Blade of Destiny - US Gold RRP œ39.99
                 (RPG for PC and Amiga 1 meg)

@~Two reviews again for one game. This time they are from Mark
@~Darlison and Brian Burke.

1.                 Review by Mark Darlison

Based on the German role playing game, Das Schwarze Augem, Blade
of Destiny is yet another attempt to bring both the complexities
and enjoyment of true role playing to the computer. The history of
the world in which you campaign is well written and provide a
logical, if somewhat harsh, introduction that, far from being mere
colourful eccentricity, is in many ways relevant to the game. In
line with the spirit of true RPGs, the focus of the game is on a
very tangible object, the retrieval of the sword created by the
cyclops for Hetman Hyggelik, the legendary Blade of Destiny. The
sword is believed to be the chance that the realm needs to prevent
its destruction at the hands of the Orcs who even now amass in the
steppes.

The first problem that faces you is character creation. Unlike the
other games in this genre currently on the market, Blade of
Destiny seems to have opted to allow you as much freedom as
possible. Even the likes of the Wizardry series fail to come close
to the process used and a good, well balanced party, can take
upwards of three hours to create. Yet apart from the array of
skill and abilities which you can fine tune there is also the
option to alter your attributes to suit the character type that
you are trying to create. Here, in fact, is where you begin to
realise that very little has been left out in the move from paper
to computer for, with each addition you make to an attribute, you
must also make two additions to your character's negative
attributes (superstition, acrophobia, claustrophobia, avarice,
necrophobia, curiosity and violent temper) and, if that were not
enough, unlike other games your attributes seem to average 9 or
10, with 13 being the highest that any can be altered to. It may
not appeal to those of you used to attributes of 18 in everything
but then this game is designed to be more realistic and achieves
it well.

Having created your party (altered your attributes, changed your
class, chosen your gender, allocated points to skills, defined
your magical knowledge, defined your weaponry skills etc) you
begin the game in the coastal city of Thorwal in the Gulf of Prem.
The introductory pages from Gerbod's Diary in the manual provide
you with a good idea of what to do next and off you set in search
of Master Dramosch. Wandering through the town you'll encounter
many different shops, taverns, temples and other such places if
you care to look, although none stands out for you to recognise.
The automap though uses a colour scheme to show you the areas that
you have been to and this can be scrolled in any direction. With
practice you can use this to remember exactly where the best
places to visit are.

Life in the towns happily progresses regardless of your party and,
wandering round the streets, you will encounter a variety of
situations, from the supply cart which nearly runs a member of
your party over, to the young woman who wraps her arms around
another member before collapsing with a mumbled promise about not
drinking again. There are also numerous pickpockets about and once
they have your money it is futile to try and retrieve it. Of
course, as with any fantasy world, the best place to find
information is in the taverns where, for the price of a round,
much can be discovered.

Humour is also surprisingly ripe in this adventure with wry
comments appearing from various passers by and the odd event, some
of which are more subtle than others (like the shooting star
incident).

Yet when you've accumulated sufficient knowledge and have equipped
yourself with armour and weapons it's time to begin your quest
with your only lead. Having finally found Master Dramosch and
subsequently accepted his offer you can descend into the cellars
for a good old fashioned dungeon bash. Wandering down the halls in
traditional Dungeon Master style, I awaited my first taste of
combat, curious to see if the depth of character creation would
ultimately have any effect on combat. I was not to be
disappointed. Combat is handled quite cleverly in an isometric
fashion, with each character able to move and act independently.
It's a style that has been tried before and yet this time it does
seem to work well and far from being tedious allowed for greater
control of who would be subject to the attacks of the brigands who
engaged the party, and who would stand safely out of harm's way.
The computer will even take care of the fighting for you which,
whilst certainly quicker, can be a very dangerous affair for the
computer seems to have no conception of 'live to fight another
day'.

With the party's first fight over, the next aspect of the game
came to light, recuperation. In many games, resting causes all of
the party's hit points and spell points to return. They also
have an unbelievable tendency to sleep without placing any kind of
guard, but not this time. Now the party will only gain a short
amount of spent energy and spell points (although more could be
gained if you want to risk using your heal wounds skill) and, if
you wish to rest anywhere other than a tavern, you would be well
advised to place guards through the night, or suffer the
consequences!

Much of the game's features seem to stem from the complaints made
by players of previous games and another little addition will no
doubt amuse hardened gamers, for in this game you are penalised
experience points every time you save the game outside of a
temple. I'll admit it's not too worrying at later levels, but
initially at least, it can lead to you taking a lot of chances
rather than wasting your hard earned gains.

And so it goes on. I can't really do this game justice for what it
achieves, but for a true role-player (and I mean someone who plays
D&D, Warhammer or such like) this game is the closest yet to what
the game is about. My only regret is that I have never seen the
game upon which this is based.

                         * * * * * * * *

@~And here is the second review.


2.         Review and Player's Guide by Brian Burke

Despite some derisory reviews in the glossy magazines I went ahead
and procured Blade of Destiny. The programming pedigree alone is
fair recommendation. The mere involvement of Sir Tech, Thalion and
others with US Gold distributing is enough to make me sit up and
take note. That it is only the first in a trilogy based in the
mystic land of Arcania has me drooling at the mouth. Add 52 towns
and cities plus Pirate Ships and Dungeons to the recipe, stir in a
potential of 100 hours worth of gameplay and the desire to tune-in
and turn-on is irrepressible.  In brief the plot line is that you
must recover nine pieces of an ancient map from the relatives of
an old hero. The map leads to the recovery of his sword with which
you slay the 'orrible Orcs who are threatening to overrun the good
citizens of Arkania.

So what of the criticisms.

Firstly Combat.

The combat scenes are initially laborious. Whilst the sprite
graphics construction and animation are superb, and I do mean
excellent, when you've seen your characters aim a blow or cast a
spell once in a battle then enough's enough, particularly when a
majority of the blows in the early stages miss the target. The
good news for our side is that the opposition are equally inept at
landing a telling strike.

Fighting single or double brigands etc isn't too bad. The trick is
to surround the enemy and then invoke Computer Fight. The real
problem comes when you've got an army of baddies to dispose of. I
made an initial error by turning on Computer Fight and then
nipping off to watch England thrash Poland. Upon my return my
hapless band were nothing but vulture meat. Lesson learnt. I then
refought the encounter manually and 50 odd minutes later emerged
victorious. Yes, that's the bad news - 50 odd minutes.

The time taken to conclude battles can be reduced considerably by
buying Poison from a Herbal Shop and applying it to your
character's sword edge. Try Arax Poison or Toadstool Poison as a
cheaper alternative. Watch those baddies crumple and fall now!
After each battle there are goodies to be collected. Beware of
overloading though as your movement points become so restricted
that your guys just stand there as cannon fodder. Best to dump
what you've found back at a shop and then return refreshed and
lighter.

Weapons etc not collected cannot be picked up later. This feature
only applies to objects found after the battle scenario, including
weapon collection, is complete. There's lots of this activity in
the Pirate Village of Daspota where much toing and froing is
required between Daspota and Varnhome in order to sell all the
goodies you find. You won't have much trouble with money after
clearing out this town. The first person perspective graphic
display doesn't show objects but gives you a descriptive text box
instead.

One problem I did experience in mid-battle was that when I tried
to invoke "Use Item" the game simply locked up. Not a pleasing
sight when an hour or so's play in a Dungeon.

Secondly - Character Generation.

This is only a problem if you want it to be. In both Novice and
Advanced mode there is a choice of taking on pre-generated
characters. The advantage of not doing so is that you can create
your own choice of character type plus allocate points to those
attributes as you see fit. Most RPG die-hards will plump for
"rolling their own". The creation activity needs an hour or so at
the keyboard plus a mandatory reading of the extremely well
written manual from cover to cover and then some!

Herewith my recommendation for a balanced party. There are twelve
character types to choose from. I actually don't quite have this
mix, I've got a Thorwellian in place of the Dwarf, but I'm too far
along in the game to go back and restart.

Warrior - give them good sword or axe skills plus the relevant
          survival and body points. Strength and courage need to
          be high also.

NB - for every statement "him" also read "her". There's no
performance difference.

Dwarf - as for Warrior plus has poison resistance, vital for some
        Chests so give him lock skills as well.

Magician - Wisdom needed here. Ensure that you have a good combat
           spell.  Boost up the open door spell under Movement.
           Enhance the Perception spell under Clairvoyance to aid
           Dungeon mapping.  Don't stint on Arcane knowledge for
           any spellcaster.

Druid - the Healer so give them good Balm points. No harm in
        beefing up the Dance spell under the Domination category
        either.

Silvan Elf - don't neglect the Combat stats just because this guy
             can also cast Magic. Good healing opportunities also.

Rogue - here's the ace-in-the-hole for acquiring cash. Allocate
        plenty of points to Cheat, Picklock and Haggle skills.
        Pile on the Dexterity to help. Again give him Combat
        skills as well.

All the characters will be required to swim and climb in the first
Dungeon so ensure you don't have negative points on these skills
and preferably at least 2 points per. I'd suggest that more than
one character is capable of creating Light in Dungeons. Also
ensure that at least one of your magic casting characters has
Transvalis, the Teleport spell, as there's a particularly awkward
situation in an Abandoned Inn west of Daspota.

As soon as you have some cash you can retire to an Inn and have
your Magician invoke "Wand Spell". There are four "wand" stages.
The first you have. The second makes the wand a Torch thus saving
on carrying Torches, Lanterns, Oil and Tinderboxes, also saves use
of Astral (spell) Points. The third makes your wand a rope in the
appropriate situation and the fourth gives aid in casing spells
and husbanding Astral Point usage.

Ensure that one character can hunt food and has good tracking
skills.  This'll cut down your expenditure at Inns and Taverns and
keep your party supplied on the long trek to Hermits' Lake or
Plexcaer.

You can't allocate points to everything but be aware that lack of
Street Wise points means that that character's purse will be
snatched every now and then when strolling round. A prevention is
to cut along to the Bank in Thorwal and deposit your cash, only
withdrawing it when you wish to purchase something. You don't want
to weighed down with too much money in a battle anyway, or let the
weight prevent you from carrying equipment.

The real pain comes when your characters move up a level when
playing in Advanced mode. Adding to positive character points like
Wisdom, Strength and so on goes smoothly, it's when you fail to
reduce the negative ones that teeth gnashing and oath reciting
come to the fore. To think I've got to wait to amass another
25,000 experience points before I can have another go does not
make me contemplate sending Sir Tech a Christmas card this or any
other year. Spell casters are given the option of increasing Life
or Astral points when promoted.

Thirdly - Lack of real-time battles.

If you're disabled or possess the manual dexterity of a two toed
Sloth then this feature is a blessing. If not then what? I'd have
to agree that the lack of real-time fighting doesn't quite
generate that heart-in-mouth feeling that one gets from wondering
what that shuffling noise is coming from round the next bend and
where the heck can I run to if it's bigger than me, but the
strength of the storyline, the humour of the writers and the sheer
user friendliness of the menu driven control system (for me) is
sufficient to overcome this issue.

Fourthly - Lack of Printer support.

Couldn't agree more. We have umpteen character stats and umpteen
squared Magic Spells. I had to draw up a grid that showed me who
had prowess in what and which skills they were proficient in. All
very useful but I'd sooner be playing the game. If I wanted the
pencil and paper version I'd have bought that instead!

There is a colour coded on-line mapping system which considerably
aids those of us who back up with drawn versions. You will need to
keep notes of who you've seen and who you ought to go and see.
It's not essential as you can systematically visit each town and
learn who lives where but there are Non Playing Characters who
only reveal themselves or provide information once an earlier task
has been accomplished. Some towns therefore need to be visited on
more than one occasion.

Fifthly - Saved games.

Toll free saving is only permitted in Temples. These are liberally
dotted around the major towns but are not present in smaller
villages. The penalty for saving outside of a Temple is 50
experience points per character. The decision is yours! If you've
just fought a major battle and gained a couple of thousand points
but your guys are fresh out of healing herbs and low on hit points
then it's probably worth the price. There are around five or six
save positions possible which makes a nice change from some other
RPGs I've played recently.

Scattered sparingly in the game are a few Riddles, some easy and
some not, well, what I mean is that when I can't suss the answer
it's not easy!

In conclusion it can be argued that what we have here in "Blade
of Destiny" is basically an upgraded version of the SSI "Gold Box"
games, same sort of statistical dice rolling detail and so on.
Same sort of roam around the landscape as you will or complete the
game quickly if you wish scenario.  Wonderful! Move on over Krynn,
the Realms of Arcania beckon.

@~See the Hints section for some tips on the game, also from
@~Brian.