Hillsfar
| Hillsfar | |
|---|---|
 | |
| European version logo | |
| Studio |
Westwood Associates Puppet (NES) |
| Publisher |
SSI U.S. Gold (Amiga) Pony Canyon (Famicom) FCI (NES) |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1989 November 4, 1993 (NES) |
| platform | Commodore Amiga , Atari ST , Commodore 64 , Nintendo Entertainment System / Famicom , MS-DOS |
| genre | Computer role playing game |
| Game mode | Single player |
| medium | Cartridge , floppy disk |
| language | English |
Hillsfar is a computer role-playing game developed by Westwood Associates on behalf of SSI and released in 1989 for MS-DOS , Amiga , Atari ST and Commodore 64 . It combines real-time action with randomly generated quests. It also includes standard gameplay elements from the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons RPG set of rules , on which the game is based. In 1993 Hillsfar was ported by the Japanese development studio Marionette to the game console Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
Gameplay
The game begins with character creation, for which three options are available: choosing a pre-generated character, creating a new character or importing an existing character from a previous AD&D computer game from SSI, e.g. Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds . When recreating the game, the player can determine the race (dwarf, elf, human, gnome), the class (cleric, fighter, magic user, villain) and the ethos (righteous, chaotic, neutral, good, evil). Statistical character values such as strength and intelligence are determined by the computer through random values.
There are two aspects of the game. On the one hand, arcade action, in which the player performs various tasks in the form of mini-games, such as the search for treasure and the journey between the locations. On the other hand, the adventure aspect, when the player solves quests. The choice of character class has an impact on the available quests, three for each class. While quests must be completed in a given order, "it is up to you what you do in the rest of the time" and the player is thus free to explore the other aspects of the game.
The game is presented from three different perspectives. During the overland trip, the scene is shown in a side perspective. Within the town of Hillsfar, the game changes to a bird's eye view . Caves, on the other hand, are shown from a first-person view . The interaction of the game character with the game world is made possible by a from Leslie Fiser from the game magazine COMPUTE! A trigger system known as the “bump interface” (from English: to bump = to push), which triggers actions as soon as the character hits the corresponding game object.
reception
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Hillsfar's reviews were mixed up. In general, the combination of arcade action and adventure was well received. Andy Smith from the game magazine Amiga Format gave a score of 72% and stated that SSI had successfully managed to produce "a good game that combines an independent mix of two very different styles". Bob Guerra from the games magazine COMPUTE! commended the arcade-like sequences, writing that Hillsfar "does a far better job than most of the others at integrating these high-quality sequences into the plot." Roe Adams from Computer Gaming World especially praised the villain's lock-picking sequence, but otherwise noted that the game would otherwise not meet expectations. In particular, Adams criticized both the repetitive travel sequence on horseback and the fact that magicians and clerics did not cast spells during the game.
Other reviewers were unimpressed with the overall impression. Both Andy Slaven, author of the Video Game Bible, 1985-2002 , and Lucinda Orr from Amiga Computing criticized the overall gameplay. Slaven found the game lacking a guide and described it as a "collection of pointless tasks and challenges". This was in line with Orr's criticism, who, while impressed with some of the mini-games and described them as “quite entertaining and graphically effective”, found the game generally boring and wrote, “There isn't very much to raise the interest above to maintain critical boredom levels ”. Even more negative was the rating of the NES version by John Cooper for the website Console Classix , who called Hillsfar "the worst role-playing game of all time". The Amiga Joker stated that Hillsfar "doesn't have much in common with a real role-playing game (...)" and that it only offers enough entertainment value for a short play.
The game was reviewed in issue 147 of the official D&D magazine Dragon by Hartley, Patricia and Kirk Lesser in their column The Role of Computers , where the game received three stars out of five. They compared Hillsfar to Pool of Radiance . According to their test, Hillsfar's adventure lacks depth and is less captivating than Pool of Radiance , yet they called it "a nice adventure to shorten the waiting time for SSI to release Azure Bonds " [Note: Curse is meant is of the Azure Bonds ]. The testers concluded by saying that “If you liked Pool of Radiance , you will also like Hillsfar ”.
According to a retrospective by Allen Rausch for the online game magazine GameSpy , the game was viewed by many as "a failed experiment" but the "good news" was that "Westwood Studios continued to make some far better games."
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Lucinda Orr: The bitterest hill is hard to take . In: Amiga Computing , December 1, 1989, pp. 42–43.
- ↑ Dennis Lynch: CES Gems Not Here Yet, But These Titles Will Tide You Over . In: Chicago Tribune , June 2, 1989, p. 58.
- ^ A b Bob Guerra: Hillsfar . In: COMPUTE! , September 1, 1998, p. 67.
- ^ A b Andy Smith: Hillsfar . In: Amiga Format , December 1, 1989, p. 41.
- ^ Leslie Fiser: Games Kids Love to Read . In: COMPUTE! , November 1990, p. 80.
- ↑ a b Werner Hiersekorn: Hillsfar . In: Amiga Joker . December 1989, p. 64.
- ↑ Roe Adams: The Dark Arena . In: Computer Gaming World , September 1989, p. 16.
- ^ Andy Slaven: Video Game Bible, 1985-2002 . Trafford Publishing, 2002, ISBN 1-55369-731-6 , p. 107.
- ^ John Cooper: AD&D Hillsfar . In: Console Classix . Retrieved November 30, 2008.
- ↑ Hartley, Patricia and Kirk Lesser: The Role of Computers . In: Dragon . No. 147, July 1989, pp. 76-83.
- ^ Allen Rausch: A History of D&D Video Games . In: GameSpy . August 15, 2004. Retrieved December 23, 2009.