Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft

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Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft
Studio United StatesUnited States Take-Two Interactive
Publisher United StatesUnited States Acclaim Entertainment
Erstveröffent-
lichung
October 31, 1996 (PlayStation)
January 7, 1997 (DOS)
platform MS-DOS , PlayStation
genre Fighting Game
Subject Dungeons and Dragons
Game mode Single player , multiplayer
control Mouse & keyboard , DualShock
medium CD-ROM
language English
Age rating
USK approved from 16

Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft is a fighting game by the American computer game developer Take-Two Interactive for PlayStation and MS-DOS . It draws its characters and backgrounds from the Ravenloft campaign world of Dungeons & Dragons . The game was released on October 31, 1996 (PlayStation) and January 7, 1997 (DOS) via the American publisher Acclaim Entertainment .

Gameplay

Iron & Blood consists of arena battles in a three-dimensional environment, for which the player can choose between 16 game characters, which are distributed among the factions of heroes and villains:

Hero faction Rogue faction
Luthor, the paladin Ardrus, the skeleton warrior
Darius the gladiator Balok
Erland, the elven archer Kaurik, the warlord
Torgo, the dwarf Stellerex, the magician
Ignatius Max, the halfling thief Sascha, the werewolf
Xenobia, the Amazon Nym Pymplee, the crazy goblin
Red Cloud, the Abber nomad shaman Urgo, the Margoyle
Shinesta, the elf princess Balthazaar, the chief

Each figure is equipped with a special weapon (e.g. sword, trident, bow, morning star, battle ax, lance), and various foot techniques can also be used. Attacks can usually be strung together as attack combinations. There is also the option of an alternative step. If the playing figure comes too close to the border of the playing field during the fight, it will be thrown back into the playing field with the help of an electric shock.

A special feature of the game is its cooperative quest mode for two players. The players fight their way up to the final boss, Graf Strahd von Zarovich, in the tournament game. Along the way, the fighters can find special artifacts that give them special powers.

development

In 1994 AD&D manufacturer TSR ended the exclusive collaboration with publisher and developer SSI and instead awarded individual licenses for the various game worlds to several manufacturers. Acclaim acquired the rights to the Ravenloft scenario and hired Take-Two to develop Iron & Blood . A version for Sega Saturn was planned, but was discontinued early.

reception

Rating mirror
PlayStation
publication Rating
Video games 71%
Electronic playground 6.5 out of 10
GamePro (US) 2 of 5
GameSpot 2.5 out of 10
IGN 4 of 10
Meta-ratings
GameRankings 46.20%
Windows
publication Rating
PC Games 60%
PC player 40%

The game received mostly bad reviews ( GameRankings : 46.20% (PSone)). Ralph Karels from Video Games magazine praised the originality of the characters, but also criticized the sometimes slow game speed and the lack of final bosses and personalized end credits. However, it never comes close to the genre reference Tekken 2 . Overall, he described the game as "decent" and gave it a fun rating of 71%. The tester of the US online game magazine IGN, on the other hand, criticized the inadequate AI and that, due to the 3D environment and the slow camera adjustment when changing direction, the player often looks in the wrong direction and is therefore often attacked from behind. Jeff Gerstmann from the online magazine GameSpot described the game as "laughable".

All Rausch from GameSpy complained about the game principle, which was not suitable for the AD&D license and the hardly existing implementation of the scenario, above all, the poor camera work, sluggish control, cruel graphics and terrible animations. Despite the interesting cooperative quest mode, it is because of the poor implementation “a game for the graveyard table from the day of publication” that it is best to forget. According to Gamasutra's Matt Barton , Iron & Blood was "a truly awful fighting game."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Ralph Karels: Gun show: Iron & Blood . (Article scan) In: Video Games . No. 11/1996, November 1996, pp. 94-95.
  2. a b Allen Rausch: A History of D&D Video Games - Part IV: 1996 ( English ) In: GameSpy . News Corp . August 18, 2004. Retrieved January 28, 2013.
  3. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Iron & Blood - Warriors of Ravenloft (Canceled) . allgame . Archived from the original on November 14, 2014. Retrieved April 24, 2009.
  4. a b Jeff Gerstmann: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft Review ( English ) In: GameSpot . CNET . December 1, 1996. Retrieved January 28, 2013.
  5. a b IGN editorial team: Iron & Blood ( English ) In: IGN . News Corp . November 25, 1996. Retrieved January 28, 2013.
  6. a b GameRankings : Average rating of the game , based on 5 ratings. Retrieved January 28, 2013.
  7. ^ Matt Barton: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part III: The Platinum and Modern Ages (1994-2004) ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM plc . April 11, 2007. Retrieved January 28, 2013.