Devil Whiskey Review
Corwin, 2004-05-25

If you're an Old School gamer, or you just enjoy those retro games, then you may be in for a real treat!!

The year was 1985 and computer games were just beginning to make their mark and be noticed. One game released that year, was destined to become an all time classic; ‘The Bard's Tale' from Interplay. Now, nearly twenty years later, a game has been released which owes its roots clearly to this forerunner of the modern RPG. The game is ‘Devil Whiskey' from Shifting Suns Studios. If you're looking for another Diablo clone, then this isn't it.

If you ever played any of the games in the Bard's Tale series, you'll know exactly what to expect; the game play is nearly identical. It has the same look and feel as the original, but with vastly superior graphics. For those of you not fortunate enough to have enjoyed Bard's Tale, perhaps a screenshot will suffice. Basically, you control a party of up to 8 characters which you create. Movement is in 3D from a first person perspective and all monsters appear as still pictures with only small sections being animated. Scrolling text, which is speed adjustable, gives complete and often humorous details about how the battle is progressing. Very retro, very Old School, but very much something that brings back a lot of wonderful gaming memories.

The story is minimal; it's very much a hack'n slash dungeon crawl, though some of the quests are long and involved. My personal favourite involves finding a special cloak; you get it early in the game and the dungeon you need to explore is very well crafted and very challenging for low level adventurers. It was a delight to play, and a relief to finish. It was also worth an incredible amount of Exp.

The game begins with character creation, often most people's favourite part of a game. Here, you can choose from nine different races and eleven distinct classes such as Warrior, Paladin, Magic User and of course the ubiquitous Bard. One new character, is the Psi-Knight; someone who can use the power of the mind to aid in battle.

Magic users fall into two main groups, the Arcanist and the Elementalist, though Paladins have some magic ability and Bards get special magical songs. Each of these two types then progresses through 5 schools of magic learning new spells every two levels. After reaching spell level 7 in each school, they may then transfer to another school. Those who played Bard's Tale will recognise the similarities once again. Each branch has different schools and different spells, though there is some overlap. Progression for an Arcanist is linear, but the Elementalist gets to choose which school to study in next.

After rolling (and re-rolling) as many different characters as you like, naming them and choosing a portrait from the gallery to represent them, it's time to form a party. You can have any number from one to eight, but it's probably best to begin with a full complement. Variety is not only the spice of life, it's also the best way to survive. Choose wisely and well. Then, it's off to adventure in the city of Rennibister.

The majority of the game takes place in the city and its many dungeons, though there are a few quests which will take you out into the wastelands. There's not a great deal out there currently, but it provides a great deal of scope for the modders to develop further adventures.

Movement is primarily by using the arrow keys, though mouse support has been added in the latest version. Be sure to check out the options for several other customisable features including the ability to share gold. You operate in a beautifully presented 3D environment which is easy to navigate. The lively background music sets both the mood and the tone. It changes smoothly when battle begins, or when the Bard is asked to play. Each piece features a different instrument and all are quite engaging.

Combat can be challenging, tactical and fun. It can occur anytime and anywhere. All monsters are represented by superb pieces of animated artwork. You are told how many you are facing, what types, and how far away from you they are. You then usually have several choices, such as Advance, Fight, or Run like a Bunny. It's all turn based, but you select each party member's course of action from an individual menu and when you're satisfied with your choices, the first round begins. All the details of every attack or spell by both your party and the monsters is then given, sometimes with humorous comments in a scrolling window. When the battle is finally over and all the monsters defeated, it's time to check out the bodies and collect the loot. This is usually quite substantial. After a few levels, money will never be a problem.

Characters progress through levels by gaining experience and seeking out trainers, who for a price will train them in new skills. Casters get new spells every two levels and these have to be purchased as well. Each new level requires more Exp than the one before. Your typical exponential RPG progression. As I said earlier, this is definitely an Old School game.

Tactics can be essential The monsters are many  varied, and usually come in waves. Some are quite easy, but others are insanely difficult and take ages to defeat. The correct placement of your party members is also very important, as only the first four can melee, the rest are dependant on ranged attacks or spellcasting.

Is there one very powerful enemy? Perhaps it might be best to cast a spell which sends them a far distance away till you have dealt with the weaker ones. I found this tactic worked particularly well in places like the Guard Tower. Beware though, some monsters are able to resist your spells.

What would a fantasy RPG be without magic and spells? Devil Whiskey has plenty of both. There are over 200 spells in the game. Some are buff spells, some attacking spells, and some just tell you where you are. There are spells to give light and others to either heal or resurrect party members. As there are no visual effects, except with the light spell, you are given the details of each effect in the scrolling window. I enjoyed reading these, as often the humour in the descriptions was far more fun than watching another pyrotechnical display of particle displacement. Spells have ranges, so selecting the appropriate spell can take some thought. They also have a mana cost and mana is not regenerated in dungeons under normal conditions. Don't cast carelessly.

What then didn't I like about the game? Well, for starters, there are several design decisions that leave me baffled. My main complaint is the levelling system. First of all, if you play a full party you likely won't get too far beyond level 30 with most of your characters. However, some classes take far longer to level up than others, and these classes, such as the monk and the Psi-Knight, are very under-powered compared to others, at least at the lower ability levels I reached with them. If they became more effective at higher levels, mine were unable to achieve this during normal game play. However, I will admit that the PK's telekinesis power could be devastating.

Far worse than the spiritual classes who were generally 2 or 3 levels lower than everyone else, were the magic users. You may remember in Bard's Tale, when a caster of any persuasion changed schools, their experience was re-set to enable them to progress more quickly through the levels. That's not how it works in Devil Whiskey. At level 13, mages may change schools, having learnt all their first choice can offer. To reach this plateau, 100k exp was needed; a not unreasonable amount. To complete the next 13 levels, a further 1.6 million exp is needed. For example, if you use two Elementalists beginning one as a Pyromancer and the other as an Aeromancer, both will complete their training at 100k exp. For the Aeromancer to now learn to be a Pyromancer, she will not need 100k exp, but 1.6m. That is neither realistic, nor sensible.  As if that weren't enough, this exponential progression dvances through 5 schools before your character is maxed out. That means you would have to reach level 65 and amass somewhere near a billion exp!! Remember, the entire game only takes you to about half that level. Unless you attempt to play with just two casters for the entire game, and that would be suicidal, there is no way short of cheating that anyone could reach the top levels promised. This is ridiculous in my opinion. If you are going to create magic classes, then by the end of the game, a character should be able to achieve the top class. Anything else, is pointless and very poor design. I would have loved to try playing an Isomancer, the top Elementalist rank, (you have to complete each of the other four first) but to achieve that was impossible. The entire levelling system, is insane and needs to be re-thought.

Another example of poor design with the magic users, was the need to buy two spells at each level. Many were redundant, and most were useless. When my Pyromancer with level 7 massive damage spells becomes an Aeromancer, she now has to buy spells that do virtually no damage and which she will never use. This may have been tolerable if the old Bard's Tale model of advancement had been used so that a caster could fly through those lower levels, but now it took 100k experience, (the same exp needed for 13 levels of your first school,) simply to get to the second level of your new school. The reward for all this effort? The opportunity to buy two useless spells. That, to me, is just silly. In fact, for some levels, there were no choices about which spells to buy, as only two were available!! By far, this was the greatest and most frustrating weakness in the game.

Not quite as annoying as the levelling issues, was the incredibly small inventory space each character had available. It was rare I could complete even one level of a dungeon before their inventory was full, and I had to march all the way back to the city to sell everything they didn't need. If this had been combined with a level up and training, it wouldn't have been too bad, but that rarely was the case. You fight through 4 levels of a dungeon and then you have to backtrack, sell, and work your  way through all the maze like corridors once more just to return to your initial point. The classic was defeating 396 Dwarfs, one of the better Easter Eggs in the game. After a great battle, my warriors could barely carry a small fraction of all the loot. Far more was left behind to disappear forever when we left the dungeon. What was the point of creating it all? At the very least, some sort of ‘Lloyd's Beacon' would have been appreciated, instead of all the useless spells I was forced to purchase.

One final design decision I don't agree with, was only having ONE save game slot. I realise that's partly to keep the game true to its roots, but was that really necessary? One corrupted save file and hours, even days of work could be lost. How would you feel when you save after winning a long tough battle, check on your characters, only to discover that one of your Bard's songs has lowered the strength of some characters to 1, while raising that of others into the hundreds, permanently with nothing you can do about it, since you only have the one save game!! It happened to me.

Let me just add that in the latest patch/version, this problem has been corrected. The people behind Devil Whiskey have been very responsive to bugs and other problems and have promised to continue to do so. This game was for me, relatively bug free. That was a most pleasant change.

What's left? There is an option in the game to create your own items; weapons, armour, potions etc. I didn't use it very much, but I did manage to create a ‘perfect long sword' that does terrific damage. It's definitely one of the features I'd like to pursue when I have more time. There are also mods being produced which will extend the life of the game considerably. One, I believe, is a complete remake of the original Bard's Tale game. Watch for our review when it's finally released.

In summary. This is a great, fun game that anyone who played and enjoyed the original Bard's Tale will love. It's very true to the original in so many ways. If fast action and whiz bang graphics are what you crave, give this one a miss. However, if you prefer challenging, turn based dungeon hacking then at least give the free demo a try. Both it and the full game which only costs $25 US for a downloaded version, (slightly more for the boxed CD and printed manual shipped to your door) are available from www.devilwhiskey.com The excellent manual comes as a PDF file, so be sure to read it, if only for a detailed list of all the spells. Who says they don't make them like they used to? With Devil Whiskey, they still do!!