Reinstall
Reinstall invitations you to affix us in revisiting PC gaming days passed by. At present, Jody returns to the Forgotten Realms to determine what precisely he is forgotten about.
Years earlier than Baldur’s Gate got here alongside, the CRPGS made within the Gold Field engine, together with Curse of the Azure Bonds, had been my introduction to the Forgotten Realms. Which is why I will all the time affiliate it with girls in impractical armour and names that may’t be taken significantly. In Curse that is the priest Gharri of Gond and the villainous Fzoul Chembryl, although a couple of years later Forgotten Realms: Limitless Adventures would introduce the unforgettable Lunit Bdufe, a reputation that makes Drizzt Do’Urden appear downright mundane.
The Gold Field video games additionally launched me to factions just like the Zhentarim and the Crimson Wizards of Thay, two of the organisations in Curse of the Azure Bonds making an attempt to manage you by way of the magic tattoos of the title. Nothing can ever be simply “blue” in a fantasy novel when it could possibly be azure or sapphire or cerulean, proper? I feel Hoodoo of the Blue Tattoo would have been an excellent higher identify myself.
Curse kicks off while you get up with magic tattoos and a month of lacking reminiscences. When these tattoos compel you to assault a neighborhood royal, you be taught they seem to be a medium for thoughts management and got down to get them eliminated.
The assassination try results in a jail break and chase via the sewers the place you encounter monsters product of rubbish referred to as otyughs. The sewer part is a spotlight—not a sentence you get to put in writing about videogames usually—and one motive is that you may discuss to the monsters. Among the otyughs are jealous of their otyugh neighbours, so you may befriend them by stealing the superior piles of excrement subsequent door. There are a handful of moments like this scattered throughout Curse, the place you may reduce a cope with a darkish elf (however she’ll solely discuss to you if there is a lady in your social gathering), or keep away from a battle with salamanders (however provided that you select the proper conversational tone out of a range together with haughty, good, and meek).
The opposite motive this sewer chase stands out is how a lot story’s jammed into it. There is a battle between the thieves guild who helped bust you out of jail and a rival gang of criminals referred to as the Fireplace Knives, each preventing over the prime thief actual property of the sewers. The Fireplace Knives had been one of many events concerned in providing you with the tattoos, and also you stumble throughout the stays of their earlier experiments as you rush via their base, following the path of two different adventurers individually on the unfastened within the sewers. Gharri of Ghond is right here to rescue a princess like he is enjoying a special videogame, and Olive Ruskettle—a halfling from the novel this recreation relies on—is one step forward of you within the tunnels as nicely.
That is Curse of the Azure Bonds at its peak. CRPGs on the time hardly ever had this a lot narrative happening, with exceptions just like the Ultima video games. You had been more likely to be enjoying a dungeon dice-and-slice than one thing with precise thriller and plot. It helps that it is primarily based on a ebook, simply referred to as Azure Bonds, which was nothing particular however nonetheless extra readable than 90% of the D&D novels—not that you could learn it to play the videogame. I hadn’t the primary time I performed Curse however nonetheless appreciated when an NPC from the ebook would present up as a result of they’d all of a sudden have extra backstory and character than everybody round them simply by dint of not having been created for a videogame.
Cherished Companion
The Steam launch of the Gold Field video games comes with an app referred to as the Gold Field Companion, which will be downloaded individually for different variations. It bolts an automap onto the suitable aspect of the sport window so you do not have to bust out graph paper, and provides a standing bar to the highest that transforms right into a menu of quality-of-life enhancements while you mouse over it.
They embody the power to learn journal entries as you discover them moderately than having to open up a pdf, as a result of it is a recreation from the times when builders would save disk house by placing half the story in a ebook with numbered paragraphs you’d seek the advice of as you performed. In the event you misplaced the factor, or your second-hand copy did not have one, you’d by no means discover out what Gorgax advised you in paragraph 33.
An undersung hero of the Gold Field Companion is the power to retailer your present listing of memorised spells after which restore them on the press of a button as an alternative of getting to undergo after every battle re-memorising each stinking cloud and fireball you solid. However essentially the most indispensable factor about it’s that it helps you to ignore racial stage limits.
Curse of the Azure Bonds relies on the principles of Superior Dungeons & Dragons 1st Version, that are an actual ball-ache for a lot of causes, not least that they hate non-humans. Some lessons are solely obtainable to people, like paladin and ranger, and people who aren’t are sometimes restricted. Your cleric is usually a half-elf should you like, however you will by no means be allowed to go larger than stage 5—and that is the extent Curse begins at.
D&D’s co-creator Gary Gygax considered D&D as a piece of sword and sorcery like Conan or the tales of Fritz Leiber and Jack Vance, that are amoral and human-centric. Surprisingly, he wasn’t a fan of excessive fantasy like The Lord of the Rings, a deeply ethical story about individuals from completely different backgrounds coming collectively to save lots of the world, and whereas he put elves and dwarves in his recreation as a result of gamers requested for them he made enjoying one an absolute ache within the dickhole. Thankfully later editions of D&D ditched all that nonsense and now everybody’s social gathering is a mixture of elves, tieflings, and dragonborn, however again within the day D&D wished you to eat your greens and be a boring human.
Whereas among the guidelines had been annoying, sticking to them meant Curse of the Azure Bonds actually did really feel like enjoying D&D. In a time when it was a lot more durable to discover a group than it’s right now, Curse was the methadone that might cowl your want for a repair. That similarity was most evident within the fight. My desire for turn-based tactical fight in all probability goes again to Curse of the Azure Bonds, the place thieves would solely get bonus backstab injury on enemies who had been attacked from the entrance earlier that spherical and timing was every thing.
Some actions took longer than others, splitting your flip over a number of initiative counts. When an enemy priest began praying the following character within the flip order would get an opportunity to interrupt with one thing quick like an arrow or a magic missile, breaking his focus so he’d lose that maintain particular person spell. Enemies would do the identical trick, and the variety of fireballs I misplaced as a result of my wizard took chip injury from a random darkish elf is infuriating. Space-denial spells like stinking cloud had been the order of the day, and lightning bolt would rebound off partitions, probably bouncing again to strike twice. After enjoying a couple of video games with this stage of tactical chance, the messy realtime-with-pause fight of Baldur’s Gate felt like a betrayal—not how D&D was speculated to work.
The Gold Field Companion makes replaying Curse of the Azure Bonds extra handy than making an attempt to complete it was after I was a child. Again then, I by no means made it to the top. Now, armed with a walkthrough so I haven’t got to endure via fairly so many random encounters as I wander the wilderness making an attempt to determine the place the plot picks up, I lastly get to see what the again half of the sport is like.
Seems, not nice. There are rather a lot much less chatty otyughs and much more dungeon crawling. The enemies are clearly chosen for his or her level-appropriateness moderately than to match the theme—a Crimson Wizard who’s obsessive about dragons has an undead one as a pet, which is sensible, however most of his horde is made up of darkish elves and efreets for no motive apart from offering a balanced problem to your present expertise complete. The ultimate boss, a spirit able to possessing anybody, has taken over a storm large for no explicit motive besides his stat block. His minions are margoyles, a barely harder model of gargoyles, once more for no narrative motive. Defeat them and there is a rushed epilogue, some pixel fireworks, and a chance to save lots of your social gathering so you may take them into the following recreation.
Which I did, after going again to my remaining save to take away every character one after the other as a result of that is apparently the way it works. Dragging the identical social gathering into the sequel, Secret of the Silver Blades, is not actually doing it for me. A lot as I liked Curse of the Azure Bonds as a 12-year-old who solely owned a handful of video games and did not have any pals who performed D&D, now if I would like that have in videogame kind I’ve obtained Baldur’s Gate 3, Solasta: Crown of the Magister, and a few Pathfinder video games to replay. Even higher, I’ve obtained an actual D&D recreation on the go and the gamers have simply hit stage 5.
Perhaps for previous time’s sake I will introduce some Crimson Wizards and Zhentarim into my marketing campaign. Although in all probability not the impractical armour and unpronounceable names.
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