Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away.....
Wizard's Crown came out in 1985, and yes, i was playing it back then.
Little did i know that this game along with it's sequel, The Eternal Dagger, were pretty much the Adam and Eve of fantasy games beyond pen and paper D%D.
I recently found a download for this old classic for the PC, and was surprised to see it worked on my laptop with only a few issues, which is what prompted this review.
Although i had played text-based games previously (which was pretty much all that was on offer), Wizard's Crown - along with paper Dungeons and Dragons - reinforced in no uncertain terms, that i was born to be a gamer.
The Eternal Dagger followed, and then the vast D&D series for the PC, the excellent Ultima series (of which Ultima VII : The Black Gate, was the crowning glory), and the equally excellent X-Com series.
But Wizard's Crown was more or less the spark, and to this day this ground-breaking game offers rewarding tactical game play.
The premise is very simple in Wizard's Crown : make the town safe, build experience and gain magical items from a host of different foes, and then delve deeper into the ruins to the south as you seek out the Wizard's Crown.
In the town's residential district you will find thugs, beyond that in the slums will be added assassins and thieves,and outside the relative safety of the town and on the road to the north can be found larger parties of brigands.
The terrain is not just window dressing, and has a direct relation to what you might encounter in any given area.
Not only that, but encounters become more common at night.
Where the town you begin in and the road and field area to the north allow you to grow in experience and power, it is the vast ruin to the south where you will eventually spend most of your time once your party (of 8 characters) is strong enough.
Travel too far south too soon however,and you will find yourself overpowered by denizens you are not yet equipped to defeat.
Experience gained from killing foes can be spent on primary attributes (strength, dexterity or life at a ratio of 100xp to 1 point), but initially you will want to spend your upon skills such as weapon proficiencies, karma (for healing),cast spell (for sorcerers), as well as skills such as evaluate magic (identifying any magic items you may find) and search (thief only ability which helps you find valuable and magic items among your foes treasure trove).
My advice for anyone who tries this game is read the online manual first (browsing it should take 10-15 mins) so that you know the basics about tactical options in combat, spells and so on.
You will find yourself going back to it to check things while you play, and especially when the game asks you a question regarding the manual which you need to answer to continue (ctrl-alt-del game to access internet while playing).
If you can look past the ancient graphics, most should find a lot of satisfaction in the tactical combat, something that takes on an extra dimension once your sorcerers are good at casting, and even more so once you increase in dexterity - so you then have the option of retreating to abandoned houses before the creatures are able to engage you in combat.
This offers much stronger defensive options.
Enjoy!