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After this role-playing game was released in autumn 1989 on Amiga and Atari ST, one year later it was converted to the C64. On the one hand I was very astonished, that this extensive program got ported to Amiga’s ‘little brother’ – after all, the obvious great archetype ‘Dungeon Master’ was never released on the C64, too. On the other hand I was very sceptical about the technical quality of the program on this computer…
But my doubts were baseless – also on the C64 ‘Bloodwych’ is a very good role-playing game...
The Legend of the ‘Bloodwych’…
‘Once, the guild of the ‘Bloodwych’ rules the land of Trazere. That was headed by its master – the ‘Grand Dragon’. But then, one dark day, he was destroyed by the dastardly Zendick. Since that time, more and more evil creatures appear in Treihadwyl, the capital city of Trazere. Moreover, four mighty towers have been erected at Zendick’s behest – in each one of them a crystal is stored. These crystals absorb the energy of Trazere, constantly. By this means, Zendick tries to awake the ‘Lord of Entropy’ – with his aid; he wants to alter the countenance of the whole world…
But now the time has come, to find the crystals and to destroy Zendick. It’s the only way to save the land of Trazere...’
The Last Heroes of Trazere…
At the beginning of the adventure you can choose between three options: ‘Start one player game’, ’Start two player game’ or ‘Load saved position’. If you’ve selected the first or second option, you enter the ‘Hall of Champions’ – from a pool of sixteen heroes, each player chooses his favourite four...
Similar to other role-playing games, each character belongs to a specific class. These are displayed in the form of suits:
• Spades - Fighters
• Clubs - Mages
• Hearts - Adventurers
• Diamonds - Archers
Unlike to other games of this genre, every character is able to use magic – naturally mages are far more experienced in this subject area than their 'comrades-in-arms'...
Furthermore, each character has an own inventory: up to eight items can be stored here. Moreover, there are four specific slots, in which you can equip gloves, amours, shields and weapons. By means of a scroll, you are able to take a look at the different attributes (level, strength, agility, intelligence, charisma, hit points, vitality). Also, that scroll contains a ‘Food’-bar, which decreases permanently during the game. By collecting food and mead, it can be refilled...
After each player has prepared his party, the real adventure starts...
The Lurking Horror...
Now you find yourself at the gates of Treihadwyl. Before you the dark hallways of the city with their dangers and secrets reveal...
If you play the game twosome, the event is shown via split screen – above the party of player 1 is located, below the party of player 2. If you play alone, naturally one screen will be displayed...
By clicking on the ‘movement’ icons with the pointer, you are able to move through the corridors – similar to comparable programs - like e.g. ‘Chaos Strikes Back’ or the ‘Eye of the Beholder’ games - you can move forward, backward, to the left and to the right stepwise. By clicking two other icons, you can perform a 90 degree rotation...
Just a few steps later your men stand in front of the first locked door. But that isn’t a problem: each character has a set of five picklocks. With these you are able to unlock ordinary wooden doors (brown colour-marked) – also you can open them by casting the ‘magelock’ spell. Admittedly there are doors, which require a specific key: green colour-marked doors for example require a green ‘serpent key’. These are mostly kept by roaming monsters. Lastly there are black doors – to open these, you’ve to solve a specific puzzle...
Shadows in the Dark...
Certainly the corridors of the city are populated with evil creatures. When the party comes across such bad hats, a fight is unavoidable – just like in the great archetype ‘Dungeon Master’ that happens in real-time. By clicking on the ‘sword’ icon the whole party attacks – but make sure that only the two characters that stand in front can use weapons like swords, staffs or daggers. The other two have to strike back with long range weapons, like long-bows or crossbows...
By clicking on the ‘shield’ icon the heroes defend themselves against the monsters. Similar to the role-playing games of the ‘AD&D’ series, attacks from behind or the sides are far more effective than attacks from the front. When you’ve finally defeated the enemy, you can find useful items like e.g. keys, rations or weapons inside the bags of the passed away foe...
Magic Dreams...
Because ‘Bloodwych’ is a classic role-playing game, you’re able to make use of magic. Now the grimoire comes into play: that contains several magic spells. At the beginning each character’s grimoire contains only one spell (just the four mages have two of them). Naturally each party member’s able to learn more spells during the adventure. When the character has reached the respective level, he should hit the hay. During the following dream ‘Spell Faeries’ appear: those offer the hero new spells. However, this ‘service’ is not for free - there ain't no such thing as a free lunch...
Altogether there’re four different categories of spells:
• ‘Serpent Magic’ (green)
• ‘Moon Magic’ (blue)
• ‘Dragon Magic’ (red)
• ‘Chaos Magic’ (yellow)
But how to use this spells? That’s easy: just click on the ‘book’ icon and then on the right/left arrows to turn the pages – by the way, this effect looks very nice. Now you choose the respective spell (‘Paralyze’, ‘Compass’, ‘Trueview’, ‘Illusion’, ‘Fireball’ and so on) which appears at the bottom of the grimoire. After that you’ve to ‘dose’ the potency of the spell – to do so just click on the up/down arrows. But if the ‘power points’ of the magic spell exceed the own ‘point budget’ it’ll fail...
When this is finished you close the grimoire (the two arrows in the middle) and the prepared spell appears as ‘star’ icon between the ‘scroll’ and the ‘inventory’ icon. Another click on it and the magic spell will be unleashed (clicking the ‘sword’ icon has the same effect)...
Life after Death...
If one of the heroes departs this life that is no reason to mourn: each level contains a ‘Regeneration Chamber’. When you enter it all dead party members will be resurrected. But if the whole group (and the one of the second player) is destroyed, the adventure is over. Of course you’re able to save your progress at anytime to prevent a re-start...
Finally the program comes up with a special feature: it’s even possible to talk with the several creatures of Treihadwyl! You can exchange objects with them, buy or sell items and answer questions with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ – not bad...
So, how to judge ‘Bloodwych’? Well, it’s really a good role-playing game with a great atmosphere – including dark dungeons, ferocious monsters, not too difficult puzzles and an exemplary two player mode via split screen. If you would like to focus on exploring darksome labyrinths only and can do without a complex overworld as well as a strategic battle system ‘Bloodwych’ represents the first choice...
However, if you want to enjoy an outside world and roam through deep dungeons additionally, you should take a look on the official sequel ‘Legend’, which was released in summer 1992 on Amiga, Atari ST and PC. But here the several labyrinths are shown in an isometric style – moreover it features ‘automapping’...
‘Bloodwych - for those who dare...’
Downloads: Advert
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| GRAPHICS - 7/10 |
Naturally the graphics of the C64 version can’t keep up with those of the Amiga and ST versions. Nevertheless within the bounds of possibility the guys of Image Works have done a great job! Apart from the palish monster sprites the scenario looks very fancy. Also the several character portraits and the detailed items are nice to watch. Particularly the turning of the pages of the grimoire looks great! The 3D effect is well done, too – just like the nice title picture...
| | SOUND - 1/10 |
Like in the original there’s no music to hear. The few sound-fxs aren’t worth mentioning...
| | PLAYABILITY - 8/10 |
The user guidance of the 16 bit versions was ported 1:1. Certainly a joystick can’t replace a mouse – however, controlling the pointer is easy to handle and the several icons are clearly to identify. On Amiga and ST the whole program fits into the main memory. Naturally that isn’t the case in the 8 bit version: each level has to be loaded – and the loading times are quit long! But because you remain mostly for hours in one section, that’s of no consequence...
| | OVERALL - 8/10 |
A really good conversion! Besides ‘Bloodwych’ on the C64 is almost unrivalled – after all both ‘Dungeon Master’ and ‘Eye of the Beholder’ weren’t ported to that system! Sadly the add-on ‘Bloodwych – The Extended Levels’ was never released on the ‘little Commodore’...
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| COVER |
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; "Click to zoom!")
; "Click to zoom!")
; "Click to zoom!")
