WIZARDRY 6 - BANE OF THE COSMIC FORGE. from SIR-TECH  

			                Review by K.Tremaine.


   (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 ))

   After playing Eye of the Beholder I felt like indulging in more of the
  AD&D type adventures and an article in Strategy Plus stated the BANE of the
  COSMIC FORGE was probably the best CRPG (computer role playing game) to
  date I decided to purchase the Amiga version.

   This game comes on five disks, can be hard drive installed, uses the
  standard DOS and is password protected. Its 16 colour graphics show its
  PC origins, although they have more appeal and character than those used in
  Dungeon Master. As usual you have to create some player characters, six in
  this game before you can set off on the adventure. BANE has 11 races with
  the usual lot of Humans, Elves, Gnomes and Dwarves and also includes some
  unsual races such as Lizardmen, Dracons, Felpurs and Mooks. Professions
  number 14 again with the usual types but also some exotic types likes
  Monks, Ninja Bishops and Samurai. The computer generates the various
  attributes which allow entery to the various professions; a table at the
  start of the manual shows which races are best suited to which professions.
  Even if you can't get a particular profession you can change a character's
  profession later on in the game as their abilities improve.

   You can create up to 15 different characters to choose from. As your
  characters gain experience they will gain levels and about every third
  level their rank changes so a Fighter will progress from Journeyman to
  Warrior to Marauder to Gladiator to Swordsman to Warlord. The benefit that
  fighters obtain is multiple attacks per combat round and spell users
  progress to increasingly powerful spells.

   Combat is a round type where you choose the character's actions and then
  start fighting. This system is good in that it does not rely on your
  reflexes like the system used in Eye of the Beholder, however some combat
  encounters can last for 30-40 minutes which can be very depressing if your
  main fighters become paralysed or blinded in the first round. Encounters
  may involve talking or trading with NPCs (Non-Player Characters) - talking
  involves typing in sentences although the NPCs seem to respond to keywords
  rather than whole sentences. Trading allows you to obtain useful items for
  your group and so does killing monsters and opening treasure chests.
  Treasure chests are often booby-trapped and require both luck and skill to
  disarm, this is where characters with thieving skills are very helpful to
  your party. One of the strong points of Bane is that these encounters and
  treasure chests don't always yield the same items.

   Enough rambling (and you can do a lot of it in this adventure) - the main
  purpose of game is to locate the Cosmic Forge, a pen which allows the user
  to change the universe but unfortunately leaves the user cursed. In trying
  to locate the pen you will come across all the old protagonists the King,
  the Queen, the Wizard and a vast number of monsters. Bane of the Cosmic
  Forge has multiple endings which revolve around whether you have the Silver
  Cross when you use the Key of Evil. If you have the Silver Cross then you
  will be confronted with the violent endings and you will need a Priest or
  Bishop in you party to invoke the power of the Silver Cross later in the
  game. There is a further choice later to take or decline the Cosmic Forge;
  when you reach the ending you will be advised and your characters have a
  little CF notation on their statistics screen.  These endings in turn lead
  to the multiple beginnings of Wizardry 7 - Crusaders of the Dark Savant
  (now released on IMB compatibles).

   Unlike Eye of the Beholder at this point you can continue to wander around
  increasing your party's skills and collect items.  Unfortunately you cannot
  drop those items which were essential to complete some earlier sections and
  are now no-longer necessary.

   Is it worth it?

   So the big question "Is it worth $79 ?". Well I found it much more
  engaging than Eye of the Beholder and once you are used to the menu system
  (it took me three months to finally finish and also to find that you can
  bring up the menus by clicking on the use return text area). It does allow
  you to access Workbench using Amiga M and N keys.  The character generation
  and party assembly is very important as a balanced party is vital for
  success. Also many of the lethal weapons found later in the game can only
  be used by Fighters, Lords or Valkyrie and not Samurai or Ninja. Against
  that Samurai, Ninja and Monks develop Kirijutsu, the ability to strike a
  critical blow.  Bane also allows for multiple game saves from within the
  game.  You are very much involved with your characters as you have to
  assign their skill points and new spells when they progress to new levels.

   Finally Bane of the Cosmic Forge is very entertaining, it also doesn't
  take itself too seriously (Mad Frenchmen pining for their lost stuffed dog)
  and the random availability of some interesting items. It does have some
  problems such as a constant grey stone background and the exchange of items
  between your characters. These are supposed to be corrected in Crusaders
  of the Dark Savant and I am looking foreward to that much more than Eye of
  the Beholder II which is called Legend of Darkmoon. Sir-Tech also have an
  official hint book which includes some very useful information from DW
  Bradley, specifically a list of the 500 items used in the game and a list
  of the monsters that you may encounter. If you want an involving and
  entertaining adventure that will keep you coming back to play several times
  to try different strategies then you may like Bane of the Cosmic Forge.

	Note: some items need to be merged together in order to complete
	some tasks.


   (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 ))