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.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
This weeks gaming podcast, we’re talking a bit about E3 but not enough to make you sick. We’re curious to the fate of the E3 event, is it really done or will it live on? We’re finishing up the RPG history and we take a look back at the Atari title KABOOM! Was he catching bombs with a box, barrel or pie?
@Nintendo Drops DSi and DSi XL prices:
Lol! Thing is, Don, I don’t like hand held consoles anyway, so 130 is pricey for me too.
As for sharing consoles between kids, dunno about that. We (me and my brother and sister) used to fight over toys.
Jennifer, with the iPad, iPhone and the other hand held consoles, how much does your purse weigh? 😛
@Acclaim:
Derrick, you could be right. Brands do tend to get resurrected, if they have a good history.
@Best Buy and Target getting into the used games business:
Derrick got it right: “[GameStop] is burned into your brain”.
In order to get something else to replace GameStop (and the brain burns it caused :P), that competitor must stay in the market for quite some time.
Do you see BestBuy keeping their used games section for an extra 6-12 months despite it not being that profitable? I think not. They’ll just use the space to promote new games.
@Xbox Live subscription increasing:
This is an interesting sales strategy but it might just backfire.
It will definitely generate a boost in sales in the short run, but it will also generate a low demand in the period following. I mean if you stocked up on prepaid, no reason to buy in the upcoming time period, right?
@Bit of history:
Oh man, I did use to record BASIC programs on cassettes. One thing that I did was to do both the recording and replaying of such cassettes at higher speeds. You got better fidelity (and that mattered!), at the expense of the amount of storage.
@Question of the week:
A big, solid YES.
In single player, the story behind the game matters a lot to me. I played (and still play) STALKER on low detail, and I enjoyed it a lot.
I started to play recently Deus Ex, and man, that’s a cool game, despite its age.
As for the best story in a game, man … dunno … perhaps the first Max Payne?
@Nintendo Drops DSi and DSi XL prices:
Lol! Thing is, Don, I don’t like hand held consoles anyway, so 130 is pricey for me too.
As for sharing consoles between kids, dunno about that. We (me and my brother and sister) used to fight over toys.
Jennifer, with the iPad, iPhone and the other hand held consoles, how much does your purse weigh? 😛
@Acclaim:
Derrick, you could be right. Brands do tend to get resurrected, if they have a good history.
@Best Buy and Target getting into the used games business:
Derrick got it right: “[GameStop] is burned into your brain”.
In order to get something else to replace GameStop (and the brain burns it caused :P), that competitor must stay in the market for quite some time.
Do you see BestBuy keeping their used games section for an extra 6-12 months despite it not being that profitable? I think not. They’ll just use the space to promote new games.
@Xbox Live subscription increasing:
This is an interesting sales strategy but it might just backfire.
It will definitely generate a boost in sales in the short run, but it will also generate a low demand in the period following. I mean if you stocked up on prepaid, no reason to buy in the upcoming time period, right?
@Bit of history:
Oh man, I did use to record BASIC programs on cassettes. One thing that I did was to do both the recording and replaying of such cassettes at higher speeds. You got better fidelity (and that mattered!), at the expense of the amount of storage.
@Question of the week:
A big, solid YES.
In single player, the story behind the game matters a lot to me. I played (and still play) STALKER on low detail, and I enjoyed it a lot.
I started to play recently Deus Ex, and man, that’s a cool game, despite its age.
As for the best story in a game, man … dunno … perhaps the first Max Payne?
@Derrick re : Kid taking his $200 item to school -Sounds a bit rich from th guy who took his iPad to college the minute he bought it, then told us all on the podcast how he liked all the whispering about it? I think you saying you have 3 kids is your way of telling Jennifer that YOU are the 3rd kid in the house!
@ Acclaim – It is sad news, but lets face it, they were responsible for some of the WORST games ever. You surely remember BMX XXX, (Surprised you haven’t done a flashback on that!) and Generation X (The on rails shooter with Aerosmith in it, which was released on consoles like the SNES who couldn’t even play the music, making the game seem even more ludicrous!
@ QotW – Storyline wins over graphics every time for me. I’m not mad keen on FPS games, which typically are made to be more and more realistic and lifelike. I put forward to you the games of World of Warcraft and Plants vs Zombies. I have been playing WoW on the lowest graphical settings since forever. Do I enjoy it any less than my friend who has just spent 2000 notes on his new pc? No. It just means he can benefit from sparkles and light effects from spells, and more definition on the floor and characters.
Plants Vs Zombies – The graphics are somewhat irrelevant. You could scale this right back to 8-bit sprites and the game would still play the same. Surely that’s the reason that it is on of the most in-demand casual game (feel free to argue Jennifer).
As for best storyline? Legend of Zelda – Ocarina of Time. No explanation needed. I win this discussion!
@Derrick re : Kid taking his $200 item to school -Sounds a bit rich from th guy who took his iPad to college the minute he bought it, then told us all on the podcast how he liked all the whispering about it? I think you saying you have 3 kids is your way of telling Jennifer that YOU are the 3rd kid in the house!
@ Acclaim – It is sad news, but lets face it, they were responsible for some of the WORST games ever. You surely remember BMX XXX, (Surprised you haven’t done a flashback on that!) and Generation X (The on rails shooter with Aerosmith in it, which was released on consoles like the SNES who couldn’t even play the music, making the game seem even more ludicrous!
@ QotW – Storyline wins over graphics every time for me. I’m not mad keen on FPS games, which typically are made to be more and more realistic and lifelike. I put forward to you the games of World of Warcraft and Plants vs Zombies. I have been playing WoW on the lowest graphical settings since forever. Do I enjoy it any less than my friend who has just spent 2000 notes on his new pc? No. It just means he can benefit from sparkles and light effects from spells, and more definition on the floor and characters.
Plants Vs Zombies – The graphics are somewhat irrelevant. You could scale this right back to 8-bit sprites and the game would still play the same. Surely that’s the reason that it is on of the most in-demand casual game (feel free to argue Jennifer).
As for best storyline? Legend of Zelda – Ocarina of Time. No explanation needed. I win this discussion!
@Xbox Live – I tried Xbox Live Gold for 1 year and sure, it works better than Sony and Nintendo’s online systems, but I don’t play online that much so it’s not worth it for me. And I’m not interested in all the facebook, twitter, netflix, last.fm stuff they have on Gold either.
@QOTW – Yes, story is definitely much more important than graphics. Sure, awesome graphics are nice, but I’d rather have awesome gameplay or an awesome storyline.
It’s extremely hard to pick the best storyline in a game… Portal had great characters and told the story in an indirect kind of way, which was interesting. I also love the Sam and Max series for it’s hilarious characters and crazy storylines. And although Mario games aren’t exactly renowned for their storylines, I’ve always thought the Paper Mario series did well.
Overall, though, I think the best storyline would have to go to the space combat sim, Descent: Freespace and it’s sequel. A thrilling and mysterious sci-fi story with great suspense. There were also some really top quality fan-made mods for freespace with great stories that expanded on the official storyline. Too bad that genre is dead these days 🙁
@Xbox Live – I tried Xbox Live Gold for 1 year and sure, it works better than Sony and Nintendo’s online systems, but I don’t play online that much so it’s not worth it for me. And I’m not interested in all the facebook, twitter, netflix, last.fm stuff they have on Gold either.
@QOTW – Yes, story is definitely much more important than graphics. Sure, awesome graphics are nice, but I’d rather have awesome gameplay or an awesome storyline.
It’s extremely hard to pick the best storyline in a game… Portal had great characters and told the story in an indirect kind of way, which was interesting. I also love the Sam and Max series for it’s hilarious characters and crazy storylines. And although Mario games aren’t exactly renowned for their storylines, I’ve always thought the Paper Mario series did well.
Overall, though, I think the best storyline would have to go to the space combat sim, Descent: Freespace and it’s sequel. A thrilling and mysterious sci-fi story with great suspense. There were also some really top quality fan-made mods for freespace with great stories that expanded on the official storyline. Too bad that genre is dead these days 🙁
Hey cast, few weeks behind but he’s my Question of the past:
Yes, to me story is the core of the game, everything else (Graphics, Music, sound & Game play) is also important because it’s the means of presenting the story to the audience. I guess I have high standards because the most influential games are always games that have a great story but succeed in all elements of Video games. I have found myself grinding through painful game play just so I can experience the text dialog because the story was so damn good. But I find myself disappointed that the developer failed in some areas. To me Game elements need to be fit for purpose for their genre. For example FPS graphics are essential for effective game play compare to a Turn based strategy game where game mechanics are more important the graphics). To wrap this up best story driven games (which used all game elements to make a great story) were Legend of Zelda (N64), FF X (PS2), Fire Emblem (Game Cube) & one which isn’t finish but most enjoying is Assassins Creed =D.
Hey cast, few weeks behind but he’s my Question of the past:
Yes, to me story is the core of the game, everything else (Graphics, Music, sound & Game play) is also important because it’s the means of presenting the story to the audience. I guess I have high standards because the most influential games are always games that have a great story but succeed in all elements of Video games. I have found myself grinding through painful game play just so I can experience the text dialog because the story was so damn good. But I find myself disappointed that the developer failed in some areas. To me Game elements need to be fit for purpose for their genre. For example FPS graphics are essential for effective game play compare to a Turn based strategy game where game mechanics are more important the graphics). To wrap this up best story driven games (which used all game elements to make a great story) were Legend of Zelda (N64), FF X (PS2), Fire Emblem (Game Cube) & one which isn’t finish but most enjoying is Assassins Creed =D.