Home of the Underdogs
About News FAQs Contact HOTU GoogleGroup Music Manuals
Category Applications Action Adventure Education Interactive Fiction Puzzle Role Playing Games Simulation Special Sport Strategy War




Support the EFF
Welcome How you can help
Browse Games
Welcome Random Pick
Welcome By Company
  Welcome By Theme  
Welcome By Alphabet
Welcome By Year
Welcome Title Search
Welcome Company Search
Welcome Designer Search
Recommended
Welcome Freeware Titles
Welcome Collections
Welcome Discord
Welcome Twitter
Welcome Facebook
Welcome File Format Guide
Welcome Help: Non PC Games
Welcome Help: Win Games
Welcome Help: DOS Games
Welcome Recommended Links
Site History Site History
Legacy Legacy
Link to Us Link to Us
Credits Thanks & Credits
Abandonware Ring

Abandoned Places

dungeoncrawlers.org

Creative Commons License


Game #4495
Hall of Belated Fame Inductee  Tomb of the TaskMaker    View all Top Dogs in this genreCollection: Non-PC Underdogs
RPG   Top-down

Rating: 8.47 (34 votes)

Tomb of the TaskMaker box cover

Tomb of the TaskMaker screenshot
Two of the most underrated shareware RPGs ever made can be found in TaskMaker and the sequel Tomb of the TaskMaker for the Macintosh. Both are top-down RPGs reminiscent of Ultima III, albeit not as complex or long. The plots are hackneyed fantasy fare, but passable. In Taskmaker, you are the hero who arrives in a new land to prove your worth. You must accomplish ten Hercules-style tasks set out by the TaskMaker. In the second game, you have become the ruler of the land following the TaskMaker's death. Now you must fight new evil creatures that are invading your people's towns and face the mastermind behind the havoc.

One of the best things about both TaskMaker games is the excellent tutorial at the beginning that teaches you all the basics. Another neat touch is that when you die, you can fight your way out of Hell (a randomly generated maze with four possible exits) to restore your character to life.

RPG fans will be familiar with the gameplay: explore dungeons and villages (over one hundred million pixels of gameworld), fight monsters, cast spells, sail ships, and generally help people whenever your can. Designed to be accessible to players of all levels, both games are very easy to learn and play – no need to memorize complicated statistics or spend hours creating your hero: just start the game, and have fun. Although some of the first few tasks the TaskMaker assigns you are a bit irrelevant ("go get me a chessboard" for instance), the tasks get gradually more difficult and much more interesting, not to mention clever. Some tasks remind me of the neat physical crossword puzzle in Dark Heart of Uukrul, and I had a lot of fun trying to find secret doors and discover the use of weird and wacky items I collect along the way.

The sequel Tomb of the TaskMaker is even better. It is bigger, looks prettier, and even allows you to be be one of three classes: fighter, mage, and thief, thereby significantly increasing replayability (which was somewhat lacking in the original since the maps are predetermined).

Fans of light RPGs and early Ultima games should definitely have fun with these two underdogs, which run flawlessly on the Basilisk II emulator for PC. Two thumbs up, way up!

Reviewed by: Underdogs
Designer: David Cook
Developer: Storm Impact
Publisher: Freeware
Year: 1997
Software Copyright: Storm Impact
Theme: Fantasy, Shareware
Multiplayer:  
None that we know of
System Requirements: Macintosh
Where to get it:
Related Links:  
Links:    
If you like this game, try: TaskMaker, Dark Heart of Uukrul, Prince of Destruction

© 1998 - 2024 Home of the Underdogs
Portions are copyrighted by their respective owners. All rights reserved. Please read our privacy policy.