Oubliette is a great fantasy RPG that dates back to 1983. The game is entirely text-based, but it does a great job in conveying what's going on around you. First, you have to create a few characters. You can create many, many characters (in fact it's almost necessary) to survive in the dungeons of LIGNE. You have a choice of eight character types, and they are: the Dwarf, Elf, Gnoll, Hobbit, Human, Kobold, Ogre and Orc. Past this, your stats are rolled, and depending on the roll you can select special "occupations" like thief or mage. If you do that, you can choose from a variety of different schools and groups to teach you the ways of whatever you've chosen. Be careful though, as there might be a good chance your character fails or even dies during apprenticeship! The dungeon portion (which is similar to Rogue-style games) is well thought out. It uses ASCII graphics to display the walls and the word Party to display where your party is, which is well done, and the dungeons are nice and confusing. There are also a good variety of weapons to use against your enemies. However, the game is very difficult and doesn't hesitate to kill people off (In six attempts I lost sixteen characters). Still, there's enough variety to have RPG fans coming back for more! I wasn't even really interested in the genre, and now I'm hooked! Two thumbs up! Reviewed by: Red Fox 23 |