Back in the day, before 3D graphics and when people still struggled with DOS, SSI was the king of RPGs. Why? Because it held the lucrative Dungeons and Dragons license, and it successfully brought some truly great licensed games to PC, which have an X-Factor that in many ways has not been bettered since, even by Bioware.
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| Just looking at this screenshot brings back memories of many, many childhood hours |
Looking at the list of some of the greats, it could almost be a ‘best of’ list; there’s Death Knights of Krynn
, Eye of the Beholder, Menzoberranzan, Pool of Radiance and the Ravenloft horror RPGs, Strahd’s Possession and Stone Prophet. These games were universally capable of bringing Dungeons and Dragons fans into their favourite game worlds at a time where the value of Dungeons and Dragons was peaking, and there were more game worlds then people were capable of following.
, Eye of the Beholder, Menzoberranzan
, Pool of Radiance
and the Ravenloft horror RPGs, Strahd’s Possession and Stone Prophet
. These games were universally capable of bringing Dungeons and Dragons fans into their favourite game worlds at a time where the value of Dungeons and Dragons was peaking, and there were more game worlds then people were capable of following. But the best of them is the lost-to-history Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager. It was a supremely detailed game that encouraged exploration and consequence before the likes of Baldur’s Gate had even been thought of. As such it was also endlessly replayable, and as it was set in a game world that goes against the grain for modern fantasy, it remains, even now, reasonably unique.
. It was a supremely detailed game that encouraged exploration and consequence before the likes of Baldur’s Gate had even been thought of. As such it was also endlessly replayable, and as it was set in a game world that goes against the grain for modern fantasy, it remains, even now, reasonably unique.  |
| The character creation in this game was insanely detailed for its time |
Dark Sun was a deeply unpleasant world, and the perfect example of low-powered fantasy. The starving and thirsty pockets of civilization groaned under the whip of supremely powerful tyrants. Resistance movements dug themselves so deeply underground that they were unable to achieve anything of note. Five steps outside of those pockets of life were cruel wastelands, ruled over by merciless thugs and weird, amoral creatures.
Just surviving under this sun was an achievement, which is precisely what made Wake of the Ravager such an intriguing concept – what you did, and what you tried to do, could have substantial consequences. It was entirely possibly to accidentally cause the death of the resistance movement by failing to come to its aid. It was all too easy to wander into a fight well beyond your character’s means. It wasn’t from a lack of raw power – the skills and abilities of the party were broad. It was just that the enemy was even more powerful.
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| You don’t actually have to help the Veiled Alliance if you want to play mean |
In the place of dungeons were ruins, mines and city brawls. The story focused almost entirely around a single city, which meant the world felt, in some ways, more limited than other RPGs at the time, but also meant the city itself could have more intrigue and locations built into it. The underground of the city of Tyr was a massive adventure in itself. The brief walk to the mines contained a hours-long sidequest involving a ruins haunted by snake-men. Amusingly, this was a criticism that was also unfairly levelled at Dragon Age 2, but Wake of the Ravager might not have felt epic, but it was always engaging.
In true Dungeons and Dragons fashion there was a huge range of character options – including some races and classes unique to the setting, such as the giant mantis men Thri-Kreen and the half giant gladiators. Playing around with the various character classes to find the most effective, or most interesting teams was always reason in itself to replay the game.
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| Evil snake men. Killing them all was a heck of a challenge |
And it was possible for teams to tackle objectives in different manners. Busting down doors and beating heads in was challenging, but possible, but so was talking through many situations, or finding back doors into areas the heroes were not meant to visit. Given the game itself was quite long for the time, the sheer replay value of Wake of the Ravager was a massive selling point.
Of course, Wake of the Ravager also wasn’t the most accessible of games. Working on the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Second Edition ruleset, you’d almost need a mathematics degree at times to make sense of it. As a RPG gamer I loved it, but acronyms such as THAC0 (To Hit Armor Class 0) and understanding that better armour made your armour value go down was difficult for the more casual players to wrap their minds around.
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| It isn’t the prettiest game, but a remake would fix that now, wouldn’t it? |
TSR was later acquired by the current owners of the Dungeons and Dragons IP, Wizards of the Coast, and it wasn’t until the last year or so that the Dark Sun setting has had any attention paid to it since those days. Which is a pity. The setting retains a raw power and energy that is sorely missing from modern RPGs. While the likes of Dragon Age do indeed feature a dark setting, you still end up being the all conquering hero. Dark Sun works on the philosophy that a hero’s actions have that much more weight when the hero themselves are battling literally impossible odds.
For that reason, it would be nice to see this game or setting revived in some way. It’s unlikely – SSI’s IP is now owned by Ubisoft, while Atari has the D & D license, but a revisit to the Dark Sun world is well overdue. The success of Demon’s Souls shows there is a market out there for insanely difficult RPGs that really stack the odds up against you.
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Interesting article – I had never played this one. I had gotten a chance to play a few of the other D&D classics like Pools of Radiance and Curse of the Azure bonds. I was a tabletop D&D player back in late high school and early college too, so while I felt right at home on these old PC games, I know what you mean about how these could be challenging games for newer players to get into. This sounds like a game I'd have played a ton of once upon a time. GOG.com has a lot of the semi-older D&D games (like Buldar's Gate and Neverwinter Nights) – cut considering they have managed to unearth some other classic RPG games like Might & Magic, it would be cool if they ever did ones like this as well and added them to their collection.
Interesting article – I had never played this one. I had gotten a chance to play a few of the other D&D classics like Pools of Radiance and Curse of the Azure bonds. I was a tabletop D&D player back in late high school and early college too, so while I felt right at home on these old PC games, I know what you mean about how these could be challenging games for newer players to get into. This sounds like a game I'd have played a ton of once upon a time. GOG.com has a lot of the semi-older D&D games (like Buldar's Gate and Neverwinter Nights) – cut considering they have managed to unearth some other classic RPG games like Might & Magic, it would be cool if they ever did ones like this as well and added them to their collection.
I remember as a young kid saving my pocket money for months so I could buy a collection of games called "The Dungeons and Dragons Masterpiece Collection." It had this game and it's prequel, Shattered Lands, Stone Prophet, Strahd's Possession, Menzoberranzan, a fun little Zelda rip Genie's Curse.
When I finally bought the game it literally lasted me a year. I loved that box.
I remember as a young kid saving my pocket money for months so I could buy a collection of games called "The Dungeons and Dragons Masterpiece Collection." It had this game and it's prequel, Shattered Lands, Stone Prophet, Strahd's Possession, Menzoberranzan, a fun little Zelda rip Genie's Curse.
When I finally bought the game it literally lasted me a year. I loved that box.
On a related note: Does anyone know of a really easy to use DOS emulator for Windows 7? I have no technical skill, but would love to go back and play some favourites.
On a related note: Does anyone know of a really easy to use DOS emulator for Windows 7? I have no technical skill, but would love to go back and play some favourites.
You mentioned Strahd's Possession – I've have been curious about that. I played and read quite a few D&D books, with the Dragonlance and Ravenloft series being my favorite (Forgotten Realms was a distant 3rd).
Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with any good DOS emulators. Seems like most of them just don't work the way you'd expect, and I long ago gave up on messing w/ them. Didn't really have enough games to justify the research. I'd be curious though if you get any good guidance on the matter.
You mentioned Strahd's Possession – I've have been curious about that. I played and read quite a few D&D books, with the Dragonlance and Ravenloft series being my favorite (Forgotten Realms was a distant 3rd).
Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with any good DOS emulators. Seems like most of them just don't work the way you'd expect, and I long ago gave up on messing w/ them. Didn't really have enough games to justify the research. I'd be curious though if you get any good guidance on the matter.
I'll be doing a look back on Strahd's Possession in the not too distant future, so keep an eye out 🙂
I'll be doing a look back on Strahd's Possession in the not too distant future, so keep an eye out 🙂
very cool. loved the books – including the first in the Ravenloft series that features Strahd. (I liked the 2nd one as well, Knight of the Black Rose, because it involved Soth from the Dragonlance series) 🙂
very cool. loved the books – including the first in the Ravenloft series that features Strahd. (I liked the 2nd one as well, Knight of the Black Rose, because it involved Soth from the Dragonlance series) 🙂
Best DOS emulator I know is Dosbox (http://www.dosbox.com/) which fully supports both The Shattered Lands and Wake of the Ravager. It just gives you a dos screen and a few command line options to mount drives, after which most games I know work.
You can speed up or slow down the virtual processor if the game speed is off 😉
I'm a great fan of Dark Sun (still run a 3.5 campaign 3 years going on) but find it hard to wrap my mind around the graphical limitations of the old SSI games – maybe I should persist.
Best DOS emulator I know is Dosbox (http://www.dosbox.com/) which fully supports both The Shattered Lands and Wake of the Ravager. It just gives you a dos screen and a few command line options to mount drives, after which most games I know work.
You can speed up or slow down the virtual processor if the game speed is off 😉
I'm a great fan of Dark Sun (still run a 3.5 campaign 3 years going on) but find it hard to wrap my mind around the graphical limitations of the old SSI games – maybe I should persist.
Hi Vilehelm,
Thank you for the advice – I've struggled with Dosbox in the past, but perhaps I just need to give it another go.
Glad to hear there are some people still playing Dark Sun – it was by far my favourite 2nd edition setting. I was very glad to see it was given a proper treatment with hardcover books for 4th edition, but I haven't played a game of it yet. I'm concerned that the general high power levels of fourth edition would clash with the lo-fi Dark Sun setting, but we'll see 🙂
Hi Vilehelm,
Thank you for the advice – I've struggled with Dosbox in the past, but perhaps I just need to give it another go.
Glad to hear there are some people still playing Dark Sun – it was by far my favourite 2nd edition setting. I was very glad to see it was given a proper treatment with hardcover books for 4th edition, but I haven't played a game of it yet. I'm concerned that the general high power levels of fourth edition would clash with the lo-fi Dark Sun setting, but we'll see 🙂
Deathknights of Krynn!
That was my favorite game! 😀
Deathknights of Krynn!
That was my favorite game! 😀
I got this game twice, the original and as part of the Masterpiece Collection. Such a great game. Dark Sun and Planescape were the two best setting D&D ever had.
I got this game twice, the original and as part of the Masterpiece Collection. Such a great game. Dark Sun and Planescape were the two best setting D&D ever had.
Yes, I would agree with your comments, if it weren't for the show-stopping bugs. Did they ever patch the Dark Sun games to work reliably?
Ravager had some of the same feeling as Baldur's Gate II –the feeling that there's a new quest or plot twist under ever rock in the city. There were some gameplay issues (like units covering each other in battlefield) and the graphics and sound effects were just plain weird, but the game had something many "fancier" RPGs lack: FUN… Until the bugs. Both of my playthroughs fell through because of bugs. I guess the game won.
Yes, I would agree with your comments, if it weren't for the show-stopping bugs. Did they ever patch the Dark Sun games to work reliably?
Ravager had some of the same feeling as Baldur's Gate II –the feeling that there's a new quest or plot twist under ever rock in the city. There were some gameplay issues (like units covering each other in battlefield) and the graphics and sound effects were just plain weird, but the game had something many "fancier" RPGs lack: FUN… Until the bugs. Both of my playthroughs fell through because of bugs. I guess the game won.
You know, I never had quite the same problems with bugs as everyone else. I have no idea why, but I was able to complete the game multiple times. Other times it bugged out on me, yes, but not always.
Still, you are right. This review should have mentioned that. My bad for not. I still think it's the best cRPG I've ever played despite that, but there are indeed some crippling bugs people have had to deal with.
You know, I never had quite the same problems with bugs as everyone else. I have no idea why, but I was able to complete the game multiple times. Other times it bugged out on me, yes, but not always.
Still, you are right. This review should have mentioned that. My bad for not. I still think it's the best cRPG I've ever played despite that, but there are indeed some crippling bugs people have had to deal with.
My favourite game!!!!! At last some justice!
My favourite game!!!!! At last some justice!
There's a v1.1 patch available for Wake of the Ravager, which you can download at The Patches Scroll: http://www.patches-scrolls.de/
Just search for "Wake of the Ravager". There are 3 different 1.1 patches depending on what version of the game you have (disk, CD, or jewel case).
There's a v1.1 patch available for Wake of the Ravager, which you can download at The Patches Scroll: http://www.patches-scrolls.de/
Just search for "Wake of the Ravager". There are 3 different 1.1 patches depending on what version of the game you have (disk, CD, or jewel case).
concerning DosBox, there are lots of cool frontends that make running basically any game a piece of cake. no more command-line troubles, no unwieldy keyboard shortcuts to remember! personally, I prefer D-Fend Reloaded (which can be downloaded from the DosBox homepage), since it has a nice interface and auto-updates.
concerning DosBox, there are lots of cool frontends that make running basically any game a piece of cake. no more command-line troubles, no unwieldy keyboard shortcuts to remember! personally, I prefer D-Fend Reloaded (which can be downloaded from the DosBox homepage), since it has a nice interface and auto-updates.
I wouldn't say the character creation was "insanely detailed", since other RPGs had already featured far more complex systems (such as the first Realms of Arkania, which came out on the same year). Aside from that, it's a great retrospective of a very good game (just not as good as the first one, IMO, which is definately one of the forgotten classics among DOS RPGs).
I wouldn't say the character creation was "insanely detailed", since other RPGs had already featured far more complex systems (such as the first Realms of Arkania, which came out on the same year). Aside from that, it's a great retrospective of a very good game (just not as good as the first one, IMO, which is definately one of the forgotten classics among DOS RPGs).
Great review of the game that introduced me to RPGs on the computer when I was a kid. I still remember that weekend when a friend and I sat playing this for ten hours straight at my father's office. We just forgot the time. 🙂