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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This weeks gaming podcast, emotions run wild while we talk about our initial
Hey guys great episode, lots to respond to, I agree with you Jonah on the perspective of those that way to hire people already working. It does make a person seem very disloyal but that doesn’t seem to be a valued thing anymore.
@Returns: I have no problem admitting to making bad choices so I don’t make up excuses either when returning something. Though most of the time it’s a faulty product for whatever reason. I think I’ve gotten myself to the point where I am very careful about impulse buying without ensuring I like or really need this. With Games I’m always trying to do the Demo or watch YouTube videos of a game, but I have had games bought that I wanted to return and now I even have some on my steam list. I may have to do some trading to clean that list up a bit.
@Gameplay versus Story: This seems a balancing act at times; there are games that had great story but painful gameplay (Legacy of Kain and Soul Reaver). Then games with great game mechanic but weird story like Eternal Sonata. It’s great when a game has both, I think story is the bitch as Paul said as so many a lot of times skip or ignore to get back to playing the game.
@Valve: I am glad they are doing this to help clean out some of the crap that seems to get through, in complete games and games that just should never have been started; I’m looking at goat Simulator there. I agree that you shouldn’t have to pay to beta test something. I do feel like this whole early access and beta testing is getting abused and allowing lazy game developing to happen. Beta testing is a skill set because you need people that are not only willing but actively look for ways to break a game or do things the game designers didn’t intend to happen.
@Sony getting hacked: On one hand I do want these companies to have better security for their customers but on the other it really isn’t right for hackers to be giving out password information either. I don’t trust these hackers motives either, and I am experiencing similar password changing/managing exhaustion as you guys as well.
http://www.geek.com/news/sony-just-got-hacked-doxxed-and-shut-down-1610274/
(I like the idea of a Pastabin, let’s do a Kickstarter for it)
@Game Devaluation: I wonder if Beyond Earth is considered a AAA game or not, since I got it digitally it was $54, nowhere near 35 much less 22. I think they’ve only recently been put on sale for lower prices for Black Friday, and of course it’s priced differently US, UK, EU and Aus all have different prices for said game. I do expect digital games to be cheaper than physical copies of the game. This also reminds me of an article where we maybe don’t value games as much as we used to due to very cheap prices and how easy it is to have a collection of a 100 games on your steam list and you’ve maybe only played a handful. That when we were children it was much harder to get a game, often you’d only have one and you played it bugs and all because that was your game. I’ve gotten a few of these bundled games and I have to admit I don’t feel the huge desire to play them much if at all. I don’t feel that same desire I did as a child when I would do extra chores and save up money just to buy ONE game.
@QotW: I would have to say my favorite Game based Cartoon would be “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego”. I loved that she wasn’t a typical Villain, she seemed to encourage the kids to try and catch her and you were learning stuff about the world as well as being entertained. I also hated the way they depicted Simon in Captain N, I think I found the “Icky” Pit and “Mega” to everything very annoying, it could be that I was slightly older at the time 8-10 so I think that act was wearing thin. I did love the Zelda Cartoon but vote goes to Carmen for helping me learn more about the world around me.