I miss old SSI games and all the beauty and wonder they brought me as a child. Perhaps it’s more of the feeling of playing old MS-DOS games and that no worries feeling of playing games all summer long when your parents are out working; no cares in the world but that of the evil dragons and goblins of an RPG world. Secret of the Silver Blades arrived in May of 1990, developed and published by Strategic Simulations Inc (SSI), a company we covered in our gaming history back in TD Gaming Podcast Episode 9.
Secret of the Silver Blades is actually the third in a four-part game series which was eventually packaged in the Gold Box editing of the SSI games. It was a continuation of the game Curse of the Azure Bonds and the first in the series: Pool of Radiance. The cool part of the series was the leveling system where each would let you level to a certain limit just like most modules in D&D games, this game let you get to level seven which means a Mage could use the cool Delayed Blast Fireball spell which was one of my favorite magic spells in D&D (yeah, I’m a dork.)
The graphics were a whopping 16-colors, with slight graphical improvements over the other two prior games. This game didn’t have an overworld map like the others, going full first person for the length of the game. Another great enhancement was the ability to use the arrow keys to navigate menu’s without the need for “hot keys” like older SSI titles, given the game is very much menu-based for combat, equipment and inventory management it was very handy to have the use of those nice little arrow keys.
You create your party and start adventuring in a game engine very similar to all the games before it, so introduction to game mechanics was minimal, you could advance your characters further in level and, most importantly, import characters from previous games. The D&D world is really a character-driven game environment and you grow fond of your characters and understand the best ways to battle with them, importing is key and still, today, is a big part in well done RPG expansions (Guild Wars is a great example). Unfortunately, many games fall short of character import and it kind of blows away some of the magic of an RPG.
One of the frustrating issues with Secret of the Silver blade is the limitation on levels for the Cleric, because they can’t level up past 7 they can’t get the good ressurection spell, only allowed to use Raise Dead which lowers your characters constitution by 1 (much like the traditional D&D rules). However, given its a video game and not a paper-dice based game, the raise dead penalty is annoying, so it was easier to save often and re-load when you died to try again and avoid the penalty. I do recall their being some scrolls or something to get back your constitution penalty… but it’s been awhile I might be making that up.
Anyway, a well done series, classic RPG and helped build a foundation for games like Morrow Wind and Oblivion in my opinion.
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@Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 PC controversy rages
Having an MMO as the multiplayer component of a game is actually a good idea. The problem is the ‘only 3 months free’. I mean in such cases you’d better add a free-mium MMO.
@THQ: Next-gen consoles will be discless:
That will make it easier to distribute games, in areas with good bandwidth.
Question is: if the costs of the physical medium is removed, why won’t the price of the games go down?
As for Steam, do you know that you can back up your games on a separate storage media?
@Quantic Dreams claims they lost 10M euro on used games
Gah! You can’t lose something you never had.
Make the product more attractive new. Dunno, add multi-player validated by the CD key.
@3DS sales jump 260% following price drop
The big question is, does this cover the costs? Otherwise, 260% or not, they’re still at loss.
@Syndicate reboot finally confirmed and unveiled by EA
So, this will become something like DeusEx mixed up with E.Y.E. . Quite original 😛
I guess that if it is well polished, it might become a multi player hit.
As for hate mail Paul, make sure you’re on the show.
“I hope you die”? Really? Here’s a news flash: everybody dies.
@QOTW: I can’t really remember any remakes; on the other hand I became a PC gamer in 2001, so that’s one possible explanation.
And while Doom 3 can be considered a remake of the first Doom, I didn’t play the first one so I can’t compare the two.
@QOTW: but! If UT 2003 can be considered a reboot of the UT franchise, then yes, UT2003 was a bitter disappointment: the flak cannon – turned a bit lame. No sniper rifle. No assault game mode.
help!!!!!! I cant download the episode
somethings wrong with the link plz fix it
yes it now works
Tiger Woods PGA PC – I honestly can’t believe that people play golf games in general, let alone the PC. I can’t see how swinging a mouse forward and back could be interesting to anyone. EA is probably thinking that if you’re dumb enough to buy this shit, you don’t deserve a full game.
Next Gen Discless – Nope. In no way would I see that working out. Like Jordan said, look what happened to Patapon 2. Or just look at the PSP Go, that didn’t work out nearly as well as they thought.
Losing Money on Used Games – I’m sure that they did loose a lot of money on used games, but nowhere near the amount that they claimed. There are various other reasons why there are more people playing than copies sold.
3DS Sales Jump – That doesn’t mean much at this point. Like Herr Alien said, they are still in the negative, as they were when they first launched it at the price of $250. They could mark them down to a dollar and I’m sure the sales would jump enormously, but it wouldn’t be covering the money that they had to spend to get the product to the consumer.
QOTW – Bionic Commando was pretty bad, but that is the only one that I can think of. Wasn’t ever a big fan of Duke Nukem, so that doesn’t apply to me, but I’m sure it does to millions of others.
Now, the hate mail. Paul, possibly being my favorite on the show, is going to be hard to hurt in fear of him calling me a “Loser.” The mere fact that you are asking for hate mail signifies that your bloated ego needs something to take it down a peg, only so that it may rise and be a more cocky, douchey version of the one left behind. No one leaves you hate mail because you are simply undeserving. I care more about the gum cemented into the sidewalk than I do the hopefully fictitious character known as “Paul”. You are the cancer of the earth and may God have mercy on your soul.
Alright. Is that good for Paul. It is out of love that I do this, not hate. Hope to hear back on the next show. 😀
dang, my comments didnt make it can you re post it here plz