CompuServe Thread

DungeonMaster is one of the most incredible games I've played, and it has incredible graphics and sound. It's a complete environment with 3 d monsters that move, walk, scream, get larger as they move closer and can throw spells. The same with your characters – they grow and can do some amazing things that are all represented onscreen visually. It's an incredible experience. DungeonMaster, however, has no plot whatsoever, and the packaging is very poor. But the plot in DungeonMaster is where I really have to criticise it. I think that Bard's Tale is a very inferior game – it's fight map all the time, and the "strength" and "growth" of characters is only a numbers game – your numbers get bigger, and so do the numbers of monsters. The "many spells" is a gimmick too – there's about 4 spells all with different names and text descriptions in the manuals and different levels of strengths. Ultima IV however presents a crude text parser, but within the context of everything else that's going on, a good addition. Mapping isn't all that critical, something they've discovered ages ago with GEMs while EA has finally figured out by Bard's Tale III. And the morality, and the attempt to teach each gameplayer something, propelled Ultima IV into the realm of "art" for me. AT least, that's how I feel about things.