Secret of the Silver Blades

The third in SSI's Dungeons and Dragons series makes some modest improvements to the engine and continues the running storyline once again. But is the third time around still fresh and new enough for discerning fans, or is this a sequel that can safely be skipped?

Another entry in the prolific Gold Box series, and while not too much has changed from its predecessors, there are some marked improvements apparent right from the get-go.  The intro itself shows this off in fine form, with some gorgeous, detailed artwork that shows off some genuine talent and makes you forget that there are still only 16 colors being displayed at a time.  It's accompanied with a surprisingly decent musical track by John Halbleib, though sadly there is still no music during the actual gameplay.

The UI has seen some overhaul too.  This was one of the first Gold Box games to implement mouse support, though it's largely academic; while you can click menu options at the bottom or select characters during the navigation screens by clicking their names, it's still more efficient to simply use the hotkeys for this purpose.  Moreover, it is unfortunately not possible to quickly target enemies in combat with the mouse, which largely defeats the purpose of even having the cursor onscreen there.  The keyboard interface has also been somewhat reworked; rather than using the archaic method of pressing PageUp or PageDown to cycle through menus, you now simply use the arrow keys, having to enter and leave a dedicated Move mode to maneuver around dungeons; not a big deal once you're used to it, but it took some adjusting after playing the first two games.

As with the previous game (Curse of the Azure Bonds), one can still import characters from the previous titles, allowing them to carry over their stats and experience points but disappointingly none of their equipment.  There is a slight bug with this, though - equipping an item that boosts a character's stats before transferring them over will cause that stat boost to become permament, which is more than a bit exploitable; passing the Gauntlets of Ogre Power around among your party before transferring will give them all 18/00 Strength and a significant advantage for the rest of their careers.  The series' common problem of giving you far too much money is still present here, with even random encounters granting enormous amounts of gold and gems.  The latter are necessary to a point, being required to activate the Well of Knowledge to get your mission objectives, but you'll still be leaving quite a few magical items and piles of platinum coins behind as you travel.

Still, at least some attempt to mitigate this is introduced; the hub town you revisit frequently throughout the game allows you to spend quite a lot of money to get some powerful magic items (Darts of Hornets' Nest, magic scrolls, wands, et cetera), and any particularly valuable things you find that you don't want to use right away can be put in storage in another building for later retrieval.  While a relatively minor feature, it nevertheless comes in handy for keeping your party's encumbrance down and maximizing their move range in battle.

Silver Blades definitely ups the ante for challenge, too.  Many maps can no longer be "cleared" of enemies, so you'll still be getting random encounters no matter how many you've faced before.  Some maps you encounter (particularly the mines) are staggeringly huge and will basically require you to make your own maps.  The level of challenge picks up right where the previous game left off too, pitting you against high-level Clerics, Magic Users and Dragons right from the start, ensuring that you'll have to make good use of your resources right from the get-go.  There is a fast-travel system in place, though as is common for video games, you must venture through a lot of dangerous territory to unlock the portals going back to the Well.

In closing, Secret of the Silver Blades is another standard sequel, with much the same gameplay as its predecessors but some slight improvements to its UI and presentation, a new set of enemies appropriate for the game's recommended level, and some minute tweaks here and there.  There are a few clever callbacks to earlier games, and though its narrative may not be the most gripping the series has seen, it's nonetheless a logical continuation and a pretty good tale to be told, especially for 1990.  If you enjoyed the first two, you'll probably continue on with this one and not regret a thing.

Developer: Strategic Simulations
Publisher: Strategic Simulations, WizardWorks
Released: 1990
Platform: Amiga, C64, MS-DOS, Mac, NEC PC-9801
Recommended Version: I have only personally played the DOS version, but they all seem to be pretty comparable in quality.  The Amiga and NEC PC-9801 versions contain some slightly higher-res graphics, sounds and short musical cues, however.

Curse of the Azure Bonds

The sequel to Pool of Radiance, which worked in some improvements from a gameplay perspective and introduced some engine improvements to the formula.  But do several months of work show off in the final product, or is Curse of the Azure Bonds just a disappointment compared to what came before?

The first game in the franchise was a success (selling over  250,000 copies across all platforms), so naturally a sequel would soon follow.  Curse of the Azure Bonds, released the following year, was a relatively standard sequel, introducing a few improvements and new features but, being based on the same engine, was almost identical in terms of design.  It is also loosely based on a book simply named "Azure Bonds", with two of the heroes of that story making a cameo at one point as temporary allies.

Some improvements do quickly show, though.  While the option to create custom portraits for your characters is gone, the game otherwise features slightly improved graphics (though still limited to 16 colors), animations and sound effects, making it a bit more visually interesting than its predecessor.  The interface is also marginally improved, most notably with the addition of a "Fix" command that causes the party to automatically use any healing spells they may have, then rest to restore them; using this once or twice is usually sufficient to heal the entire party back to full without having to manually cast all those spells yourself (though, of course, you do run the risk of being attacked while resting as per usual).  Finally, the world map has been reworked, having you travel between preset waypoints via a menu interface, though you may get attacked on the road by brigands or bounty hunters; you can sometimes avoid this by choosing to travel off the path, though this carries some risks in itself (like being attacked by monsters).

Some of the D&D rules present in the engine were updated too.  Most prominently, one can now create a Paladin or Ranger as a playable character, and each gets some innate abilities - The Paladin can Lay on Hands to heal once per day, cast some low-level Priest spells beginning from Level 9 and gets an inherent Protection from Evil effect, which gives nearly every enemy in the game a penalty on their rolls against them.  Rangers, on the other hand, get a bonus against giant enemies (more than one tile big), plus they can cast some low-level spells like Detect Magic, Faerie Fire and Invisibility to Animals.  If one is playing as a half-elf, they can also be multi-classed with the Cleric class if one wishes (though due to the old D&D1 level restrictions for all non-human classes, this isn't recommended).  Ironically, both of these make the basic fighter class all but obsolete, having basically all of their advantages and then some with no real drawbacks.  One can also "Dual-Class" human characters - essentially giving up one class for another, though regaining the abilities of the class they abandoned once their current classes' level exceeds the previous one.

Another cool feature is that one can import characters from Pool of Radiance and Hillsfar (if for some reason you played that game).  Though you unfortunately don't get to keep any equipment you earned, you do retain your stats, abilities and experience total, which, if you earned enough, can allow you to level up almost immediately as soon as you dig into this game.  The level cap is raised, letting you reach 12 with most classes (11 for mages, 10 for Clerics) and cast spells up to level 5.  As in the previous game, some are virtually useless (Protection from Good - there are very few, if any, good-aligned enemies) while others are absurdly useful (Hold Monsters, Cone of Cold and Slay Living).

Of course, being a higher-level campaign than the first, the game is significantly more challenging than Pool of Radiance was.  You'll encounter more than a few enemies that can poison you (death until they are revived by a Stop Poison spell), enemies love to spam Hold Person to disable your party and leave them vulnerable to an instant takedown, and some encounters are just downright nasty.  The most iconic representation of this to me was a scripted fight with a Beholder - always a nasty customer in D&D, and it's no exception here, as they get four attacks a turn, at least two of which will always cause instant death or petrification if you fail a saving throw.  The latter may actually be worse, as I found no way to counter that effect other than to return to a town, visit a temple and pay a hefty amount of cash to undo it.

As in the first Pool of Radiance, I never once found myself wanting for cash; enemies drop rather ridiculous amounts of gold, jewels and jewelry, and I quickly found myself having to leave behind large amounts of it just to keep my party unencumbered.  However, later in the game, one does finally get the opportunity to put some of that cash to use for things other than healing.  You can actually buy spell scrolls, wands and potions at some shops, which can prove very useful for longer dungeons where you're likely to run low on spells and not have a safe place to rest.  These can prove quite handy as well in one of Azure Bonds' new features; namely that nearly every town in the game has an optional dungeon to visit, each of which has a semi-randomized quest to complete in it.  While not nearly as complex or engaging as the main story, they nonetheless have some quite useful rewards and give a lot of XP, making them useful for powering up before the player attempts the final gauntlet.

In short, Curse of the Azure Bonds is a standard sequel, making some subtle improvements, providing a bit more in terms of gameplay and depth and telling a pretty decent story that carries on where the first left off.  The first game was lauded for its groundbreaking design, and while the sequel may not carry that same prestige, it's a well-made and worthy followup for anyone who enjoyed the original.

Developer: Strategic Simulations

Publisher: Strategic Simulations
Released: 1989
Platform: Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, C64, DOS, Macintosh, NEC PC-9801
Recommended Version: I've only personally played the DOS version, but from what I've seen, all of the various versions are comparable in quality.  The Amiga and PC-9801 versions have added music and improved sound effects,  but the latter is only available in Japanese.

Pool of Radiance

The first in SSI's famous "Gold Box" series, a short-lived but prolific franchise of RPGs that ran on a common engine and quickly became famous for their very faithful implementation of Dungeons and Dragons rules.  But is Pool of Radiance still an adventure worth undertaking today, or is it simply too dated to provide fun for D&D fans and RPG gamers in general?

As the company's name implies, Strategic Simulations was known for producing quite a lot of in-depth simulation games spanning any number of topics - wars, presedential elections, pinball games, and a numer of fictional scenarios like a post-apocalyptic battle for territory and, of course, turn-based fantasy adventures.  The last of these are best-known to RPG fans, in particular their "Gold Box" franchise (named as such because of the boxes they came in) and the surprisingly faithful adaptation of Dungeons and Dragons rules it provided.  Despite the franchise's relatively short run (lasting from 1988-1992), it spawned over a dozen games and continues to be highly regarded among fans of both D&D and computer RPGs.

It isn't hard to see why, either.  As Ultimas 4 and 5 were already out and set a staggeringly high bar for design and storytelling, they naturally had a tall order to compete with.  Thankfully they do a surprisingly good job of that, even if many of the plot's elements are relegated to a paper manual owing to disk size restrictions.  The player controls a party of six adventurers as they arrive in the city of New Phlan, which faces all manner of threats and dangers.  Naturally, they are commissioned by the local government to do things like clear slums of monster, find documents from before the fall to find out exactly what they're up against, and even perform a stealth mission or two to discover their enemies' plans.  Through all of this, they slowly unravel the mystery of Phlan and seek out the source of the evil that plagues it.

Not amazing stuff by genre standards, but it certainly gets the job done and keeps the player motivated toward completing the game.  D&D fans also found themselves right at home with its gameplay, as the engine strives to replicate almost every minutiae of the tabletop experience.  Completing quests and finding treasures gives far more experience than simply fighting mundane monsters, which sets it apart from most D&D adaptations (and RPGs in general) and discourages grinding, as there are only so many quests to complete in the game and encounters in most areas are finite.  Additionally, fighting doesn't have to be the solution to every scenario - often one can avoid battle by parleying with enemies, and their tone and spoken words can often cause them to leave peacefully.  When one must fight, combat is honestly very fun, with a top-down view, turn-based combat and surprisingly faithful adaptation of many of D&D's iconic spells, monsters and status effects, for both good and ill. 

Some less savory elements appear too.  D&D's high difficulty is evident from the get-go, with any number of things can instantly kill your characters - missing a roll for poison is immediate death, and being disabled by Hold Person, Sleep, et cetera leaves you completely helpless for an immediate killing blow.  Level Drain quickly becomes a problem too once undead enemies show up, with the only way to cure it being a spell scroll (which are in limited supply throughout the game).  Battles are staggeringly huge in scale at times (with over 50 enemies in some), so even well-equipped parties can be overwhelmed without a significant amount of luck on their side.  Other complications not implemented in many later RPGs apply too - money has weight and comes in five different values (Copper, Silver, Electrum, Gold and Platinum), which quickly makes buying jewelry, gems and so forth a necessity to free up inventory space for other items.  The game operates off of 1st Edition rules, which severely limits the level growth of non-human races in everything but the Thief class, and some iconic D&D classes like Paladins  and Rangers are not implemented in this game but would appear in the sequels (requiring the player to create new characters instead of import them from this game if they wished to use those classes).  The UI can also be somewhat unwieldy, particularly at first (utilizing the numpad, several letters and the Pageup/Pagedown keys to cycle menu choices), but it becomes second nature before long.  Finally, the game does still use a first-person, grid-based perspective for much of its navigation, which may be a turn-off to some; particularly those who dislike drawing their own maps out on graph paper.  However, there is a third-party mod called the Gold Box Companion that adds an external HUD and map to the game for easier use among many other features, so this isn't as much of a problem if playing on a modern system through DOSBox.

In short, it isn't hard to see why Pool of Radiance is a beloved classic and the Gold Box engine remains so highly regarded.  There is a staggering amount of content for discerning D&D fans and RPG players alike, and the fact that it's still quite a lot of fun to play today despite its more frustrating elements speaks to its quality.  And of course, its emphasis on telling a story over endless, brain-dead combat and skill micromanagement makes it hold up much better than most games bearing the D&D license.  Definitely worth a look, especially as you can get almost the entire Gold Box series on GOG now for a token sum.

Developer: Strategic Simulations/Marionette

Publisher: Strategic Simulations, Pony Canyon, FCI
Released: 1988, 1989, 1992)
Platform: Amiga, Apple II, C64, DOS, Mac, NES, PC-9800
Recommended Version: I've only personally played the DOS and NES versions, but most of the computer platform releases seem to be comparable in quality.  The NES version is somewhat simplified in its interface and UI design and lacks some features (like certain character class creation elements), but does a surprisingly good job retaining the feel and challenge of the computer versions.