VRADARK'S SPHERE
(Sanchez Crew, 2018)
Hold the phone, this one's by the illustrious Sanchez dudes, up to whom I have sucked severally in recent times. Well, they do do a good game, y'know. But this one's older than most, so can it really hold a candle to their recent offerings? This is a rogue-like game, to use a term I don't fully understand. Something to do with dungeons and treasure and monsters, right? No doubt the rogueish Davester will set me straight.
Dave: "Well looky here, this looks very Rogue-y at first glance, it even seems to have some random level generation in it. And what a great inlay - I'm guessing that's Mr. Vradark with his 'dangerous toooooool' (10 points for the wizard-y reference).
OK, so having played it a bit, it's fairly simplistic. Not always a bad thing I suppose. You've basically got shooty magic potions and life potions. There's definitely some strategy involved in deciding what to pick up and when.
One thing that's driving me mad though - why oh why (oh why) (oh why) can't you make your protagonist just STAND STILL for his turn??? Sometimes it seems to be impossible to manoeuvre yourself into a position where you can get a first attack in. Meh, who knows, maybe your wizard is on roller skates or something."
Al: "At first I was afraid, I was petrified. At the thought that the Sanchezes might have produced a sub-standard game. I even splashed out 92p for the full version, outrageous!
So initially this game seems pretty basic, with enemies only moving once you do, and in a rather unanimated manner. But I should have known better than to underestimate 'da crew'. After a few goes it transpires it's rather a fun dungeon crawler, which even features new music on each level, the sort of quality touch one expects from these guys. Only problem is sometimes in the randomly generated map, the key is rather too close to the exit! Makes for an easy win though.
Apparently there's an updated version of this game out for the Spectrum Next. But let's be honest, it'll look like cr@p since it's on the Spectrum Next. Go on, sue me! It's not a REAL Spectrum..."
SCORING TIME!
Dave: "Easy there, Al! You'll get complaints if anyone's looking. Vradark's Sphere is not a bad idea (rhymes), but it's slightly frustrating and simplistic for my dungeon hack preferences."
5.5/10
Al: "Ha, little danger of that, mate! As for Vradark and his ball, I rather like it I must say. Dungeon life has rarely been so colourful and tuneful."
8/10
"Just one more thing..."
Columbo: "Ever been stuck in a dingy Spectral dungeon? Good times and bad times - spill 'em!"
Dave: "Of course lieutenant! I spent most of my formative years in (metaphorical) dungeons, and jolly nice years they were too. This is going to be a long list! In fact, I can't think of any particularly bad ones really, though I was a bit disappointed with the implementation of Knightmare, which I thought might play a bit more like the series.
Where do I start with the good ones? Well, we've got The Oracle's Cave, possibly the best (mainly) BASIC game I've played on the humble Speccy. Then there's the not-particularly-special-looking and not-particularly-well-known but incredibly engaging Out Of The Shadows. I quite enjoyed playing the two rogue-likes Master Of Magic and... err... Rogue. The former slightly more I think.
Swords & Sorcery has a fantastic atmosphere to it, and trading insults with monsters is great fun. Though you really need to figure out where those flamin' pits are on the map. I never did finish it (don't even know if you can?). However, the entire podium for this one has to go to the legend that is Steve Turner - for his offerings of Avalon, Dragontorc and Ranarama. Three great games in a nice dingy (or is it dingey? Which one's the boat?) environment..! (Wizardy) hats off to all three."
Al: "I think you've covered just about every game there, sir! I agree Swords & Sorcery was indeed a lot of fun… until you inevitably got gangrene and the game rudely crashed on you - not so funny in the days of long load times...
Classic Adventure was pretty darn dungeony albeit in text adventure form, and was indeed a classic, the original 'Adventure' being done numerous times by numerous folk. I think I even tried to make my own game using Crystal's Dungeon Master. Don't think it was quite as user-friendly as The Quill though, from what I can vaguely recall, which allowed everyone to create their own dungeon adventures so readily.
Just a shame that Dave's own Quilled efforts about our good old school days are now lost in the mists of time, since my dad went and threw out my old (copied) C60s when I went to uni, in case the FBI raided our home..."
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