DUNGEON HACK Reviewed by Paul A. Hardy on a PC. Minimum Requirements: 386/25 CPU (or greater) 4 MB of RAM Dos 5 (or later) SoundBlaster Pro (or 100% compatible) soundcard. DUNGEON HACK is available with four other AD&D games on PC CD-ROM in the TAKE FIVE DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS ULTIMATE FANTASY pack, by SSI. This game can easily be installed in WINDOWS 95/98, although you will probably be required to attune your machine's Virtual Memory settings before installation. * * * * * DUNGEON HACK is a single-character Role-Playing Game set in the "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" (AD&D) Forgotten Realms game world. It uses the "AD&D 2nd Edition Rules" and, as its name suggests, features plenty of underground action as you battle monsters to complete your quest. Your mission is to collect a magical orb from the depths of a gloomy dungeon, gaining new items, weaponry and spells on the way and slaying monsters aplenty to gain experience points to make your character better in his chosen profession. To begin with, you will have to create an AD&D game character - or select one of the 22 pre-created ones - to adventure through the game with. Most of the pre-created characters are warrior types (Fighters, Rangers, Paladins or multi-classed warriors) and, whereas they are all perfectly capable of completing the game with, it is much more fun to create your own and tailor the character to the way you wish to play the game. Creating a character is very simple. Select a gender and from one of the six races (Dwarf, Gnome, Half-Elf etc.) and seven character classes (Mage, Cleric, Thief, etc.) exactly what your character will be. Non-human characters can become multi- classed if required, so you could for instance create a Halfling Fighter/Thief, although there is no provision for human dual- classed characters. Likewise, there are no Specialist Mages allowed, so you cannot create a Necromancer, Illusionist or Enchanter, etc. Once gender, race and class are determined, you are allowed to generate the character's ability scores in true AD&D fashion. These scores are Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, Charisma and Hit Points, which can be modified as you wish, to either match a favourite tabletop AD&D character's statistics, or boost them all to maximum to make things easier for yourself later on. After doing this, you may select your character's alignment (ie. their ethical view in the world) and pick a picture portrait for the character, as well as giving them a name of your choice. Your character is now totally created, and is ready to begin dungeon delving! The game engine is just like the one used in the EYE OF THE BEHOLDER games series. The screen is split between the adventure window depicting a 3D view of the dungeon, and the character details section, which displays your character statistics and can be toggled to his/her backpack items too. Icons to move your character, what is in his/her hands and a small auto-map (which can be increased to full screen) showing where you have explored on the current level are also available all the time on- screen. Movement through the dungeon is made via mouse or keyboard, and each click or keypress moves your character ten feet forward in the direction they are facing. There is a large menagerie of AD&D creatures on offer in the dungeon, many of whom are specific to the Forgotten Realms setting. Carrion Crawlers, Ankhegs, Xills, Slithermorphs, Ettins, Spirit Nagas and a whole range of other creatures inhabit the underground area you are exploring, and all will either have to be slain or fled from, as there is no parleying in the game. Everything you meet is hostile, and you are alone all through the expedition too, as there are no Non-Player Characters (NPCs) to recruit or interact with like there are in the EYE OF THE BEHOLDER series, which is rather a shame. Combat is quick and easy and entails placing a weapon in-hand and right-clicking on it to swipe. The same method is used to shoot a bow if you have one, and have arrows available in your quiver to fire. Some of the monsters can absorb tremendous amounts of damage, so missile fire and offensive spells are great for softening up tough opponents. There are a large number of items to find, some of which are magical. If you have a Mage character with the "Identify" spell, you will have a distinct advantage here, as it will tell you whether an item is magical or cursed, and if it has any bonuses or penalties. Non-Mage characters have a much tougher time of things, as they will have to find a magical spy-glass item to identify other equipment (just as the "Identify" spell does) and the spy-glass itself can only be used a set number of times before its charges are spent and it vanishes. This naturally makes things very difficult for non-Mage characters, as when a new item is found it is a matter of having to save the game, equip the item and - if it is cursed - restoring a previously saved game to continue without the item in question. It can at times become tedious. A wide variety of offensive and defensive Clerical and Mage spells is on offer in the game for these character types, and must be prayed for or memorised in true AD&D fashion. Although you begin with only a little magic - if you are playing a magic-using character - more spells can be gained on scrolls found in the dungeon, to be cast outright or copied into your character's spellbook if you are playing a Mage. All spells are from the "AD&D Player's Handbook", and seem to work quite authentically. Experience points are gained for killing monsters, although the totals gained are often wildly different to those acquired for slaying identical creatures in the tabletop version. For instance, killing a Wyvern in DUNGEON HACK will only gain you 660 Experience, as opposed to the 2,000 Experience gained for slaying the same creature in the table-top version of the game. Experience points are split for multi-classed character faithfully though, and Racial Level Maximums are also adhered to. Thus a Dwarven Fighter/Cleric cannot advance beyond levels 15/12 respectively. Humans enjoy unlimited level progression, and I would think this allows human characters to advance as far as Level 20 in all classes. DUNGEON HACK is not a game to test the little grey cells too much though, as the only puzzles revolve around finding special keys to open certain doors. This is all well and good, given the combat-heavy nature of the game, but personally I would have liked a few in-game quests to undertake outside the main one to collect the orb, rather like those featured in Interplay's BALDUR'S GATE. Slaying monsters, finding treasure and gaining experience points is good fun, don't get me wrong, and is in essence what AD&D is all about on computer, by myself I would have liked to be able to use my intellect to solve some puzzles as well. The game as it stands can become very repetitive without a few riddles to solve. Okay, the scenery and monsters on each dungeon level are different, but the principle of "slay and collect" is still the same regardless. What does set DUNGEON HACK aside and makes it far more addictive than it would otherwise have been is the option to specify the type of dungeon you wish to explore. This can only be done right at the beginning of the game after creating or selecting a character, and cannot be modified once the game begins proper. You are given the choice of selecting an Easy, Medium or Difficult dungeon to explore, or can Custom build a dungeon to your specific requirements. The Custom option is wonderful, allowing you to select how many dungeon levels you will have to traverse (between 10 and 25 - with the orb always being on the lowest level) as well as specifying averages for the amount of monsters, treasure, food, magical traps (if any), illusionary walls (if any), hint scrolls and the frequency of doors requiring keys. Even the combat toughness of the monsters you encounter can be adjusted, as well as the power of your spells and how much damage on average poisons will inflict. Experience Level draining Undead creatures can be switched on/off too, depending on how much of a challenge you wish to let yourself in for. And, if you wish to make things even harder, you can even have evil magic-using creatures patrolling the dungeon too, which are even superior to the creatures which can paralyse or poison you with a successful hit. Upon its original release in 1994, DUNGEON HACK was probably hailed as a great game, Six years on it is sadly showing its age. The graphics are functional without being brilliant and the sound, although minimal and restricted to such things as doors opening, swords slashing and potions being swallowed, is adequate. By today's standards then, DUNGEON HACK's graphics and sound is nothing to write home about and, in these post BALDUR'S GATE/PLANESCAPE: TORMENT days, the repetitive nature of the gameplay may be off-putting to most players too. Gamers of today would not consider DUNGEON HACK to be a classic by any means, but the ability to modify the dungeon to suit your specific needs and the fact it boasts the almighty AD&D game rules system are two reasons the game may see the light of day every six months or so for a quick dungeon delve. It's just a pity you are restricted to solely underground adventuring, a single character and only the one quest to complete! GRAPHICS: 70% (Functional but dated by today's high standards) SOUND: 50% (Minimal, but does what it must) PLAYABILITY: 85% (Good fun for all AD&D players by themselves) LASTABILITY: 45% (Once completed, it may see the light of day every six months or so) OVERALL: 65% (A good, old-fashioned AD&D game from yester-year!) - o -