Magic Worlds Compilation - Crystals of Arborea - Daze RRP œ25.99 Dragons Breath Storm Master Available for ST and Amiga Reviewed by James Judge on a 1040 STe Daze have got together with the French company Silmarils to bring us one of the best compilations out at the moment. Crystals of Arborea ------------------- The scene is set - Morgoth, Lord of Chaos, has finally escaped from the four crystals that imprisoned him and he is up to his old tricks again - terrorising the land of Arborea and other such nasty things. Well that's basically it and this is where you enter. You play the part of Prince Jarel, an elven bloke, who (with his band of six hardy, stalwart and courageous men) must search an island for four crystals and then place them in their corresponding towers all the time taking on legions of ferocious enemies that are intent on slaughtering you. To begin the game you must first select your team. You have three classes to choose from (either Wizard, Warrior or Ranger) and you can have as many of your characters to be whichever classes you want. (You could have a party of four Wizards, a Warrior and a Ranger but this is not recommended) Before you select which characters are going to be what classes bear in mind that Warriors can only hit enemies, Wizards can only cast spells and Rangers can only fire arrows. So you can't (as in most other RPGs) have, say, a Wizard/Warrior. Once you have selected your team you now have sixty points per character to increase their statistics, so you can bump up a Warrior's strength and leave his intelligence at the basic level. You are now ready to play the game. There are two means of travelling around the island, either by the usual first person display or by a map. With the first person display you look through the eyes of Prince Jarel and can have as many of your companions following you (if they are near enough). You control Prince Jarel by the familiar Dungeon Master type arrows (one pointing forward, one to the left, one to the right etc.) but there is no arrow to move you backwards, the arrows left and right turn you in those directions and the two diagonal arrows move you one step either left or right. In this display everything moves extremely slooowly (oh sorry) and unless you have an extremely good sense of direction you will find yourself often referring to the map to get your bearings. In the map mode you can move your characters around individually or in groups without any need for your interaction. Also you can see where the monsters are and where they are going. If you have found any huts, crystals or towers they will also be displayed. This mode is faster than the first person display but it still moves slowly. While you are traversing the island you will find huts which you can enter (I've found four) and then a character will ask you a question that will allow you to get two new spells for your wizards, improve Prince Jarel's fighting ability, obtain night vision for Jarel or have the position of a crystal highlighted on the map. These questions are extremely easy to answer - take for example a knight asks you what is Excaliber then gives you three choices of answer. Watch out for the trick question. A priest asks you who is Olbar, true he is a member of your band but even if you chose him to be a Ranger or Wizard you must still answer that he is an Elven Warrior! Also as you wander around the island you will find three crystals, four towers and numerous tunnel entrances. You must place the three crystals in their towers to complete three quarters of the game. You must then enter the underground section of the game which is, in my point of view, the hardest part of the game. There are no distinguishing features in the tunnels so you will get lost eventually, the map is of no use because it shows you where you are on the island - not underneath. It took me an hour or so of searching to finally find the final crystal and about ten minutes to get back out. In game time I had spent three and a half days in the claustrophobic confines of the tunnels!! Naturally you will come across a monster or thirty so you must perfect your fighting tactics. When you attack or are attacked by a monster a grid is displayed instead of the map/first person display with the faces of you and your band as well as the enemies' horrid features. You can do one thing per turn either moving or your character's special action. When your Wizards are able to cast spells a list of them appear to the left of the grid and you click on one to select it, you then click on the face of a monster (if it is an attacking spell) or on the face of one of your men (if it is a friendly spell), then hop around the room singing Michael Jackson's latest song and the spell is cast. If you want your Warriors to attack a meany just click on the monster's face if you are next to them and if you want your Rangers to fire an arrow just click on the monster's face while the Ranger is in direct line with the meany. Graphically this game is quite good with detailed scenery and monsters. It's nice to see a game that takes into account that there is a day AND a night with the transition between the two gradual and smooth. At dusk everything gradually becomes darker until you can only see silhouettes (the only way to see at night is by using Prince Jarel's night sight). The worst graphics are in the underground section making it extremely difficult to keep track of your movements. In the sound department there are some nice sampled (I think) sounds of clashing swords, birds etc. When you hit a monster it has its own special sound - bats squeak, orcs groan and the like. You may think that all of these elements come together to form a particularly good game but it moves too slowly, the combat element in the game could have been tightened up, there could have been a wider range of monsters and it is easy with a capital E. This was the first game in the collection I played and it was the first I completed (it took me about three hours without having to start again). One thing that does lengthen the lastability of this game is that each game is different than the last and if you saved your characters at level seven, for instance, you could then start at the beginning on level seven with the monsters more intelligent and stronger. With this it may be worth another game but not in my books. Dragons Breath -------------- Far away in a distant galaxy there is a world called Anrea which is governed by the Great Lords. In Anrea there is a mountain named Dwarf Mountain and, since the creation of Anrea, it has been a source of evil. In most of Anrea towns have developed and prospered while the countryside surrounding the mountain has always been ravaged by famine and war. Legend has it that in the Throne Room of the Great Castle in Dwarf Mountain lies the secret to immortality. Three Dragonmasters desire this secret and the Great Lords permit them to fight it out between themselves to gain entry to Dwarf Mountain. Dragons Breath can be played by three players, either human or computer controlled, who must who must fight against each other to get the three pieces of the medallion that will allow them entry to Dwarf Mountain. You start the game by choosing one of the three characters either Bachim The Alchemist, Ouread The She-Vampire or Ametrin The Green Beast. After you have made your choice the game begins. You are now presented with a picture of your castle and a whole host of icons along the bottom. With these icons you can a) control your dragons, b) have a look at the map of the country surrounding the Mountain, c) trade, d) create new dragons, e) cast spells and f) have a look at your accounts, magic stock and read what is going on in the land. To complete the game you must breed dragons from eggs. You have a stockpile of twenty eggs to begin with but these rapidly dwindle as you incubate them. To incubate an egg you must have money, and to get some money you must conquer a village or five, and to conquer a village you need a dragon, and to get a dragon you must incubate the eggs, and ... well, you get the idea. Luckily you have one dragon and a small amount of money to begin with so your first move is to conquer a village. There are two ways of conquering a village - either you control the dragon or let the computer do it for you. If the computer controls the attack you get a small sequence of a dragon flying over a village belching fire hither and thither, and then you get a small message telling you how many inhabitants the dragon killed and whether the raid was successful or not. If you desire to take control of the dragon grab your joystick and away you go! It's basically like vertical shoot-em-up where you must destroy defence installations and residential buildings. Once you have destroyed a certain number of buildings you have won! Once the village is conquered you can alter the tax rate which will directly influence the uprising. If it a run down, shabby town you will soon have a revolt on your hands if you put the tax up too far. If the town is more like a city you can put the tax rate sky high with very little uprising. Now you have a steady flow of cash coming in it's time to trade with some traders that come a'knocking on your door and put a couple of eggs into incubation. The traders sell you magical ingredients with which you cast your spells. The prices range from four gelds (gelds are Anrea's currency) to eighteen gelds for the rare ingredient. Spell casting entails you mixing together ingredients as if you were back in the science lab at school. After a lot (and I mean a LOT) of trying out different combinations of ingredients, you will finally find good spells to change your dragon's statistics (strength, eyesight, wisdom etc.), influence villages and many other things. Sometimes you make a complete muck up of things and then BOOM your apparatus has exploded and you can't cast another spell until your next turn. Turns - yes that's a point. The game is played in turns and each turn is a month long on Anrea. You can do whatever you want in your turn and, once all the players have finished their turns, the dragons are reviewed. This is the time where battles are fought and towns are fought and lost. That is basically all there is to it. The game ends when either all the players have lost all their dragons or, one player has got all three pieces of the medallion. Once there is only one player left it becomes extremely tedious searching the countryside for the medallion (I read somewhere there were over three hundred possible locations they could be!). Strategy games don't normally serve you with mouth watering graphics that have you gasping in awe at the very sight of them but these graphics are quite good. They are neat, moody, do their job well and are pleasing to the eye. Sound in this isn't quite up to scratch except for a couple of pieces of music at the start of the game and before an arcade section. (A good combination of sound and graphics is when a dragon dies and you get to see the head of a dragon in the foreground, all battered and bleeding, and in the background mountains. There is a sombre tune playing and then half way through some lightning forks down from the sky - very nice). When you play against human players the game comes into its own, so invite a few mates round and prepare for a long night. Storm Master ------------ On a strange planet called Urgaa where winds rule natural harmony, there are two islands named Eolia and Sharkaania. Empires from both have been fighting ever since the beginning of time. The reason for this merciless fighting has been forgotten long, long ago but still they ravage each other's land. Shaarkania has, once again, hired mercenaries to kill the Grand Magister of Eolia. This is where you (the fool-hardy person who decided to play this game) steps in - right into the Grand Magister's boots. You have been appointed by the council of seven, formed by the seven main governors of Eolia, to carry on his task. His task (which is now yours) is to carefully manage the economics of Eolia while ravishing the island of Sharkaania. This is not as simple as it seems because, although the two islands are separated by a small stretch of water (rather like the English Channel), you can't just send a fleet of warships over, due to a monster of considerable proportions who abides there. So you have to rely on the fickleness of the wind and four contraptions that are meant to fly called Ikaar, Skruuz, Oglee and Nowee. This game is not played in turns but if you spent say four months recruiting men for your army and nothing else, the computer allows itself four months to do whatever it wants. There are five different scenarios ranging from when Eolia was extremely prosperous and Sharkaania was poor (the easy level) to the exact opposite - Sharkaania strong and Eolia weak. Not only are there different scenarios there are also five difficulty levels. The main screen in the game is the picture of the council room with certain members in attendance and some not. Some members go off to sulk if you ignore them and return a few months later. The seven members are - The Eccalist (controls wind) The Master Miller (controls farming) The High Constable (controls trading and taxes) The Joker (controls entertainment) The Executioner (gives info on Sharkaania) The Commander (controls armies) The Leonardo (controls building of planes and universities) There are two other people in the council, one, the scribe, allows you to save the game and the other gives you information on Eolia for quick reference. This is the same as other 'God' games in the fact that you must keep your population happy by feeding them, funding their universities and entertainment places and protecting the seven cities they live in from looting and invasion. To be able to feed them you must place around Eolia wheat fields, Broomf (cattle type beasties) breeding grounds and Squiiz (a strange bee that produces honey that increases the intelligence of your subjects) breeding grounds. To actually place these around your island costs you nothing but they don't do a thing until you finance them which, yes you've got it, costs money. To get money you can tax your people (not a good idea to begin with) or sell your stock - you start off with a small amount of stock to begin with. Once your population is happy and content it's time to start building your army. Firstly, as it takes a long time, click on the commander and recruit some men then go to the Leonardo and click on his drawing board. You now have a blue print (well it is a mud brown print actually) of one of the ships (either Ikaar, Skruuz, Oglee or Nowee) and you can stick on balloons, wings, armour et al to give the plane thingy lift, speed and protection. After you are satisfied with your design you go and crew the ship and then test it. You are now presented with one of the many animated sequences during the game. A ship trundles down a runway and skips into the air, this is the time to hold your breath because your design will either fly or explode in a spectacular fashion. If it does fly you can mass produce the design as long as you have enough men and stock. When you have built your formidable army it's time to go looting. Via the commander you control the fleet and which of the seven Sharkaanian cities you are going to attack. The computer then takes over and tells you how well you have done. Everything in this game depends on the wind so you must learn how to harness and control it early on in the game. To do this you must use the Eccalist who can conjure up winds by a ceremony in which you partake. In the ceremony there are fifteen sampled sounds from someone mumbling to a man chopping an animal into small pieces (this is in no way paganistic or has any connection with the dark arts). Graphics are everything they should be - detailed and well drawn, basically everything we have come to expect from French games. When you are murdered there is a very nice piccy of you slumped over the side of the bath (dead) which looks as if one of the old masters has been resurrected and taught how to use a computer! Sound is also very good with many sampled sounds and a few good tunes. It will take quite a while to complete this game due to the five scenarios and difficulty levels. It is very easy to get into but damn hard to get out of. MAGIC WORLDS - OVERALL ---------------------- All in all this compilation is well worth the money. Two of the games are easy to complete (Dragons Breath and Crystals Of Arborea) but Dragons Breath has added value because you can play against your friends. Storm Master is also a very well thought out game and original - it will have you hooked. If you've got twenty six pounds go out and buy this unless you're the kind of person that sits around all day mumbling "I'm not a boring person, I just don't do anything all day long". A good pack for starters and experts alike. (By the way I was joking about singing the latest Michael Jackson song when casting a spell in Crystals Of Arborea - it's the latest Madonna song, sorry).