From: bdwest@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov (ALIS)
Subject: RPG reveiws cont
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center
Date: 31 Dec 1992 15:59 EST  

Scale:

A - great, the best
B - good but not great
C - average/typical
D - bearly tolerable
F - Hated it

Things rated:

Graphics - colors, size, flicker, animation, clarity, variety of monsters, 
	background
Sound - variety, enjoyablility
Manuel - Clarity, descriptivemenss, helpfulness, errors
theme/story - story flow, explanation scenes, inro of new characters, 
	ability to chose more than one route of progress. 
Length of game - very long, long, medium, short, too short
level of difficulty - hard, medium, easy: maze difficulty, die alot
Control of battle - control over the actions taking place during battles
Outstanding/Unique features - explained
View - overhead, 3-d, combo

Ultima: Quest of the Avatar

Graphics - C

same problems as the DWII & III flicker, lack of clarity, however there was 
some animation. You moved your players to more advantagoues spots and the 
monstors moved toward you. If magic cause damaged to the surrounding area 
you saw what areas were effected. All graphics were small though.

Sound - I honestly don't remember how this game sounded it was so long ago.

Manuel - B

very descriptive of purpose and of characters. Monster 
descriptions included. Map of world plus moon warp spots.  I believe there 
were some dungeons maps or at least how to get access to them.

Theme/story - B

story flowed well, no explanation scenes, intro of new characters was well 
organized, great variablity in how you could complete your quest.

Lenght of game - very long, there were numerious cities, dungeons, and temples.
many of the dungeons were large.

Level of difficulty - medium to hard.  It was hard for me becuase the 
dungeons were in 3-d perceptive and I hate/am not good at 3-d perceptive.
Hard to get enough money to buy things and there were alot of things 
necessary to buy to stay alive, explore cave/dungeons etc.  Attacks by
monsters were usual quite brutal and it was difficult to run away becuase 1 
you had to get characters off screen and lose honor points necessary to 
complete the quest or 2 magic out with no loss of honor but you would lose 
the spell materials (obviously) and you would not gain anything.  

Control of battle - B+

Lots of control, you could move your characters about the screen (only 1 
step though), you could hide behind things if they were available but I 
don't remember if you can attack in the direction you protected. 

Unique/Outstanding features: character generation (you have to answer questions 
in order to determine what your character will be). The games purpose was to 
make the character an Avatar rather than the usual save the world theme.   
Move your characters around the screen.  Spell casting - you had to 
discover what materails created which spells, learn the spell and then buy
the proper materials for the casting. Realizm (so to speak) for example 
this is the only RPG I've played were you need a torch to explore a cave. 

Things that annoyed me about this game:  
The small amount of money you got for killing tons of monsters and the 
large amounts of money it took to keep you going.  I trick I came up with 
was to fight monsters on the bridge near the main castle.  That way the 
monsters could surrond your party and beat up the weaker members. They 
could only make fontal attacks, they could attack you from the side or rear
 And since you were near the castle you could go to the king and he would 
heal you for free.  This however takes alot of time.  
Anal retentive rules. For example if you accidental short changed a blind 
merchant when buying something but then immediately overpaid him for the
next item you would still lose honor points, even if you had over
paid the merchant all along.

View - overhead when in walk about, 3-d in dungeons.


Dungeon magic

Graphics - B

large size, no flicker, well animated, very clear (except in shops) no 
great vareity in monsters, background at all times.

Sound - not much, there was none when you left the town or when just 
walking around the town.  Only time there was sound was when you were being 
attacked, doors were closing, or you went into a shop or a mages home.

Manuel - F-
This was the worse game manuel.  Little to no instructions, no 
descriptions of items.  Only one type of magic had some spells writen down 
you had to figure the rest out yourself. Only a few roughly drawn maps.
Terrible, just terrible.

Theme/story - C

story flow was strained do to lack of instructions. no 
character intros - 1 person quest. you had the ability to chose more than 
one route of progress but different routes were extremely difficult do to 
lack of documentation.

Level of difficulty - medium - hard

lack of documentation was the greatest difficulty.

Control of battle - C

The battles were real time.  You hit the key pad to move and stike.  
you could not attack from a side angle but you could be hit from the side.

Outstanding/Unique features: 
Spell casting was done by lining up shapes in a certain order.

Things I hated about this game:  
Lack of documentation. Inability to make side attacks even if you could see 
what was attacking you.  High cost of living (weapons, food, armor, INN).
Weak character - it was unusually difficult to go to the next town.   

View - 3-d



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