textfiles/games/REVIEWS/chaos.rev

 CHAOS STRIKES BACK 

 CHAOS STRIKES BACK is a sequel to DUNGEON MASTER, which has the
distinction of being the single most popular Atari ST game ever
created. Written by Doug Bell, Joe Linhoff, and Mike Newton of
Software Heaven, and published by FTL Games, CHAOS offers fabulous
graphics and animation, digitized sound, character editor, Hint
Oracle, total mouse control, save option, and copy protection. 
 

 CHAOS STRIKES BACK is not a scenario disk, and you don't really
need DUNGEON MASTER to play it. However, the four adventurers you
used to complete DM can be transferred to CHAOS, and they'll
definitely make dealing with life in CHAOS much easier. The action
kicks in hot and heavy as soon as your group (without weapons and
light) enters the CHAOS maze, and there is absolutely no time to
scope the layout. Although CHAOS, like DM, has only one dungeon, 
it's the most perfectly realized dungeon you've ever seen. 

 In DUNGEON MASTER, the Grey Lord's rash attempt to retrieve the
Power Gem tore apart the Universe. He existed in limbo, unable to
function on the material plane, while his evil side, Lord Chaos, 
split from him. Chaos could move about on the material plane and
indeed he did: He took control of the Firestaff and perverted the
Grey Lord's dungeon. His ultimate goal was to possess the Power
Gem, with which he hoped to rule the world. 

 Twenty-four warriors had already been sent into the dungeon by the
Grey Lord; all were now imprisoned in mirrors by Lord Chaos. The
Grey Lord instructed his young apprentice, Theron, to enter the
dungeon, resurrect or reincarnate four warriors, and guide them
through the fourteen levels. The purpose of the quest was to recover
the Firestaff, which would allow the Grey Lord to enter the
dungeon, retrieve the Power Gem, and become whole again. 

 CHAOS STRIKES BACK picks up shortly after DM, with Theron a full
Arch Master. Summoned by Theron to the Grey Lord's castle, the four
adventurers who braved the horrors of DM's dungeon learn that Lord
Chaos lives. Chaos forsaw his defeat in DM and made preparations: He
constructed a secret dungeon and created the Forge of Ful Ya, from
which he mined four large pieces of Corbum, an ore that sucks Mana
from the world. 

 The goal of CHAOS is to enter the secret dungeon, make your way
through a fearsome and diabolical maze, find the hidden Death
Square, and destroy the Ore of Corbum by casting the four pieces
into the Ful Ya pit, which will consume them. Success in this
endeavor will prevent the final separation of Lord Chaos from Grey
Lord, and save the Universe. 

 The ST graphics display is twofold, and all game functions are
controlled with the mouse. The action screen is a scrolling, 3-D, 
point-of-view dungeon, within which doors, gates, pits, force
fields, keys, armor, weapons, rocks, food, gems, amulets, scrolls, 
monsters, and anything else you'd find in a dungeon look (and
sound) like the real things -- or the way you'd imagine them to look
(and sound) if they didn't exist in the real world. Above the main
action screen is information about each adventurer: name, 
health/stamina/mana bars, and a pair of hands indicating "action" 
and "readiness." To the right of the action screen are combat and
magic menus, and six arrow-icons, for 90-degree turns and movement
in the cardinal directions. 

 The inventory screen, which is activated by clicking the right
mouse button on an adventurer's name, reveals the clothing and armor
currently being worn, the weapons and objects carried, food and
water levels, and health, stamina, and mana readouts. Grab an object
with the mouse, move it to the eyeball, and it will be examined in
closer detail; food can be grabbed and moved to the mouth for
consumption. A click on the sleep icon lets the group take a nap, 
which slowly restores health/stamina/mana levels. Clicking on the
disk icon calls up save/restore functions and serves as a pause
feature. Objects can be grabbed and moved between characters. 

 Symbols drive the DM/CHAOS magic system. Assuming an adventurer has
enough skill -- practice is essential -- and mana, you can click on
the appropriate symbols of Power, Elemental Influence, Form, and
Class/Alignment, and thus cast a successful spell. Spells include
Light, Fireball, Poison Antidote, Dexterity Potion, See Through
Wall, and a host of others. 

 Monsters include mummies, flying snakes, giant rats, worms, 
spiders, scorpions, wasps, stone giants, elementals, demons, 
trolls, and ghosts. Combat happens in real time: A monster will
attack and you'll have to respond promptly or it will continue to
attack, lopping off your health points in the process. Hit and run
is usually a reliable technique: Monsters don't have the luxury of
health-point regeneration, and they're not particularly fast
movers, either. Throwing objects works against some monsters; you
can trap them underneath a gate or trick them into trying to walk
across a hole in the dungeon floor. The Fireball spell works very
well; you're going to need it (and other spells) against the tougher
creatures. 

 The Atari ST version requires 512K of RAM, a color monitor, and a
mouse. The CHAOS package comes with an instruction manual, a map of
the labyrinth, a coin, an FTL decal, and program and utility disks. 
The utility disk contains the Make New Adventure/Edit Champions
option; editing is not essential but you must use Make New
Adventure. The manual suggests that you should have (at least) met
Lord Chaos in DM, since by such time the powers of the characters
will be more or less at a peak. The alternative is to enter the
CHAOS dungeon, choose four new adventurers, and save the game, after
which Make New Adventure on the utility disk will set up CHAOS. 

 The Character Editor lets you load the champions, change their
names and titles, and edit their (triple-size) portraits in 16
colors. Alterations can be saved. The 24 DM champions are reproduced
on the CHAOS utility disk. 

 The Hint Oracle reads a CHAOS save-game disk, determines the
group's current location in the dungeon, and then provides hints, 
sometimes with more than one level of detail. The Oracle is good
because you'll have help close at hand; it's not so good because you
have to save the game, turn the machine off, boot the utility disk, 
consult the Oracle, and then reboot CHAOS, a lengthy process that
seemed more troublesome than useful...well, not too troublesome. 

 The DM cult spawned all kinds of hint books, one of the most
comprehensive being the DUNGEON MASTER ADVENTURER'S HANDBOOK, from
Computer Publications. Despite the Hint Oracle, it's safe to assume
that there will be CHAOS hint books on the market sooner or later. 

 A novelty character disk, available from E&L Productions, offers 51
additional characters, including Madonna, Nixon, Rambo, Beaver
Cleaver, Batman, R2D2, Lord Vader, and many other pop-culture
stars. Each can be loaded into the CHAOS utility disk and then
edited and saved for later use. All characters, from either the
CHAOS mirrors or from this disk, begin with identical
Health/Stamina/Mana readouts and enter the CHAOS dungeon with
neither weapons nor light. 

 If GAUNTLET II is the Arcade Game of the Century (and it is), 
DUNGEON MASTER is the Computer Role-Playing Game of the Century. It
looks, sounds, and plays perfectly. It's humorous, tense, exciting, 
and great fun to play and look at. If you don't have it, you should
go out right this minute and buy it. CHAOS STRIKES BACK is even more
tense and exciting, so you ought to purchase it as well. (Be
prepared: It's also much more difficult.) 

 I could blather on and on about CHAOS STRIKES BACK. To reach the
point in the game at which I could reveal some of its secrets would
take up too much time and I'd never finish this review. 
Furthermore, even if I knew all the secrets of the game (which I
don't), I wouldn't give them away: There's nothing like the thrill
and joy of discovering them for yourself, especially in a program so
graphically superb and so eminently playable. Like its predecessor, 
CHAOS STRIKES BACK is a game to be enjoyed and savored, on your
own. You'll thank me later for not telling you much! 

 CHAOS STRIKES BACK is published and distributed by FTL Games. 

*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253