DRAGON WARS 

 DRAGON WARS is the third computer game released under Interplay
Productions' own label. (NEUROMANCER, a critically acclaimed
adventure game with CRPG elements, and BATTLE CHESS, an animated
chess game, were the first two.) It should also be noted that
Interplay created the popular BARD'S TALE series, as well as an
innovative CRPG, WASTELAND. Although DRAGON WARS allows you to use
modified versions of BARD'S TALE characters, it reminds me more of
WASTELAND than BARD'S TALE. (This review is based on the Apple II
version; IBM-PC and Commodore 64/128 version notes follow.) 

 In DRAGON WARS, your characters are awarded skill points (as in
WASTELAND), after accumulating enough experience to warrant level
increases. These points can be spent on a variety of different
skills or attributes. The various magic classes possess skills that
must be awarded skill points before they can be used, and your
spells must be learned by finding and using the appropriate spell
scrolls for each class. Many puzzles in the game are solved by
properly casting the correct spell, by using skills like "Climb," or
by relying on attributes like "Intelligence." 

 The world created by DRAGON WARS is called Oceanus, a place dotted
with thousands of island kingdoms; Dilmun is the particular kingdom
of concern in this game. The adventure begins in the prison city of
Purgatory within Dilmun, where your party of four has been stripped
of all clothing, items, and weapons. Only through courage and
persistence will they survive, find an armed volunteer to join
them, gain armor, weapons, and magic spells, and escape Purgatory. 
Then, they can pursue and take revenge on Namtar, the Beast from the
Pit who has usurped the former ruler and caused all of them to be
thrown into Purgatory. 

 The action of the game is non-linear. For instance, there are five
different ways of escaping Purgatory, none of which leads to a dead
end. If you sell your characters into Slavery, you may soon find
them in chains in the depths of a Salt Mine, but this can be
overcome, too. There is a point about midway through the game where
you can't make further progress until your characters have fought a
key battle with some pirates, but apart from that, there is no fixed
sequence of events. Your characters will have to eventually find and
confront Namtar, and in order to do so, should have as many magic
spells, items, and skill points as possible, but they only need to
find one key item to get into his tower. 

 Unlike the BARD'S TALE series, DRAGON WARS is not excessively
difficult to map. You're given a wonderful, 3-D auto-mapping
screen, and you spend about half of your time in non-confining
cities and forests above ground. (The other half is spent mostly in
small, single-level dungeons.) The puzzles are only moderately
difficult, but they do force you to think through the problems
carefully. According to one of the game's designers, DRAGON WARS
should take some 40+ hours to complete. However, it took me well
over 100 hours, and among those who were playing the game at the
same time, I was just the second person to finish! 

 The Apple II version requires 128K of memory and double hi-res
ability. The disks are not copy-protected and the game can be
installed on a hard drive. The game moves quickly with a minimum of
disk swapping, for those of you who have only one floppy drive, but
it will make use of two floppy drives automatically if they're
present. You must make copies of the six sides (three disks) to play
the game. You should also have an extra copy of Side One on which to
store a backup of your saved game. For the most part, the interface
is comfortable to work with. 

 DRAGON WARS was designed by Paul Ryan O'Connor and Brian Fargo. The
programmer was Bill Heineman, and Todd J. Camasta provided the
artwork. They and the other members of Interplay's staff deserve
applause for producing an excellent CRPG in the best tradition of
role-playing games. Highly recommended! 

 IBM-PC VERSION NOTES 

 The IBM version of DRAGON WARS is supplied on two 5-1/4" and one
3-1/2" floppies. The game consists of just three files: DRAGON.COM, 
DATA1, and DATA2. There is a fourth program to import characters
from BARD'S TALE I, II, and III. Because of this structure, the game
should be very playable on floppies, although I didn't do so. 

 DRAGON WARS supports CGA, EGA, MCGA, VGA, and 16-color Tandy
graphics modes, and requires only 256K of memory to run. It's very
nice in this age of bloated, slow IBM software to find a program
that is so compact and fast. There is no copy protection beyond that
used by the "paragraph look-up" system. The paragraphs supply most
of the information needed to play the game. 

 The IBM version is more than just a port of the original game. Some
minor enhancements have been made in play mechanics. For example, 
anything that has a price can be safely sold. 

 DRAGON WARS doesn't support any sound cards, but the sound effects
on the PC speaker are superb. When your characters are hit, you hear
a realistic scream of pain. And you hear the swish of the arrows as
they fly toward their target. The roar of the Phoeban dragon is very
impressive. The only negative aspect about the sound effects is that
there aren't more; however, the ones that do exist really enhance
the game. Additional sounds would be icing on the cake: DRAGON WARS
is a superb entertainment product for the IBM. 

 COMMODORE 64/128 VERSION NOTES 

 The Commodore 64/128 version of DRAGON WARS is a top-drawer
package, worthy of mention in the same breath with everything else
Interplay has created during the past few years (the BARD'S TALE
series, WASTELAND, BATTLE CHESS). Troy Miles had much to do with
converting the original Apple IIe program to the C64. (He also wrote
Interplay's NEUROMANCER.) 

 DW's graphics are excellent, the keyboard interface is smooth, the
auto-mapping feature is handy, and the "paragraph" idea is as neat
here as it was in WASTELAND. The program is not copy-protected, the
save option works anywhere, and BARD'S TALE characters can be
transferred to Purgatory and Underworld. 

 Single-letter keystrokes control the game: I, J, K, and L move the
party; other keystrokes Cast spells, Use skills/items/attributes, 
toggle combat Pictures, Save the game, toggle the automap feature, 
and bring up the character view screens. 

 From the Utilities screen, you can transfer BARD'S TALE I, II, or
III characters, and use the copy option to make backups. You may
play with the characters that are included, or create your own. 

 The DRAGON WARS package comes with three unprotected disks (five
sides), a complete instruction manual, C64/128 Reference card, and a
poster that duplicates the cover on the box. 

 DRAGON WARS is another example of Interplay's creativity and
ability to make an 8-bit machine hum. Although it sometimes seems
-- okay, it _always_ seems -- that CRPGs are a dime a dozen, most of
them unfortunately don't even come close to Interplay's products. If
you refuse to purchase DRAGON WARS, you'll miss out on skill-based
role-playing at its best. 

 DRAGON WARS is published by Interplay Productions and distributed
by Mediagenic. 

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