I recently completed Towers Of Chaos by PaulH and hope a short review will be helpful to anyone considering playing this game.
I had previously completed Black Flame also by Paul and enjoyed it very much. My review gave it 9/10. This has restricted me a bit in giving an overall mark for this game as I consider it to be even better! Anyway here we go
GAMEPLAY 9/10 - A much bigger game than Black Flame and more consistent with DM and CSB in terms of graphics, monster design and the overall objective of the game. Quite linear in construction but sometimes confusing and I got stuck a couple of times. The answers to the problems of continuing on were pretty tricky and I did need a couple of hints. To be fair, as often is the case the answers seemed blindingly obvious once known! and usually the clues were there to be found. I would be interested to know how other players have coped with the more tricky aspects. But these were isolated occurrences in quite a large game, (see puzzle section below) and I was generally constantly impressed with the thought and imagination that had gone into creating the dungeon.
PUZZLES 9/10. Extremely impressive variety and amount of ingenious puzzles,. Mostly set at just the right level of difficulty. On many occasions I decided I could go no further and then would have a flash of inspiration as to the answer. The degree of difficulty of the puzzles I would say is about the same as DM and again I was really impressed with the imagination and attention to detail that gone into the puzzle design. The only bugbears were a room containing numerous transporters and requiring 5 keys to be found to be able to proceed. This is clearly based on a similar puzzle on level 5 in DM but is MUCH harder! I finally got through it but wasn’t quite sure how
I hear better players than me have been reduced to despair at this point and it could maybe do with simplifying a bit. The following room with numerous pits was also a little irritating. It could be worked out by intensive mapping but required endless saving to avoid being returned to the start if one false move was made.SIZE 9/10 As previously said a bigger game than Black Flame, I would guess about the size of DM. Very well paced with no dull or empty areas but enough suitable spots to regroup and let the team have a nap from time to time ! I had no problems with food or water supplies, which I see has been a problem in the past. I assume the game has been revised following the concerns of previous players. I do tend to err on the side of caution about carrying enough nourishment but can’t see this issue causing problems for any player in the current version.
ATMOSPHERE 9/10 The mix of old and new monsters is spot on and they are well positioned to provide a shock when least expected. The degree of difficulty here is just right. I died quite a few times, QUITE a few times! and had to adjust my tactics according to each situation, this is just as it should be.
OVERALL 9/10
Not much more to say other than above. An excellent game and well worth the attention of any DM fan. I very much look forward to his next dungeon.
