Hi everybody,
As promised, it’s time for me to post a feedback on playing Towers Of Chaos. Please keep in mind that this was the first clone I have ever played, several years after completing DM and CSB: as a consequence, my comments could lack of comparisons aspects. Please apologize for my poor English and also because my comments might not be well structured
. Finally, I hope I didn’t reveal too many things of the game while posting this comment.
First of all, I played TOC with four characters (Chani, Sonja, Wuuf, Darooo), all being reincarnated, as I used to do in DM and CSB.
Hence, it was a bit hard to start the game (because the characters were not able to do many things, as you can imagine). Maybe it could have been easier with resurrected characters, but as a whole, I found that some places were quite hard to complete at the beginning of the game (the first flying eyes, the reading room …). I did not try to face Chaos very long, but it was somewhat nice to see him rather early in the game
One of the worst « fight » parts was the cavern (with Oitus, a golem and a poison thrower) which stands in front of the towers. It was really really hard for me to complete that place with so weak characters. Besides, I received a « Maybe we should return with more firepower » message while entering the cavern. I don’t know if this is an automatic message but if someone can explain it to me… Anyway, it could be interesting to prevent a team from entering this area before completing others stuffs, which is not the case at that time (you can nearly enter this area at the beginning of the game).
I was stuck for a long time before succeeding in opening the market place door (I just thought I had donated enough things to the church!). But I think this is ok because the solution is located in a small part of the dungeon so normally you can’t miss it.
I was stuck a really long time before understanding how I could enter the blue tower. I nearly entered the wild wood with… luck. And it is true that, sometimes, luck enabled me to advance through the dungeon: in “fast and furious” place, and also at the place where, after entering a teleport, you get locked between four grid gates (I think I was lucky because I did not stay stuck at that place, but while reading the former posts, I can see that there is something special to do in order to escape and I can’t remember me doing it on purpose). And I can also remember a place with a riddle consisting in pits, teleports and something to throw where I found the solution with luck.
I was also stuck for a long time at « surgical precision » just because I did not really explore the whole « fast and furious » way. After completing that, the solution was obvious!
I also lost some time looking for the solution to the riddle where you have opening and closing pits: I found quite quickly the hidden path and the button but… I didn’t notice exactly what the button did (I only noticed half of what it did!)
Finally, I was stuck at the end (looking for protections riddle) just because I was not careful enough: I was certain to have pressed the two eyes opening the two doors leading to the solution, but I only pressed one…
Global remarks on the dungeon:
- As I said, I would pay for game start a little easier, especially for neophytes (players or characters
. The difficulty of the rest of the game is ok,
- I think it is rather well designed and divided into parts (sometimes you get lost but, after a certain time, you know approximately where you are). The teleports which enable to go back to some places were well appreciated
. The size of the dungeon is probably good as I spent approximately the same time playing TOC as for CSB. In addition with that, I think the “linearity” of the dungeon is rather ok. And I never had to draw a map, which I don’t like (I think it’s less fun to play a dungeon if you do need to make a map in order to have a chance ton understand it). The only time I had to write things down is while exploring the place with all the teleports.
- The village has nice features, such as “double your money”, “the reading room”, and the church also. The forest is also a nice place (I did not play DM 2 so it was brand new for me) even if I tended to lose my way many times while going through it (because I wanted to be certain not to miss something before advancing the game). I also appreciated new wall papers
- Places or things I especially enjoyed: the fast and the furious, sacrify a team member, Zo Ful Ir, the KU way (as a whole and in particular, the final place with regenerating knights), the place where you buy objects with coins but not too many…unless you need to be warmed
- Nice additional stuffs: riddles (new one or renewed ones, ways you are not able to go through but which enables you to get extra-bonus…
- And other things that make me angry while thinking and that makes me laugh after understanding the reality: the false clues (Librasulus gift, corbums/zokathra…), things that looks more and less useful and that turns out to be the opposite (Gor potion, choker…), and of course, riddles which make me become crazy and whose solution is obvious when I discovered it !
- The level with the 4 skeleton keys is quite difficult (at least at the beginning where you are attacked by several monsters) but it is feasible if you manage to fight monsters one by one. However, I think that if you are unlucky or if you don’t care enough, you can die here. But, after all, this is nearly the end so it is normal that you have to face some dangerous situations at that time
- At the end, I did not like the invisible pits. Similarly, I did not enjoy the room (in the blue tower?) where some invisible stones teleport you back to the beginning of the level (with several pits).
- I clearly did not lack food during all my way through the dungeon but I think that the game has evolved since the first post I read. And especially because I found a quite good training area near the village (which enabled me to feed my characters while training them a little).
- A Little remark concerning the objects you can found through your path: I think that you could find less objects (even though it’s always cool to find something wile exploring the dungeon). Indeed, at the end of the game, I had plenty of weapons, armours, wands … and did not know what to do with them. However, at the beginning of the game, you don’t fin many things to wear.
Some bug to fix (?):
- At the place you have to use lockpics, it is possible to use 2 lockpicks (which is not useful).
- At the same place, when you cast a fire ball through an invisible teleport, if you enter the teleport (even 20 seconds after casting the fireball), you take the fireball in your face
- Generally speaking, it could be interesting to prevent people from using twice the same object on a single place: for example, you can also use (and lost…) twice the same object at the bridge.
- Some actuators (at then end of the game) don’t move (even if they do trigger something), even if you pull/push them. Just a display bug?
And now, a few questions:
- What does the jade key aims at (philosophically speaking, I mean, cause I found the door to open with)? Is it for enabling to choose additional characters if you started the game with an uncompleted team? Or Did I miss something?
- « Hang the bras to dry »: I hung, heard something happened but did not understand what. Did it open a wall which enables, further, to open the closed door next to the message?
Thanks a lot for designing the game, Paul, and see you on later posts, when I finish another clone. If you need me to clarify some of my comments, just let me know!