Originally posted by KidD01

Fabster, KoDp got some interesting things but I got bored of it easily due of certain factors in the game

Still, you have to admit there's nothing like it on the market. Here's an old review I did of the game. It's short, given the limitations of the magazine page where it had to fit, but it gets across the essence of the game, I think:

In a business that’s obsessed with “niche,” here’s a game that defies easy categorization: a turn-based strategy title with an extra-heavy dose of RPG, and a menu-driven simulation that puts you in detailed charge of a barbarian clan.

King of Dragon Pass takes place on the world of Glorantha, in the Runequest pen-and-paper RPG. Its clans pursue typical barbarian activities: herding, farming, exploring, trading, feuding, building different defenses, worshipping gods, forming alliances and raiding neighbors. You’re not physically represented in the game, but you manage a clan ring that is, filling its seven positions with disputatious nobles (chosen from more than forty, each rated for seven unique skills, like Magic, Combat and Leadership) who willingly contribute their contrasting and distinctive viewpoints and advice at every opportunity.

Like any good, turn-based CRPG/resource management game, KoDP supplies dozens of activity options and forces you to make choices: two activities per season, in a five-season year. Even the simpler choices may contain a subset of selections that force you to think. Perhaps you need more farmers. Do you lower numbers in your other clan professions like hunting and guarding, buy the services of farmers away from other clans, offer farming land to passing vagabonds who then join your clan, or seek farmers from the land of your origins, far away? And do you offer incentives, like land, or land and cattle, to gain recruits? Action fans who prefer vikings endlessly hitting one another over their helmets will blanch, but this spin on Celtic cultural history is fun, varied, and attractively presented.

It’s also set in a fantasy universe inhabited by dragons, ghosts, trolls and other potential health hazards, which means swords can do only so much; magic is essential. KoDP allows you to build shrines or more effective temples to each of a dozen gods, who can teach or perform from a range of more than fifty blessing (and curse) spells with an appropriate sacrifice. One of the most interesting activity choices you have involves sending your most powerful nobles on any of two dozen heroquests. In good, authentically shamanistic tradition, these quests are trance-state attempts to recreate powerful legends, with the hero cast in the central role of a particular god. The gods don’t die in the legends, but if your hero strays from the appropriate responses or luck is against you, the quest may turn sour. Success conveys a range of specific but powerful magical benefits upon the clan, while failure can mean anything from earth-scorching famine to your neighbors’ sudden hatred to the quester’s death.

But the single most interesting feature in KoDP is the way it effectively becomes a different game every time its you play it. Yes, I know you’ve heard it before, but it’s never been attempted on this scale; for KoDP tracks more than a thousand clan variables and more than four hundred potential plots, at least one of which is randomly generated nearly every season of your clan’s existence.

Some plots are one-shot situations with immediate effects, like a proposed marriage between members of your clan and another’s which only requires shortterm negotiations. (Though if the marriage goes sour, you could end up in another plot a few years later as the local equivalent of divorce becomes messy.) Others create story threads that hibernate for long periods, only to burst into view many years later—like one noble I had on a ring, whose occasional, whimsically silly, non sequitur advice about the evil of Elves suddenly turned deadly serious after more than twenty years of excellent service, when he deliberately maimed three Elves in the clan woodlands, victims of his desire to force a war.

You are always given a range of four-to-six options in every plot situation that go far beyond the usual good/evil stereotypes of so-called “interactive” gaming. Most choices offer equally effective solutions to the same problems, though with different attendant benefits and dangers. The apparently poorest reply to a given situation in one game could well provide the best results in the next, depending upon what gods you’ve worship regularly, who’s on your clan ring, your clan’s wellbeing, military might and diplomatic relations. All this environmental richness means that you can effectively create a clan tailored to your desires: a bunch of peaceloving traders, an uproarious bunch of raiders, a group into landgrabbing and conquest, etc.

The interface is simplicity itself, a series of screens whose activities are grouped by subject. There’s a help mode that explains each screen, a very good in-game tutorial, and a hardcover manual that provides a great deal of highly readable detail in a well-organized format.

KoDP isn’t without its flaws. The game’s visuals feature colorful, attractive menus, but no animation—even combat is handled this way, via screen summaries. And while the other clans follow the same rules you do, it’s easy to regard them as passive spectators, because you seldom see the effects of their actions unless you’re on the receiving end. There are few spies among Gloranthan barbarians.

You also expect to move to a new level of difficulty when your clan leads others in forming a tribe—after all, you’ve bargained away tribal ring seats to reach this point, and it seems reasonable to expect at least a periodic tribal meet to challenge your burgeoning diplomatic skills. But nothing of the sort occurs. At best, when one of your nobles is elected tribal chieftain, a few new plots affecting the tribe appear; still, it’s not much.

But I’ll gladly raise a drinking horn to toast the creators of such an original and rich game as KoDP. With variety, depth, and a Celtic folk soundtrack to die for, this game’s a solid keeper.

fable · Post by **fable** » Fri Feb 22, 2002 9:22 am

Post your CRPG reviews! At a time when sports professionals and obsessives are doing their best to display their skills, surely we couch potatoes need to stand up and claim the joys of our own! Right before we sit down again, slightly dizzy, of course.

Gruntboy · Post by **Gruntboy** » Fri Feb 22, 2002 9:58 am

Holy crud!

Its Ubik!!!

Civ3 eh? Ya been playing the Greeks???

Civ3 has robbed me of my social life too. Also, I now have MoH: Allied Assault.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Feb 23, 2002 10:07 am

May would seem to be a busy time, if all goes well: Morrowind, IWD2, and Dungeon Siege, with NWN coming in September.