MENZOBERRANZAN

by

S.S.I.

FORMAT: PC-PC/CD-ROM
DATE: DECEMBER 1994
PRICE: US $59.95

Yes another game for you, dear H.F.G.R.P.F. (Heroic Fantasy Game Role Playing Fans). A real Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in the series of The Forgotten Realms. While you were celebrating your victory upon the beast in a warm cozy tavern, the drow warriors attacked your village and took the villagers as hostages and slaves. Now it's time for you to seek and rescue your comrades. You will have to enter the Underdark, the Realm of the Dark Elves and Lolth their Spider Queen. The call for adventure and glory is irresistible, but many failed before you, and many more will fail. I sincerely hope that you enjoy it when your worst nightmare comes to life in a dark cave just around the corner, because that's what will happen. More than thirty types of monsters, quite a lot of spells and many different weapons, is what it is all about.

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The graphics in this game is some fake SVGA specially made to give an impression of SVGA on a VGA screen. It is a 320*400 256 colors screen. But the colors seem a bit strange and are quite dark. You can use the palette intensity in the options to try to enhance your screen, but it doesn't improve on the contrast.

The game is easy to play with an automapping device that permits you to add personal information on the map, print it, save it and so on. To fight you simply have to place your cursor on the foe you want to hit and all the available players will strike him.

Management of your team is really easy. The required number of experience points for the next level is shown and everything else is done by the computer. The only thing you have to do yourself is to choose which spells your mage is going to memorize and which spells the cleric is going to pray for. In fact, this game isn't too complex in its handling so you can focus on the important aspects: fighting and discovering.

The soundtracks that come with the game are quite nice and give a good feeling to the game. But I was disappointed by the slow speed of the game. It began in the intro which is good but slow. Then it was in the character's generation which also contains bits of animation like the intro. Fortunately you can only generate two characters (even if it is a bit few to personalize your team). One of the good options in the game is the choice between step-walking and smooth-scrolling, but it is a pity that it was so slow.

The other thing that disappointed me was the sprites for the monsters. Even if there are many monsters, they do not have many sprites to animate them and it is quite visible. You may be tempted to use the dither options to blend the borders of the sprites with their surrounding colors, but the effect is strange and once again the slowness reappears.

Conclusion:

This is a role playing game that is not too complex, very easy to play, with all the necessary features like automapping, nice sounds and music, but a bit slow. The main action is found in the underground tunnels but there are also parts in the open air for the surface dwellers.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

386 DX-40 MHz or better,
Min 4 MB memory,
MS-DOS 5.0 or later,
Hard drive required with 13Mb free disc space,
Double speed CD-ROM drive or faster,
SVGA 256 color graphic card and monitor,
Microsoft Mouse or 100% compatible,
Aria, Sound Canvas, Spundscape, Wave Blaster, Soundman Wave, SW 32/GW 32, Gravis Native mode, Sound Blaster family (except AWE) and 100% compatibles.

Ratings and Publishers

                                    Mindscape UK Ltd,
 GRAPHICS ------------------ 80%    Priority House, Charles Avenue,
 SOUND    ------------------ 78%    Maltings Park, Burgess Hill,
 MUSIC    ------------------ 75%    West Sussex, RH15 9TQ, England.
 GAMEPLAY ------------------ 80%    Tel: +44-(0)1444-246333
 INTEREST ------------------ 85%
                                    S.S.I. Inc.,
                                    675 Almanor Avenue,
 OVERALL ------------------- 80%    Sunnyvale, CA 94086-2901.
                                    Tel: 408-737-6800