More Gherkin the Elf. Sigh. I don't know the best way to convey my disappointment. You see, secretly I wanted Slayer, the original AD and D game, to be good on the 3DO. And it was. In a way. It just lacked structure - a point. Some kind of focus. You just ran around a maze killing things as far as I could tell. Which is fine - but if your psychological make-up stretches to killing for a reason - Slayer didn't really have one - and was ultimately a bit of let down.
Death Keep has a point. Capture the bad guy. It's a bit like a Lord of the Rings meets the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Inspired. Well maybe not but certainly better than roaming around killing for no point.
So what is this games particular failing. Surely by now we have all come to expect some sort of failing in a 3DO game. Well don't dispare, Deathkeep Advanced Dungeons and Dragons doesn't disappoint.
Deathkeep has less options than the original. It is not possible to handcraft your own character quite as much as you could in the original. But that's not enough to be considered a failure - short sighted? Lazy? But a failure? - not on its own. Assuming that you are an average person in the street, there are plenty of characters to choose from and the lack of character customisation, isn't that heart breaking.
Difficulty then? Hmmm. That old chestnut. You can have within the world of Deathkeep any difficulty setting you want. Easy, Average, Hard. As long as it's hard. Oh man is it hard?
I have started this game ten times with the same result but with different characters.
To start: You must jump off the little rocky blue shaded cliff. There are some items to pick up. A Sword, health, cloak and some other bits and bobs. Equip them - quickly. You then head off down the slope.
You are now faced with a choice.
If you turn right and up the slope you die - there are some trolls that wipe you pretty much instantly. Alternatively you follow the path round and then die the same way. It's not much of choice. Regardless of what you do - the third thing you meet will invariably kill you. Simple as that. It really does take the fun out of it.
The graphic engine is top notch - extremely good and fluid. A lot of blue - but very good. The character animations are equally pretty. It's just you never get see much of it before you are slaughtered by angry looking albeit well animated, Goblins or Trolls or whatever the hell that thing was.
Rarer than its predecessor but one for hardcore fans only.
3DOkid.
