Review: (WIP)
If you had entered a store in the mid 90s and seen the box of Thunderscape among other games, the colourful and powerful cover art may have caught your attention. But if you had decided to buy the game, you'd have discovered that, unlike the cover, the actual game is far from colourful. If you asked people to visually describe Thunderscape, they'd reply with "dark" and "brown". And yes, it IS very dark. Really dark. Really really dark. When you first start the game, the darkness and browness of it all may even overwhelm you but persevere and you will uncover quite a decent game.
Thunderscape was part of the generation of "new" RPGs which let you turn 360° and walk in any direction i.e. it had a 3D engine. More so than its rivals, it really used this engine, as well: you had caves in mountains, bridges, elevators, stairs, ramps, etc. As good as this may sound, the inability to easily look around made it a burden at times - falling off cliffs and getting lost were two unpleasant consequences. Luckily, the game gives you an automap to navigate!
The game itself is quite standard: very similar to the old grid-based RPGs like Eye of the Beholder, it requires you to create a party (you can pick up new members along the way as well) which includes archers, mages, fighters, etc. When you encounter monsters, your party members take turns hitting them. It's all very predictable. You can also buy and sell gear in stores you find along the way, and the rest of the time is spent exploring, killing and solving puzzles.
These puzzles can be pretty tricky as well. Unlike the usual "pull lever, push button" puzzles, you were given ... riddles! And unlike modern games, you're not given multiple answers, oh no. You got to TYPE the answer. Can't solve the riddle? Whoops, you're stuck. This happened to my friend on any number of occasions when he bought the game. Of course, thanks to the wonderful invention called the Internet, this is no longer a big issue, but it's still a rather poor decision considering not all gamers mastered the English language so well as to be able to solve remarkably hard puzzles (and often ones that had several potential answers that fit).
So, thus far we have a very dark and brown world, standard combat and devious puzzles. So does the game have a saving grace of some kind? Well, yes. What I didn't mention, is that the dark atmosphere works! As dark as the game may be, and as depressing it may be to some, there's a strange symbiosis between this darkness and the game's music (which uses CD-audio). Just like its 'sequel' Entomorph, the atmosphere of the game is vastly boosted thanks to the power of the CD-ROM. It makes the dark game come alive and actually makes it enjoyable!
Still, don't expect too much of this game. It didn't get great reviews back in 1995 for a reason and while it doesn't really make any critical mistakes, there's just not enough to really get you hooked. If they had focussed on adding more diverse locations, it may have worked a great deal better but the repetitive world really does not help. Got to love the music though!
3/5
__________________
|