textfiles/games/REVIEWS/deathkk.rev

 DEATH KNIGHTS OF KRYNN 

 The War of the Lance has been over for many years, but still the
land of Ansalon, in the world of Krynn, is besieged by evil forces. 
One year earlier, a brave band of adventurers succeeded in defeating
the evil Aurak Draconian Myrtani, servant of the goddess Takhisis. 

 In the first SSI Dragonlance adventure, CHAMPIONS OF KRYNN, Myrtani
and his Death Knight ally, Sir Lebaum, raised an army of Draconians
and undead. They used their forces to steal dragon eggs overlooked
after The War of the Lance, with the intent of using powerful magic
to corrupt the eggs into a massive Draconian army. The Solamnic
Knights, kept ignorant of Myrtani's mass corruption ability by
misinformation, would attack his stronghold in Kernen and be
slaughtered by a huge army of rapidly created Draconians. 

 A small group of novice adventurers discovered Myrtani's plans, and
though their warnings to the Solamnic leadership went mostly
unheeded, they slipped into Kernen and battled Myrtani. They stopped
the mass corruption, saved the Knights from a disastrous ambush, and
became true CHAMPIONS OF KRYNN. 

 As DEATH KNIGHTS OF KRYNN begins, you have been invited back to
Gargath outpost to celebrate the one year anniversary of the defeat
of Myrtani. This is also a sad occasion, as it is a commemoration of
those who fell, as well as a memorial to Sir Karl, former commander
of the outpost who was slain by the forces of Myrtani. The memorial
is to be given by Maya, Sir Karl's lover, a white dragon able to
assume human form. 

 During the ceremony, Sir Karl himself, raised from the dead by the
evil Lord Soth and converted to a Death Knight, swoops down on the
outpost with a force of Skeletal Knights and Nightmares. After
dropping some items he obtained from a previous battle with Solamnic
Knights, and stealing the powerful Dragonlance on display, he flies
off with Maya in pursuit. With the shock of his return and his
taunts still ringing in your ears, you are immediately thrust into
battle with a defensive force he left behind. (This review is based
on the IBM-PC version of the game.) 

 To save Krynn from this new threat of undead forces commanded by
Lord Soth, you will have to follow Sir Karl's trail, battle hordes
of Skeletal Knights and clerics who serve Takhisis, earn the trust
of Lord Soth's former right hand man, uncover treacheries, and
finally defeat Lord Soth himself. Along the way, you can elect to
embark on side missions around Krynn, earning experience, righting
wrongs, and collecting valuable magic items. 

 As in CHAMPIONS, the game is pretty linear and driven by the
story. There are several side missions as well, but the main plot is
event-triggered: You have all the time you want, and the events are
set in motion in the form of quests, or by discovering clues. 

 When the main villian is vanquished, a maze called "Dave's
Challenge" will be accessible in the NW corner of the map. At
Champion level, it truly is a "killer maze," complete with Iron
Golems, Flesh Golems, and a final room with five Spectral Dragons, 
Vampires, Spectres, and Death Knights -- a little added bonus for
those who want a bit more for their buck! 

 For those unfamiliar with the SSI AD&D games, the game relies
heavily on magic and magic items. There are lots of undead creatures
in this one, as Lord Soth is stealing the bodies of Knights to
convert to Death Knights. Death Knights are immune to most magic, 
can reflect some magic, can cast one powerful blast Fireball per
day, and can cause fear in those around them. There are lots of
level-draining vampires, spectres, and other ghoulies, making it
tough to keep your levels up. At almost every turn, you will run
into Skeletal Knights and magic users, many of which cast Slay
Living, powerful Magic Missiles, and other nasty spells. It's almost
a must that each character be part cleric, magic user, fighter, or
all three, to stand and fight these undead legions. 

 The starting party supplied with the game can get you all the way
through, for those who have no prior experience with AD&D. I was
able to win the game playing at Champion (hardest) level all the
way, using the default party, so I'm sure a beginner can win at
Veteran (default) level. The level may be set or changed at any
time, from five choices (Novice to Champion), allowing you to get
past those tough battles. The level selected, unlike previous
games, will affect the number of opponents (in most cases), their
hit points, and their magic damage (dragons especially). However, 
the lower the level, the less experience gained per battle, and the
slower your characters advance. 

 You may use the starting party, create your own characters, or
transfer them from CHAMPIONS. The default party and most created
characters begin with Plate mail armor, Long Sword +1 (Hoopak +1 for
Kendars), Mace +1 (really better against all those Undead), and a
normal shield. Knights automatically get Solamnic Plate armor. 
Transferred characters get everything they had at the end of
CHAMPIONS; if you transfer characters that haven't finished, they
lose the nice items like the Dragonlance (you'll find one later). 

 The game interface accepts keyboard, mouse, or joystick input, and
the command menus are highlighted for clicking (or you may press the
first letter of your choice). The targeting system cycles through
the enemies only, where it formerly cycled through allies, also. 
Manual targeting is available, so you can place that fireball just
so, and you'll have to confirm attacking an ally. NPCs acting on
their own, as well as PCs in "quick" mode, still do pretty stupid
things, like shooting normal arrows at magic or undead creatures. 
The "quick" mode is pretty useless, and wastes spells and magic
items. 

 If you have a Knight in the party, a "leadership check" is made at
the start of combat, allowing you to control some or all of the
NPCs. This is a nice improvement; it stops NPCs from rushing at the
enemy when you want to Fireball them, and stops them from casting
unneccessary spells. Other improvements have been made in the combat
system, but you'll only appreciate them if you were annoyed by the
games before the changes. 

 In the version I have (1.00), money is no problem. In fact, you
aren't charged for any healing that I could see, and Knights no
longer automatically tithe when entering a city, as in CHAMPIONS. 
Every battle with wizards or clerics in the enemy ranks nets at
least two Bracers AC 6, each worth 3000 SP each. There is only one
shop later in the game that sells 10 arrows +2 for 5K SP, and a Dart
of Hornet's Nest for 15K SP. Even with the new vault feature for
storing items and loot, I had so much jewelry and gems that I
started just dropping money because of the weight. 

 They changed the "Fix" command, so you may not memorize spells
while automatically healing the party; that was a nice "bug," 
though. Mages may only be of the Red or White Robe order; you still
can't play an evil Black Robe mage. Unlike standard AD&D, mages and
their powers are affected by the moons of Krynn. When the moon
(shown at the top of the screen) governing your mage is full, he can
memorize bonus spells, and his magic is more potent. Once you
specify a set of spells to memorize, you need not re-enter them each
time you rest in camp mode. This, while a nice feature, has a
loophole: If your moon is full, and you select two extra spells to
memorize, you will be able to memorize these bonus spells even when
the moon is new. 

 One bug that really bothered me occurred in Vingaard Keep. I
entered a room adjacent to the bar and found I could not exit. Every
time I re-entered the bar, the options were "Have a Drink," "Talk," 
or "Leave." If you "Leave," you're back in the room. If you "Talk" 
or "Drink," nothing else happens. The only solution is to keep
trying the three options until you pass out (bad), or until the
message "You do it too loudly" appears and a battle ensues. After
the fight, you're outside the room, inside the bar, free to leave
another way. 

 The plot of DKOK is well done, and like the other SSI games, vital
info is provided by looking up "Journal Entries." For the nosy
folks, of course, the Adventurer's Journal also contains some "red
herrings." The story contains side quests, plot twists and
deceptions: There are a couple of surprises, a romantic plot
resolution between Sir Karl and Maya, and two loosely allied enemy
factions. 

 Copy protection consists of a Journal Entry word look-up when
beginning a session, and a word look-up in the Rule Book
occasionally when saving a game. You may save up to 10 games, 
labeled A through J. The manual itself doesn't give you as much
background on the world of Krynn as CHAMPIONS did, so those
unaquainted with the Dragonlance world may have some complaints. I
think they did a little better explaining the spells and magic
items, but fell a bit short explaining the classes and races. 

 My game came on two 5-1/4" floppy disks, but 3-1/2" disks are
available. The game may be played from two floppy drives, one floppy
and hard drive, or hard drive only. Even on my system, a 386/33
clone, hard drive loads and saves take about a minute. I wouldn't
want to run it from floppies, as five 5-1/4" or three 3-1/2" disks
are required, plus one for saves. A minimum of 1.5Mb of free space
is needed on your hard drive. 

 DOS 2.1 or greater and 640K of RAM are required. CGA, EGA, and
Tandy 1000 16-color graphics are supported. VGA users only get EGA
graphics, although they are good. Keyboard, mouse, and joystick are
supported, though the mouse won't work with Tandy graphics. Sound
boards are supported, but if it's like CHAMPIONS, the music and
sound effects are just as good through the PC speaker. 

 Taken as a whole, DEATH KNIGHTS OF KRYNN is another good AD&D game
from SSI. They keep working on the game engine, and although its not
perfect, it keeps improving. DEATH KNIGHTS also has a good plot and
interesing side missions, and if played at CHAMPION level should
give you a run for your money. 

 DEATH KNIGHTS OF KRYNN is published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. 
and distributed by Electronic Arts.