The Sword of Fargoal Remake is a superb conversion of Sword of Fargoal, a classic Commodore 64 RPG that was never released on PC. The game is a very faithful recreation, except the graphics are in SVGA, and there are minor gameplay and interface tweaks to make the game more balanced and the controls more intuitive. Summary of the gameplay from my review of the original: "The gameplay is typical Roguelike, played from a top-down perspective. You gain experience levels (resulting in higher hit points and battle skills) as you kill monsters, and finding new spells and magical items is key to success. The game introduced many features that have been superseded by newer Roguelikes like ADOM, but were very innovative for their time. For example, each level of the dungeon is randomly generated. Every time you enter a new level, you enter an entirely new layout with treasures, monsters, traps, gold, and the temple at a different location. There are many kinds of monsters, some smarter than others. There are hidden treasures, and several kinds of traps. Once a Pit Trap has been sprung, you can use it to climb down to the next level. You can also bait stupid monsters to fall in, if you timing is good enough. You can recuperate faster inside temples, which is also where you can offer gold to the gods in exchange for experience points, The list of fun features goes on and on." If you enjoyed the original Sword of Fargoal or like Roguelike games in general, you will definitely love this remake that is evidently a labor of love. The timing and monster behavior is so remarkably similar to the original game that it is uncanny. Note: There is an even newer remake out, a collaboration between the authors of this one and Jeff McCord himself. Check it out on the site linked below (but know that it only seems to have been released on the Mac devices)! Reviewed by: Underdogs |