Monday, August 18, 2003
An Atmospheric Dungeon Crawl: Sorcery PDA Reviewed
Posted by John Walkosak in "SOFTWARE" @ 09:30 AM
Sorcery PDA is a dungeon crawl extraordinaire. While not an action game, this title has more than enough atmosphere to keep you riveted to your Pocket PC.
If you’ve got a hankering to explore some dark, dank labyrinths (and who doesn’t) and do battle with evil beasties, then hoist your mace and grab your Pocket PC and fire up Sorcery PDA, Falcon's Quest. Just don’t use the Pocket PC as a shield.
Sorcery PDA Falcon's Quest is a fantasy themed role playing game in which you must go on a quest to find your world. That is pretty standard fare. But this game really immerses you in its world, and has more than enough backstory to get you into the game.
When installed, you also get a short story in Microsoft Reader format giving you the back story of your character and an image of the world you will be moving though. It is important that you read this carefully.
Figure 1: Be sure to read the included short story; it just might contain some clues...
It’ll Build Character
Sorcery PDA is unique among role playing games. Like most role playing games, you start a new game by rolling the dice to generate your character statistics. But these stats really make a difference; if certain stats are too low, your character may miss a clue, etc. This lends a nice bit of replayability to the game. As you progress through the game, you earn more experience and your statistics grow.
Figure 2: Your characters statistics. These do come into play, and because of this create some replay potential.
Once your character is generated, you then progress directly to the game.
Sounds Good
Right from the start, you are immersed. This is, in part, due to the fabulous sound in the game. Blowing winds, dripping water, etc., really bring the game to life. I highly recommend using a good pair of headphones while playing.
But don't stop at the sound. The visuals are equally stunning. As you move through the world, you are presented with a series of predominantly still images, with a modicum of animation. As with the sound, these visuals really set an atmosphere of a dark and lonely world; deserted hamlets, ancient dungeons, dank sewers. All are completely realised.
Figure 3: This is one of the first scenes you will be presented with, and gives a good example of the visuals. Look closely, as there is something here that requires close examination.
Gameplay
All of this atmosphere is nice, but this a game after all, and gameplay is key. This game does not disappoint.
I referred to this game as a "dungeon crawl" because you are on a quest, and as with any good quest, you must explore. As you move through the world, you are presented with several puzzles and challenges. You've got to examine the screen carefully, as sometimes just finding the puzzle can be challenging. For example, as shown in Figure 3 above, the first screen of the game shows the front doors of a castle. But if you look closely, at the base of the castle there is a pile of some sort. When you click on it to examine it, you are presented with a pile of bones. You must examine this closely as somewhere in it is a key that you will need.
Monsters
As one would expect, these lonely, dank nether realms are not completely uninhabited. Every so often, you will encounter a certain somebody who doesn't really want you around. Thus begins the combat portion of our show. Unlike the standard arcade type of combat full of fast action and spurting blood, Sorcery PDA uses the paper and dice type of combat, with rough graphics. Because of this, combat moves very slowly on a turn by turn basis (ie: - you rolled a 7 - you missed). This is really where your character statistics come into play.
Gotchas
My only complaint is the game's combat system. Combat is slow and as such is really a distraction to the game. This is really the nature of the beast with a role playing game with turn based combat.
Where to Buy
The software can be downloaded from Handango or purchased for $24.95 (affiliate link).
Specifications
To be able to crawl in this dungeon, you are going to need some serious Pocket PC real estate. The game needs a whopping 17,321kb of space. While you can install to a storage card, the game performs much better when installed in main memory. I know that it runs on my PPC2002, but I am not sure about 2003.
Conclusions
This game is an entertaining and atmospheric quest. I can’t wait to see what these guys do next.
If you’ve got a hankering to explore some dark, dank labyrinths (and who doesn’t) and do battle with evil beasties, then hoist your mace and grab your Pocket PC and fire up Sorcery PDA, Falcon's Quest. Just don’t use the Pocket PC as a shield.
Sorcery PDA Falcon's Quest is a fantasy themed role playing game in which you must go on a quest to find your world. That is pretty standard fare. But this game really immerses you in its world, and has more than enough backstory to get you into the game.
When installed, you also get a short story in Microsoft Reader format giving you the back story of your character and an image of the world you will be moving though. It is important that you read this carefully.
Figure 1: Be sure to read the included short story; it just might contain some clues...
It’ll Build Character
Sorcery PDA is unique among role playing games. Like most role playing games, you start a new game by rolling the dice to generate your character statistics. But these stats really make a difference; if certain stats are too low, your character may miss a clue, etc. This lends a nice bit of replayability to the game. As you progress through the game, you earn more experience and your statistics grow.
Figure 2: Your characters statistics. These do come into play, and because of this create some replay potential.
Once your character is generated, you then progress directly to the game.
Sounds Good
Right from the start, you are immersed. This is, in part, due to the fabulous sound in the game. Blowing winds, dripping water, etc., really bring the game to life. I highly recommend using a good pair of headphones while playing.
But don't stop at the sound. The visuals are equally stunning. As you move through the world, you are presented with a series of predominantly still images, with a modicum of animation. As with the sound, these visuals really set an atmosphere of a dark and lonely world; deserted hamlets, ancient dungeons, dank sewers. All are completely realised.
Figure 3: This is one of the first scenes you will be presented with, and gives a good example of the visuals. Look closely, as there is something here that requires close examination.
Gameplay
All of this atmosphere is nice, but this a game after all, and gameplay is key. This game does not disappoint.
I referred to this game as a "dungeon crawl" because you are on a quest, and as with any good quest, you must explore. As you move through the world, you are presented with several puzzles and challenges. You've got to examine the screen carefully, as sometimes just finding the puzzle can be challenging. For example, as shown in Figure 3 above, the first screen of the game shows the front doors of a castle. But if you look closely, at the base of the castle there is a pile of some sort. When you click on it to examine it, you are presented with a pile of bones. You must examine this closely as somewhere in it is a key that you will need.
Monsters
As one would expect, these lonely, dank nether realms are not completely uninhabited. Every so often, you will encounter a certain somebody who doesn't really want you around. Thus begins the combat portion of our show. Unlike the standard arcade type of combat full of fast action and spurting blood, Sorcery PDA uses the paper and dice type of combat, with rough graphics. Because of this, combat moves very slowly on a turn by turn basis (ie: - you rolled a 7 - you missed). This is really where your character statistics come into play.
Gotchas
My only complaint is the game's combat system. Combat is slow and as such is really a distraction to the game. This is really the nature of the beast with a role playing game with turn based combat.
Where to Buy
The software can be downloaded from Handango or purchased for $24.95 (affiliate link).
Specifications
To be able to crawl in this dungeon, you are going to need some serious Pocket PC real estate. The game needs a whopping 17,321kb of space. While you can install to a storage card, the game performs much better when installed in main memory. I know that it runs on my PPC2002, but I am not sure about 2003.
Conclusions
This game is an entertaining and atmospheric quest. I can’t wait to see what these guys do next.
