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crpgnut
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 22 May 2002
Posts: 197
Location: St. Louis |
| Prelude to Darkness (review) |
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Saw that this game was mentioned on the rpgdot news pages so I thought I'd give you a little review. Prelude to Darkness is a fantasy crpg created by an independent developer and sold as shareware. There is a downloadable demo at http://www.zero-sum.com for those of you who are interested in trying it out. I would highly recommend giving the game a look because it has some of the most interesting quests I've seen in a long time.
PtD has several conventional fantasy characteristics. You create three characters at the start of the game. There is a pre-rolled party that is quite adequate for those who want to jump right into the game. The game has turn based combat, similar to all the gold box games. Each character has a certain number of action points, based on their dexterity, with which they can decide whether to advance towards the enemy, engage in ranged attacks, or cast protective or offensive spells. There are three different types of magic: Gifts of the goddess, which is healing and protective in nature, Thaumaturgy, based on enchanting items, and the Power of Flame, which is fire-based offensive spells. Magic is not overpowered in this game, so a mage isn't going to be able to wipe out hordes of creatures with a single spell. The most outstanding part of this game, however, is the quests.
Quests, in Prelude to Darkness, is where the game shines. There isn't a single cookie-cutter quest to be found in the game so far. You know the type: My son is missing, he was near the Labyrinth of Everlasting Evil. Gee, I wonder where he could be now? The goal of all of these quests is to enter a dungeon, kill 200 monsters, and rescue the little boy who somehow lived long enough to make it to the very bottom of said labyrinth. Prelude skips this type of silliness completely. The dungeons in the game, for the most part, are single level, have only a handful of creatures, and have a logical reason for existing outside of your party's need to gain experience and loot. What Prelude does instead is create quests that make sense given the area where they occur. In the game there is a city that is holding an election. There are 3 Houses that have controlling interests in the city and a temple. The party is given a series of quests that are based on what each House focuses on: There is a military based House, a trade based House, and a knowledge based House. The temple quest is based on what that temple holds sacred. In none of these scenarios is the party led to a dungeon to kill hordes of creatures for no apparent reason.
Combat in Prelude is most often caused by the lack of a strong government. There are 3 races living in the Valley and each has its own set of beliefs about how things should be done. Because of the lack of unity, banditry has risen to epidemic proportions. Travelling between the cities is often quite hazardous. There is a food plague that has caused creatures, that are normally peaceful, to attack small parties of travellers. Combats generally do not last very long. One minor gripe that I have with combat is that the mouse doesn't stay on the target between characters. You have to refocus the mouse each time, even if the whole party is focused on killing one creature at a time. There are several combat options while fighting. The combat can be very tactical. You can choose to swing your weapon in a variety of ways: standard attack, strong attacks, which do more damage but take more action points, quick attacks, very fast but do less damage, aimed attacks, much better chance to hit but are slow. A character may be able to make 3 or 4 quick attacks in a single round but these attacks have a high chance of being absorbed by the opponents armor. How much armor a character wears also plays a role in combat. If a character is heavily armored it will slow him down significantly. You're well protected but won't get to attack as often as that guy wearing a t-shirt! Of course, you probably will only have to hit him once or twice before he goes down. His dagger won't penetrate that breastplate very well either.
Magic is still somewhat primitive in the valley. There isn't 50 different ways to fry an opponent. You have a handful of spells for each class: thaumaturge, Flame mage, or follower of the goddess. Trainers in the schools of magic aren't a dime a dozen easy. It takes dedication to learn all of the spells that are available in the valley. Talk to everyone and do their quests. You never know when you might be helping a potential teacher of magic.
Experience and skill raising is also different than many other crpgs. You do not receive experience points for killing monsters. You will never increase your pickpocket skill by fighting. Instead, skills are increased through use and as a reward for completing quests. If you hear a musician playing in the town square, go over and talk to them. He or she just might be willing to pass on a few tips to help you increase your ability. If you catch a thief trying to rob you, instead of turning them over to the guards, ask them to show you a few tricks. This is how skills are raised in Prelude. Combat skills are raised while fighting, but that's about it. Your other skills will be raised by finding teachers or by practicing them. Even a child might be able to teach you something so talk to everyone.
Prelude has a few cons that should be mentioned. The game is not completely stable but the developers are very quick to fix any errors that pop up in the game. As of release 1.41 the game is quite playable. The music in the game is not for everyone. I turned it off within a few minutes of listening, but others enjoy it immensely. Sound effects are minimal, at best, so you don't get a lot of ambience. The game is 3D and the cameras are movable. This can lead to a lot weird angles at times, so you have to
fiddle with the cameras and zoom quite a bit.
Prelude has been a fun game so far. It is definitely worth the time to download if you like turn-based combat and good quests. Those who are looking for the latest graphics or wizbang sound effects need not apply. This is a game that tries to bring out the best in what makes crpgs fun. I think it is a very worthy first effort from Zero Sum and my hat is off the Mat Williams and the gang.
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'nut |
Mon Jan 06, 2003 5:20 pm |
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HiddenX
The Elder Spy
Joined: 20 Jul 2001
Posts: 749
Location: NRW / Germany |
Thanx for the review - crpgnut. I'll try the demo next weekend.
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=Member of The Nonflamers' Guild= |
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Mon Jan 06, 2003 9:09 pm |
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crpgnut
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 22 May 2002
Posts: 197
Location: St. Louis |
quote:
Originally posted by HiddenX
Thanx for the review - crpgnut. I'll try the demo next weekend.
No problem. I'm sitting here at work bored, so this gave me something to do  I hope you enjoy the game, I am.
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'nut |
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Mon Jan 06, 2003 9:25 pm |
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crpgnut
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 22 May 2002
Posts: 197
Location: St. Louis |
Hidden,
Did you ever play the demo? Just curious...
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'nut |
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Wed Jan 29, 2003 3:42 pm |
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crpgnut
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 22 May 2002
Posts: 197
Location: St. Louis |
I'm bumping this because Prelude is mentioned on the main page. Someone may be interested...
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'nut |
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Wed Feb 26, 2003 8:00 pm |
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Namirrha
Noble Knight
Joined: 03 May 2002
Posts: 218
Location: Utah County, Utah. |
I've downloaded the demo, and I've enjoyed what little I've played of it. My biggest problem is with the demo's interface, being so dark brown that all the buttons and icons blend into each other, that even highlighting doesn't really make them visible. Is this corrected in the full version?
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Give me the shadows, shield me from the light, and I shall let nothing pass in the darkness of the night. |
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Sat Mar 01, 2003 2:43 am |
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