Path: menudo.uh.edu!menudo.uh.edu!usenet From: kennys@terapin.com (Ken Sequeira) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: REVIEW: Black Crypt Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.games Date: 16 Nov 1992 03:50:41 GMT Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 162 Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Distribution: world Message-ID: <1e75qhINN5ug@menudo.uh.edu> Reply-To: kennys@terapin.com (Ken Sequeira) NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu Keywords: game, dungeon, adventure, role-playing, commercial [MODERATOR'S NOTE: This review was updated slightly on November 24, 1992. Look for "MODERATOR'S NOTE" to see the updates. - Dan] PRODUCT NAME Black Crypt BRIEF DESCRIPTION This is a game of the Dungeon Master genre. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Electronic Arts Address: P.O. Box 7578 San Mateo, CA 94403-7578 USA Telephone: (415) 571-2787 The game was designed and programmed by Raven Software. LIST PRICE $49.95. I paid $39.95 retail. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS The game comes on 3 non-copy-protected disks. You must have at least 1 megabyte of RAM to run the game. Other than the RAM requirement, there are no other special hardware or software restrictions. EA claims that the game runs on all Amigas and all versions of the operating system up to 2.0. I dispute this, as I could not get Black Crypt nor the install program to work correctly under 2.0. Under 1.3, the game and install program ran flawlessly. [MODERATOR'S NOTE: I have received e-mail from two people who were able to run Black Crypt under Kickstart 2.0 on Amiga 500 and 3000 computers. Apparently, the game requires a lot of CHIP RAM. If you have only 512K CHIP RAM, you may have trouble running the game from your hard drive. You may have to boot on the game, or play immediately after booting. - Dan] COPY PROTECTION Black Crypt uses a manual based copy protection scheme that is nicely integrated into the game. Throughout the game there are plaques on the walls that you can read, at various points in the game in order to preceded you must answer a question from a plaque. The game installs on a hard drive and comes with a hard drive install utility. I could not get the install utility to work correctly under 2.0; it would copy the first disk fine but, would fail after that. The hard drive utility works fine under 1.3. If you will be running the game from a floppy-based Amiga, you will need a blank formatted disk for your saved games. Since the disks are not copy protected, copy all the game disks, and run it from the copies. REVIEW Black Crypt is a 3D, real-time Dungeon game. It follows the genre of previous games like Dungeon Master and the Eye of the Beholder series. The game consists of 28 levels of monster bashing, magic throwing, puzzle solving mania. Now, don't go "OH! WOW! 28 levels!" -- there are many levels that consist of only a few grids. There are roughly 17 serious levels. The interface is very intuitive and easy to grasp, after the first level it will become second nature. I especially liked the magic system, which consists of finding spell books throughout the game. When you learn the spells they appear in a graphic of a spell book. To cast a spell, just click on the spell and it appears in the spell stone (ready window) ready for casting. The game graphics are very nice, with different levels having completely different color schemes and designs. This helps the game environment. The screens are drawn in 64 colors (extra half-bright) which are used quite effectively. The monsters are nicely drawn and animated. The sound effects are good, about as many as you should find in a dungeon: the usual grunts, slamming doors, and monster foot steps. The object of the game is to defeat Estoroth the evil cleric gone bad (sound familiar?). He was defeated long ago and sealed in a crypt, but the crypt has sprung a leak; Estoroth may get out, and if he does, it's curtains! You job if you decide to accept it (no, your computer will not self-destruct in 5 seconds) is to gather four buddies and go to the crypt and cause Estoroth and his buddies some bodily harm. Your path is littered with many creatures, puzzles, and traps. The game is difficult but, not impossible, and the maps at the end of the manual are indispensable. It took me about 2 1/2 weeks of playing every day to win the game. I did need a few tips, though: I could not solve it cold. To defeat Estoroth, you will need four artifacts. Watch the opening sequence (3rd screen) for a big tip and read the "History of the Black Crypt" in the manual for some useful information. If you do not obtain the four artifacts, you can beat on Estoroth all night and not put a scratch on him. LIKES AND DISLIKES There's not much to dislike here gamewise. Maybe more monsters to fight and a pause button would be nice, but overall they did a nice job. [MODERATOR'S NOTE: I have been informed that the game does have a "pause" feature which is explained on page 9 of the manual. - Dan] I did have some quality control problems. Game disk 3's sliding metal protective clip was broken off and laying in the box; I can't see how anybody could miss that. I was able to pop it back on make a copy of the disk. I could see someone destroying the disk trying to get it back on. Normally, I would chastise a developer for the game breaking under 2.0, but since the game installs on a hard drive and works with accelerators, I'm not as harsh. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS It's understandable that people will want to compare Black Crypt to the veteran Dungeon Master. Visually, Dungeon Master does not compare to Black Crypt, and gamewise there will be arguments. I would say that Dungeon Master and Chaos were more difficult than Black Crypt. Not to say Black Crypt was easy, it just had better access to water and food. Overall, Black Crypt is a better game. BUGS I could not find any bugs in the game. CONCLUSIONS Generally, the game is very good and will provide you with hours of entertainment. If you like dungeon games, add this one to your collection. My 3 year old son loved the game; he would sit on my lap for long periods of time and just watch me do battle and explore. Not too many games have done that. I will use a rating system based on numbers, with 5 being the best and 1 the worst. 5 - Excellent 4 - Very Good 3 - Playable 2 - Should have bought something else 1 - Took to the cleaners Black Crypt overall rating: 3.9 (very good) Graphics 4.5 Sound 3.0 Documentation 3.5 Playability 4.0 Intangibles 4.0 COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1992 Ken Sequeira. All rights reserved. --- Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu General discussion: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu