Shannara
| Shannara | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | Legend Entertainment | ||
| Publisher | Legend Entertainment | ||
| Senior Developer |
Corey Cole Lori Ann Cole |
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| Erstveröffent- lichung |
December 1995 | ||
| platform | MS-DOS | ||
| genre | Adventure | ||
| medium | CD-ROM | ||
| language | German English | ||
| copy protection | CD query | ||
| Age rating |
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Shannara is a computer game from the US game developer Legend Entertainment . The adventure is based on the Shannara cycle by US fantasy author Terry Brooks . It was published in 1995 for personal computers with the MS-DOS operating system .
action
Shannara is set in the Four Lands, the post-apocalyptic fantasy world based on the novel. Shea Ohmsford from the region Shady Vale had once with the help of the legendary "Sword of Shannara" ( Sword of Shannara defeated) the evil sorcerer Brona and now lives as an innkeeper in the village Shady Vale a peaceful life. However, Brona's spirit has been summoned and seeks revenge on those who once opposed him. For this he put together an army of monsters and now moves against Shady Vale and the neighboring Leah. The player takes on the role of Jak, Shea Ohmsford's son. The latter sees Jak as his successor as an innkeeper, but the boy would rather experience adventure.
The druid Allanon, an old friend of Shea, meets Jak outside of Shady Vale and informs him of the impending danger. While Allanon wants to warn Shea and urge him to organize the defense of Shady Vale, Jak is to warn Lord Menion of Leah. From this he received the order to look for the "Sword of Shannara" in the northwestern fortress Tyrsis, since only with the help of this sword Brona can be stopped. Shella, Menion's daughter, accompanies Jak at his side. Jak finds the sword, but it is destroyed and must be magically charged using four artifacts in order to use it. These artifacts are distributed over the four warring realms ( Four Lands ) of elves, gnomes, humans and dwarves, and Jak must unite the races for the fight against Brona in order to be able to obtain the artifacts and ultimately defeat Brona.
Game principle and technology
Shannara is a 2D point-and-click adventure . It marks a transition from the text adventure that was customary in the 1980s to the graphic adventure , as the game is presented in text form and only accompanied by graphics. Most of the screen is occupied by hand-drawn, partly animated images in SVGA resolution that illustrate the respective locations of the game world. They represent the events from the first person perspective , ie the player himself cannot be seen. The game is described in a text window. Control elements and the player's inventory are arranged at the bottom and right of the screen. The interaction with the game world takes place with the help of several of these control elements: The player selects an object in the main window or in the inventory by clicking on it, whereupon context-sensitive commands are made available to use the object. It may be necessary to select a further object that is used in combination with the first object. The navigation takes place in that the player maneuvers the game character over a two-dimensional map of the game world. Between sequences , which are often held end parallel to action of the player event represent are in rendering graphics maintained. The game keeps track of what has been experienced so far in a digital diary, so that the player can always get an overview of what is happening and his current tasks.
In terms of content, Shannara is largely linear. The game world is divided into localities, which have to be explored in a fixed order and which each comprise a few rooms. At each location there are tasks to complete and puzzles to be solved before the player can travel to the next location. A return to places already visited does not take place.
Shannara contains several RPG elements. On the one hand, the player is joined by five NPCs in the course of the game , so that a group of players results, as in role-playing games. In addition, the game is regularly interrupted, especially when maneuvering over the map, by turn-based combat, in which the player selects an action for each member of his group per combat round and the computer does this for the computer opponent (s). Fights that have been won have no effect on further game play; lost fights can be restarted as often as required. Outside of combat, instead of performing actions, the player can assign them to the NPCs in his group. Since the members of the group have different characteristics and skills and have their own inventory, tasks can be solved by NPCs that would not be solvable for the player himself.
Production notes
In the early 1990s, Terry Brooks was considered the number 2 fantasy writer after JRR Tolkien . Legend Entertainment gained experience through the implementation of novels by Frederik Pohl as adventure games. Both parties agreed to produce an adventure game based on the first three books of the Shannara cycle ( The Sword of Shannara , The Elf Stones of Shannara and The Magic Song of Shannara ). Although Legend Entertainment had its own experienced authors in the form of Bob Bates and Steve Meretzky , the company was looking for external authors to design the script. Bates used his contacts to the couple Corey and Lori Ann Cole, who were responsible for the Quest-for-Glory games for Sierra On-Line , which, like Shannara Adventures, were with role-playing elements. The Coles had just quit Sierra because the company did not want to provide them with the required budget for the planned fifth part of the series. Legend hired the Coles, and Bob Bates was the producer of the game, helping them create the puzzles. In terms of content, the computer game is located between the first two books of the Sword of Shannara trilogy. Terry Brooks initially expressed concern about whether the script would fit in well with his Shannara cosmos, but was satisfied with the work of the Coles.
The first English-language edition of Shannara included the novel The Sword of Shannara . Shannara was the only game from Legend Entertainment to have a German voiceover. Because of the extensive localization work , it was only released six months late in German-speaking countries. A total of 20 speakers were engaged for the German-language version, who had to speak 200,000 words.
The sales figures of the game were unsatisfactory, so that a planned successor game was not realized.
speaker
| role | English speaker | German speaker |
|---|---|---|
| Allanon | Tom Kane | Gert Günther Hoffmann |
| Shella | Johna Stewart | Yvonne Alefeld |
| Guardian of Leah | Ken Mars | Alexander Schottky |
| Converter | Michael Gough | Karl Lauber |
| Servant of Leah | Jim Piddock | Rolf D. Busch |
| Herbalist | Michael Gough | Pius Maria Cüppers |
| Menion of Leah | Ron Feinberg | Henrik Helge |
| Guardian of Tyrsis | Michael Gough | Dieter Brandecker |
| Brendel | Jack Angel | Bernd Kuschmann |
| Seneschal | Tom Kane | Henrik Helge |
| Balinor | Ed Gilbert | Gerhard Fehn |
| Brona | Tom Kane | Dieter Brandecker |
| Short notice | Ron Feinberg | Gerhard Fehn |
| Lessa | Lori Alan | Brigitte Stroebel |
| Davio | Tom Kane | Walter Gontermann |
| Arion | Danny Mann | Pius Maria Cüppers |
| teller | John Rhys-Davies | Rolf Schult |
reception
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Shannara received mostly positive reviews. The PC Joker pointed out that the story of the game was so exciting and the puzzles so logical and fair that the game could well have been written by Terry Brooks himself. Editor Mick Schnelle praised the “beautifully drawn SVGA images and impressive renderings” as well as “good voice output that always matches the characters”. There was criticism of the “bogus” map on which the group of players travels between landmarks, as well as the “somewhat outdated handling”, which works well due to clever anticipation of the actions planned by the player. PC Player noted a complex game world with complex characters and a believable story. The magazine positively highlighted “refreshingly ironic” texts, the “slightly antique feel” and at the same time logical and relatively difficult puzzles, but criticized the lack of atmospheric rendering sequences and the role-playing elements that functioned as “dazzling”. The US magazine GameSpot praised “crisp, realistic graphics and an economical but powerful soundtrack”, an “extremely effective” game surface and the “refreshing and well implemented” puzzles. The "lifeless" fights and the degree of difficulty of the puzzles were highlighted negatively - in sum, Shannara is more advisable to adventure beginners than to professionals. The German-speaking Power Play complained about the old-fashioned technology of the game, but saw a "crisp story (and) tricky puzzles" and flawless German localization. The magazine recommended Shannara, especially for those new to the genre, because of the easily accessible puzzles.
In a retrospective for the print magazine Retro Gamer , editor Mick Schnelle (who had worked for PC Joker in 1996 ) criticized an "ugly" intro that presented a "confused" plot in 2015 . The game itself is "wonderfully designed" and has a story that sets standards, excellent character design and beautiful puzzles. No other game known to him represents such a successful transition from a literary model to a game. In particular, the character of Shella ensures a close bond between the player and the game, as she is a “ball of sympathy of the very highest order”. The operation is also "comfortable down to the (sic) last pixel". Schnell pointed out, however, that the Cole couple had "largely failed" when merging adventure and role-playing games. The combat system is "a zero number that probably only served to make the marketing department (because of the marketability as a gene hybrid) happy". Kurt Kalata from the US retro magazine Hardcore Gaming 101 pointed out in 2011 that Terry Brooks was criticized as early as 1977 for his unrestrained plagiarism of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings for his Shannara novels, that the computer game Shannara adheres closely to Brooks' cosmos and that the result is correspondingly clichéd fantasy literature and therefore seems a bit bland. Kalata also showed that, unlike previous Legend games , Shannara has significantly less text and dialogue, which makes it difficult for the player to bond with allied NPCs. According to his judgment, the role-playing game system with the walk-through map only creates an illusion of freedom, as the game is actually extremely linear and deviating from the intended path either results in fatal fights or the player is gently guided in the right direction by the group members. All in all, the game is a disappointment despite the participation of the experienced Coles.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Kurt Kalata (Ed.): The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures . Hardcoregaming101, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4609-5579-6 , pp. 324 .
- ↑ a b c d Mick Schnelle: Classic check: Shannara . In: Retro Gamer . June 2015, p. 40.
- ^ AdventureClassicGaming.com: Lori Ann Cole: Interview. Accessed April 30, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c d Jörg Langer: Shannara . In: PC Player . February 1996, p. 58.
- ↑ HardcoreGaming101.net: Shannara. Accessed April 30, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Gamepot.com: Shannara Review. Accessed April 30, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Michael Labiner: Shannara . In: PC Joker . February 1996, p. 33.
- ↑ a b Frank Heukemes: Shannara . In: Power Play . April 1996, p. 150.