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Title: Ancient Domains of Mystery, version 0.99 Gamma 4 
Type: Roleplaying Game 
Author: Thomas Biskup (Amiga port by Jochen Terstiege) 
Requirements: Hard disk, 2MB RAM (020+ version available)  

This is a roleplaying, but not one with pretty graphics, nice interfaces, 3D dungeons... this is completely text based. There is a map on screen represented by text characters, like ANSI graphics. The game is controlled by a whole load of key presses (the game's ported from the PC - if it weren't for the reassuring screen bar at the top, you'd swear you were playing a DOS game...)  

But does that mean I don't like this game? Certainly not! This game is excellent! The list of commands looks formidable at first, but you soon pick it up, and there's some online help too.  As for using text to represent the map, you soon get used to it. It's fairly obvious what the different characters represent when you see them in context with the rest of the map.  

The game sees you as an brave adventure setting out in a dangerous part of the world to rid the place of evil. Character generation is quick, you just select the race, sex and profession  of your character. Although this may seem limited, there are plenty of races and professions to choose from, like Humans, Elves, Trolls, Orcs; and Fighters, Wizards, Thieves, Barbarians... and plenty more.  

One thing I really like about this game is the 'rules' and statistics that govern your character. It really annoys me the way computer roleplays seem to make everything really simplified,  some just having 'Hit Points' as a defining quality, and maybe a few more stats if you're lucky. The only exceptions I know being the Dungeons and Dragons games, and MegaTraveller... but this was because they were taken from the actual 'real' roleplaying games.  

As anyone who has done some real roleplaying will know, a typical game will have plenty of basic statistics, along with a whole load of skills to learn - and plenty of game rules to go with them. Of course, this makes it complicated, but with a computer, the computer could take care of all of that, so if anything, there's an excuse to make more detailed rules - not to simplify them!  

Your character has a host of stats, skills to learn, and skills. Encumbarance rules for how much you can carry are a perfect example - if you carry too much, you get more strained, until eventually you can't move at all. The computer can do this all automatically, where as in real roleplays, it's a bit of a nightmare keeping track of how much each character is carrying!  

ADOM sees you in control of one character, rather than a party - this is just as good. I think you can get 'comrades' - but I haven't got that far yet...  

You explore the lands, talk to people and learn of quests to go on. You then enter dungeons and other places in the wilderness to complete these quests. Although all the places in the wilderness are the same each game, dungeons are randomly generated each game, which adds to the lastability of this sort of game.  

Of course, you get experience points, and can improve your skills as time goes on. But the game is not kind - you will die often, especially early on. Starving, getting poisoned, or maybe encountering a rather strong monster - it can all happen.  

One interesting 'feature' of this game is that although you can of course save games, when that character dies (or you quit, whatever), the save game file is deleted, so you cannot play from  your last save position, you have to start all over again! There is a sneaky way round this - just save the game, then make a copy of the save file, which you can then rename to continue the game if you die... but it is annoying to have to do this. This is probably purposefully done, maybe to make it more realistic, but I think it would be better if you didn't have to start all over again, as otherwise you would get bored of playing the earlier bits in the game over and over again, when you could be playing exciting bits later in the game. Just a thought.  

But nonetheless, this is a great game, and proof that graphics, sound animation are not at all necessary to give playability, or even create some atmosphere.  

I have to say that this game has a lot more potential than it currently has... what I have always wanted to see is a game much more like a real roleplay. ADOM has a 'world map' of just a small area - just imagine a much large area, were cities/towns/villages are randomly generated just like the dungeons, and even quests were randomly generated. ADOM as it is is the perfect 'game engine' to build on to create such an engine. And in a way, lack of graphics is useful, as randomly generated locations are easier to describe with text than graphics!  

The author says the C source code will be released with version 1, so we may well see ports to every other platform.  

ADOM - a game that no roleplayer should be without.  

@{"b"}Mark Harman@{"ub"}   
 
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