Demon's Winter A Game No One Will Remember, A Game I Can Never Forget
Dec 02 '00
This review isn't for the write off, but this is the only way I can review this great game. To state that this RPG is a classic would be an understatement. This is first generation graphical RPG. Demon's Winter was made by SSI, before they got the rights from TSR to make computer D&D games. You can tell that the D&D games come from the same format because the graphics are pretty much the same. Though that doesn't say much for the D&D games it does for Demon's Winter. The fact that SSI was able to sell games for ten years on the same basic format means this game was ahead of its time. Either that or the D&D titles sold on D&D's name. DW(as I'll call it from now on) is actually a sequel to Shards of Spring. I never was able to find the first one so I can't say anything about it. Maybe it was actually better, or more innovative, but it would be all guessing on my part. I think Shards of Spring was made around 1980 and DW around 1982. I lovingly played it on my Commodore Amiga 500. That machine was so far ahead of its time. It took consoles over ten years to catch up to it, the only problem was needing 4+ disks for a long game.
Ok what actually made DW so great? The graphics were good for their time. Now they would be compared to the original Nintendo, but for circa 82 that isn't bad. The story-line was good. But the game-play was amazing, everything could be custamized. In my book game-play is the most important factor in RPGs. I absolutely love it when the characters are YOURS to do with as you wish. Latest gen RPGs suck in this character. It is like playing D&D with pregenerated characters. What is the point? Half the fun is rolling a character up and molding him/her into the form you see fit. DW allowed me to do that with each and every character. And it never rail-roaded me along.
SSI has always been a great maker of strategy games, this bleeds through into DW and, into its offspring, the D&D titles. Though it probably wouldn't sell now, it was one of the most fun formats for combat I have ever seen. Each fight IS a battle. You can't sit there and hold the same button to win. But you have control over your characters, and you can see what is happening around you. The combat was handled in an over head view, completely turn-based. Each character has movement points which is based on their dexterity. Each attack takes a certain number of points, as does casting spells or other abilities. Heavy armor reduces the points which makes sense as they are heavier. Certain classes can use different weapons, but for the most part it is determined by the strength of the character. A Troll fighter will probably be able to use heavier weapons and armor then a Elf wizard, makes sense. There is unarmed combat and a huge variety of weapons, everything from axes to flails to broad swords. Not to mention the naval combat is actually naval combat. Something I have seen in NO RPG since. Almost 20 years later and no one has thought of making the naval combat realistic! In DW the only enemies in the water are other ships. You shoot them with your canon and they do like wise to you. Ok it wasn't awe inspiring, but it was realistic. It probably was the worst part of the game, but it was still better then what newer RPGs are doing today.
The magic system was damned cool. There were two types of wizards, one was the mage and the other a sorcerer. The mage was your basic blast them with fireballs and lightning bolts. There were some cool spells in there, but nothing great. The sorcerer was another example of this game doing something that no one has followed. They were summoners. If you wanted to be cheap you cast and illusion, if you wanted to pay the whole bill in Spell Points you really summoned it. The Illusions had a horrible armor class, but they did the same amount of damage of the Summoned monsters. You could summon anything from a Coyote to Fire and Ice Demons. You could also have your 1st level sorcerer summon the same monsters as your high level one(if they had the spell points). Early in the game you could waste all of your spell points on a Dragon Illusion. For the rest of the dungeon the sorcerer will be useless, but you would mess up the enemies in that fight.
The class system was based on skills that characters could learn throughout the game. Each level the characters would gain skill points(I forget what they were really called). Different classes learned different abilities easier then others. But any class could learn any ability. Also any character could worship any god. And the gods actually had an effect. Some would raise dead characters others had randoms effects. There was a percent chance that they would listen to you, and you could pray for help in combat. Different races were cool, though underdeveloped. Trolls regenerated, Dwarves could see in the dark, Elves could sense magic items, Dark Elves could sap magic points form enemies and Humans couldn't do anything special. Each race had different maximum stats. So Dwarves and Trolls could be stronger then Elves.
The plot was pretty basic, but not bad. An old imprisoned god was breaking free. He was evil so he goes around throughout the game killing the newer gods. When the new gods die you can't worship them anymore so the character needs to find a new god. Finally there will only be one good god left, the old one. But you can still worship the new evil gods. The basic idea was to stop him, and there was different ways of doing it, thus different ending. Something that is FINALLY being done now in RPGs. And those are usually in tactical RPGs were you have no freedom throughout the game, except in the one choice that changes the ending. Now that is FUN! The one ending you meet with the old, good god and he turns one for your characters into a god. That character then has a new spell and full magic points(something like 250 when 85 was a lot). You then have to use the spell to seal the god back on the island he was jailed in. But you had to travel to Hell and kill an evil god first. Then your characters all become gods if you want. if not it tells about their life and what happens after. The third ending I found was a bad one. We destroyed the shard of spring and the world was in a forever winter and everyone dies. But you can still walk around. I am sure there were more that I wasn't able to find. This game was before hint books, you had to make do, and if you couldn't get past something you kept trying until you did. If you couldn't you'd wing the floppy against the wall.
I could say more about this wonderful game, but I won't because this is kind of long as it is. It has to be the best RPG I have ever played. I got hundreds of hours of game play out of it. It was fun seeing if I could make my characters have all +10 weapons or find a new ending or worship all evil gods. The game was fun, and the graphics weren't great, it is possible even if you FF VII fans don't believe it. Freedom in RPGs is something I sorely miss, DW gave freedom in mass quantities. A true five star RPG of the first order. The bar has been lowered, in my opinion DW is the greatest RPG of all time and it is almost 20 years old, sad huh?
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Abraxmed
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Member: Abraxmed
Location: Virginia Beach, VA
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