INTRODUCTION
What have the following got in common? A demon, a fortress, a ques to repel all evil from a once peaceful land, a young slip of a lad with a hidden heritage and a ridiculously large rucksack. That's right, the main ingredients to most RPGs across the world. While the hope to actually play something where some kind of imagination has been used in the plot line would be appreciated, The Tower of Souls is ultimately no different.
Presented in a 3D isometric scrolling view akin to Ultima 8 on the PC this rehash of old ideas tells the story of an evil demon called (insert silly name) who has taken over the land (insert silly name). The ancient prophet (insert silly name) foretells the day when a young lad will make an assault against the evil one and return the country to a peaceful existence.
Funnily enough, this does indeed happen and you, the humble player, take the enviable role of playing the result of this prophecy in the shape of (insert silly name), the hero of the piece.
PLAYABILITY
In a word - simple. For the few hours I played, the main objective is to wander round the fortress turning off fountains which apparently flood the bottom levels if left on, and picking up massive amounts of herbs, spices and money. The puzzles I've experienced so far are of the 'flick the switch to open the door' variety. This area is enlarged upon, unfortunately, by the inclusion of a lock pick section and the disconnect the three bolt lock segment.
The former involves moving four different types of picklock tools over the keyhole (shown in close-up in the main panel) and moving the mouse frantically around until one of them hopefully slips into place, opening the door. The latter is shown in the main panel depicting three bars forming a lock. On the right are a number of switches that can be moved.
Click on these in a random fashion and eventually the three bars will slide all the way open, unlocking the door or turning off a particular fountain. These two ideas must have sounded great on paper but in practice are just a touch on the gimmicky and unnecessary side.
Fighting the various foe guarding the fortress is none too exciting either, whether you be using a sword or a potent spell from your substantial inventory of magic. Their habit of rising from the ground again and again from the same place even after being killed several times adds a certain monotony to the already repetitive proceedings.
There's also an auto map facility available to aid you in your wanderings round the fortress, which you'll only need once in a while.
One of the game's most original features is the alchemy kit where you can mix all nature of magic. Presented as some kind of primeval James Bond-
Click on the make option and the magic making kit starts to cook your ingredients, then the end result plops into a test tube which is corked and ready to use. The idea is novel and works rather well.
There are a substantial amount of spells to play with, ranging from various lethal projectiles such as acid, fireballs and lightning to the more oddball magi such as creating an illusion to fool your enemies, morphing into a rat to outwit the enemy or maybe slipping into previously unreachable places. It has to be said that out of the whole game, the magic side is by fa the strongest.
80%FLASHBACK
If you want to indulge yourself in a rich story with involving gameplay then look no further than Core Design's Heimdall 2. Featuring cartoon-
SOUND
The main bulk of the music is string-
The in-game sounds are spot effect-based, with musical accompaniment, but the tune is a little basic although effective.
Again, though, there is a problem - while we hear the rasping of flames, the footfalls of our hero, the sliding of locks as they open, and more, the makers have unfortunately pitched the footsteps at a much lower volume level than all the other sound effects.
So putting the volume up to clearly hear the hero's footfalls as they clank down on the stone floor results in a sudden explosion of loud sound when anything else happens. Annoying.
55%GRAPHICS
There's real professional quality to the graphics on first viewing - the fancy but over-long intro depicts a quilled pen writing out the game story on a parchment, with illustrations of the key events fading up into view at the top. The inventory screen looks equally as impressive, with a rather meaty looking rucksack and the most bizarre and inventive looking magic tool kit I've ever seen.
While lacking the excellent standard of graphics seen in Heimdall 2 or, to a lesser extent, Dragon Stone, the main in-game visuals are wel-defined on the whole, and the scrolling, while a touch slow, works at a decent enough rate as to not prove distracting. The scenery, as far as I've seen it, is relatively dull - lots of fortress walls in various tones and colours become rather repetitive after a while.
Another annoying aspect is the sometimes indistinguishable objects that can be picked up - there's no text saying what something is and you've no idea what they are.
As with the plot, the main problem with the graphics is that I've seen this genre style again and again in other games - it would be refreshing to see visuals that smack of something more pictorially inventive like some of the scenes in Heimdall 2. The dank dungeon walls, the spikes in the floor, the hooded figures throwing fireballs - all look the part but what a dull part to play.
68%OPINION57%
I can't help but feel it's a cop out to say that this kind of game will suit the tastes of the professional role-players among you. Perhaps there are people out there who will glean some excitement from this package and be held in its grip for hours, but for the rest of us with some semblance of a life, this is an average, uninspiring game with the only temporary relief being the magic making.
To have succeeded, Tower of Souls needed more thinking man's puzzles and perhaps some kind of interaction. Indeed, perhaps all this is included later on but after spending a few hours on it, I gave up out of boredom and frustration.
There's obviously some clever programming talent here but the game designer needs to rethink what makes an RPG interesting, gripping, atmospheric and, above all, imaginative. After all, that's what fantasy is all about - escapism. Until this happens, any further releases or sequels along a similar line will end up on the Most-Not-