From: huangk@skyfox.usask.ca
Subject: RE: Bane, is it that good!!!!!!!
Organization: University of Saskatchewan
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 20:07:01 GMT

<mgeorgy@vmsclst1.sc.csupomona.edu> writes:

>Hello,
>   I was wondering about Bane of the Cosmic Forge???  I have read many
>complaints about it being a bvery bad port???  YEt, there seems to be alot of
>people playing it???  Would you recommend it to somebody???  Anyone want to
>sell there's.

>Thanx,
>Matt Georgy
>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>+When It Absolutely, Positively, Has To Be Taken Out Overnight!!!+
>+                                                                +
>+                                           -- Team Stealth      +
>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Well, I don't think its worth the money. I bought it because at the time it got 
reasonable reviews from people on the net, and where I live, it was the only 
frp game available for the mac. 

Why don't I like it? Here are the main points:

1. The graphics. Lord are they horrible. I could swear I got better graphics
with my old Commodore 64.
2. The interface. Not good either. But actually tolerable. Not its worst point.
3. The sound. Ok the sound quality was good, but the choice of sounds weren't
all that good, and there were too few. Yeah, I know, you can turn them off. I
did.
4. Combat. Several problems here. For one, there is the inability to dump out
of a long, drawn out combat that you know you can't win. Secondly, there is 
a really bothersome feature whereby when monsters change order the actual 
pictures have the change position. This is totally unnecessary because the order
is given in the listing at the bottom, and besides, when there are a lot of 
creatures (more than 8 or so) they cant have a picture of all of them so you 
just see a lot of shuffling. And besides that it also takes a long enough
time to accomplish this reshuffling.
5. The main reason why I don't like it and the reason why I'm not playing it 
right now, is that some of the battles are just plain impossible. Now, I've
rarely avoided any battles, both random and preset, yet, in two specific 
instances, namely the bridge troll and the giant brothers, I can't win a battle
if my life depended on it. I got past the troll by paying him most of my money,
but there's no way to get past the giant bothers in a similar manner. Now it 
appears that the only way for me to beat these creatures is to go back and 
spend endless hours wandering already mapped out hallways in order to find 
random encounters to boost my experience levels. Well, I think that if a game
were written properly, one shouldn't be punished for performing all of the
tasks properly. And I feel that thats exactly what is happening. Don't get me
wrong I don't mind tough battles where it might take a handful of tries before
I defeat them without losing a life. But when I can't even get rid of one of 
the enemies and all of my characters die, well, thats just not fun.
6. Only one save game. I would prefer multiple save games. Sure some people
think thats cheating, but if theres one thing I hate, thats saving a game after
making an irreparable error and not being able to restore the game previous to
making the mistake.

Ok, now some good points:
1. There are some interesting puzzles and the game is not as linear as they 
could have made it. A several points in the game one has a few options on what 
you can do and you aren't lead around by the nose by any stretch of the 
imagination.
2. I like the multitude of classes and races offered. It makes you feel like
you can be "original" in your party. However, this also leads to a point which
kinda bothers me. I picked up the cheat (because I was stuck - big time) from
an ftp site (I can't remember which one) and one of the first things it said 
was "the most effective party should include ..." and then proceeded to give
a couple of characters and classes that would be useful. Well, my party didn't
have these characters or classes (you can't have them all) and I've often 
wondered that my choice of party members is what had caused me to be stuck at 
my current position. There is no way I'm going to restart the game. There's 
nothing I find more boring than playing an computer frp game where I'm 
retracing old steps for an extended period of time. However, if the game is set
up so that only a party constructed in a certain manner can succeed, then I 
think the programmers failed.
3. I like the number of spells and weapons offered. However, this also leads to
the same point as above. "Did I choose the right spells? Did I equip my party
properly? Is that why I'm stuck?"

All in all, I would say don't spend the money yet. It seems like SSI is starting
to come out with more D&D Mac games. Now the format of those may not be your 
style, but in my opinion, they sure beat this game. Now, I'm interested in the
next game Crusaders of the Dark Savant, first off because it looks better (well
at least the PC version looks better). And hopefully the people at Sir Tech will
have corrected some of the "problems" and made it playable. But I'm not holding
my breath.

Ciao,	Greg Hammel.

P.S. The above are my OPINIONS, and nothing more.