Bloodwych

Copyright : Image Works | Reviewed by : Bill

As the people of the Bloodwych awake to a new dawn, they find a stranger in their midst - from one of many races has has come. His task; to halt the demon that lies dormant within the Castle of Bloodwych.

Graphics

Game graphics are very good and colourful although a bit CPU intensive. The performance drops in 2 player mode, the good-old Z80 trying its best to handle the 3D environment! The only drawback is that the enemies are the same avatars as the predefined characters with different colours - there are no "monsters" like the ones we find in other RPGs.

Sound

Game sound consists only of some sound effects when you open a door or casting a spell

Gameplay

Possibly the best RPG ever released for the CPC, Bloodwych came out when 16bit computers and their games where starting to dominate the market. Although the 16bit version was nothing exceptional, especially compared to games like Eye of the Beholder (released the same year), its 8-bit version is really impressive. It has many innovative features for a 8-bit computer RPG:

• Point and click user interface: you use a mouse pointer for selecting players, manipulating objects, casting spells etc. and clicking on on-screen icons to perform actions. The mouse pointer is usually controlled by keyboard (redefinable)

• Real time adventuring through dungeons: Enemies are moving freely and can sneak on your team, using spells and missile weapons from a distance.

• Many Spells are animated and there are even area affecting spells which you can use to set traps

• Interaction with the environment: Objects can be picked up by clicking on them on screen or dropped on the ground, doors are opened by having the appropriate key in hand on your inventory and clicking on the door. You can talk with characters you meet and buy,sell or offer objects.

• Simultaneous game by two players: Each player controls a team of up to 4 adventurers and the screen is splitted horizontally in two parts. Each team can move freely in the dungeon. The players can cooperate e.g surround a difficult enemy to kill him. If one team dies the other can collect their remains (bones on the ground) and ressurect them in a special "revival room".

You begin by selecting your 4 adventurers among 16 predefined characters. There are 4 classes (represented by symbols like spades,hearts etc) and 4 schools of magic (represented by 4 colours). In order to use all available spells you must choose a different colour for each character (eg red for fighter, green for wizard etc).

Every character can use magic, although melee types don?t gain much spell points. You gain levels and you learn spells while you sleep. Spells are selected from a spell book, which has all the available spells written in rune letters. You select the rune word for the spell you want to cast. There is also a bar to select the power of the spell. If i remember correct there are 8 different spells per spell class (32 total)

Comments: Bloodwych is a dungeon exploring game. You complete a level by defeating opponents and by solving puzzles, opening doors, avoiding traps etc. It is a really huge game. Around the same time i was helping a friend of mine to play Eye of the Beholder on the Amiga and i had the task to draw the level maps while he was playing. In Bloodwych, i did the same because both games didn?t have an automap feature (a real nuisance) and i can tell you Bloodwych is double as big as this famous game. There are around 20 big and 10 or more smaller dungeons to explore before you complete it!

If you like RPGs and especially dungeon exploring this is the game for you! Otherwise it is hard to sit through such a big game. Be warned that it is rather difficult and there are a lot of puzzles to solve in order to proceed.