AUTHOR: JVC / FTL Games RELEASE: 1994 TYP: Adventure SPIELER: 1 LEVEL: - SPRACHE: Englisch WERT: 35€

Castle Skullkeep erwartet Sie… Tauchen Sie ein in das üppigste 3D-Abenteuer, das je für das Mega CD entwickelt wurde. In den weitläufigen Anlagen der Burg Skullkeep sind die Teile des Zo Link versteckt. Diese Maschine wurde von einigen TechMages gebaut, um alternative Dimensionen zu erforschen. Sie und ein von Ihnen ausgewähltes Team müssen verhindern, daß diese mächtige Technologie finsteren Kräften in die Häne fällt. Dazu begegeben Sie sich auf eine Rollenspielreise mit einer Tiefe, wie Sie sie noch nie zuvor erlebt, sich jedoch schon immer gewünscht haben.

Castle Skullkeep Awaits… Immerse yourself in the most extensive 3D adventure ever presented for the Mega CD. Within the expansive grounds of Castle Skullkeep, the pieces of the Zo Link are hidden. You and a hand-picked party must stop evil forces from acquiring this powerful technology in an RPG journey with a depth you've never experienced… but always craved! Hundreds of puzzles to solves, hours of entertainment. Assemble a four-member party from a gallery of the most outrageous adventurers ever to be devised.

SEGA Magazin Ausgabe 4/1995: ^{[Grafik: 58% Sound: 70% Gesamt: 65%]}
Komplexes, aber umständlich spielbares Abenteuerspiel mit vielen Nachladezeiten.
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Chaos Strikes Back was a semi-sequel to seminal RPG Dungeon Master, but a true sequel came several years later. The game fuses real-time battles with puzzle solving and travelling, although the game now auto-maps. Rain and magic usage effects are incorporated into the engine. The first part of the game is spent above ground, visiting villages with shops and temples, and trawling through forests. www.Mobygames.com

It's surprising that so few PC adventure games were ported to the Mega-CD once the CD-ROM storage medium was available to both. Dungeon Master II is one such game, but it sticks a little too hard to its PC roots. After spending a couple of hours with it, the main adjective that comes to mind is still „clunky“. Software Heaven & FTL Games clearly had great trouble translating a keyboard and mouse interface to Sega's controllers. Performing actions within the game is a strange mix of clicking on-screen objects in the game world and graphical inventories. […] I just find myself wondering why on earth they didn't offer support for the Sega mouse. So into the game proper and the first thing to do is pick your party. Instead of a bland menu you get to stroll around a cavern filled wither heroes in sleep machines, and it's up to you to examine their stats and decide if you want them in your team or not. There's no guidance on their specific abilities, you must examine their stats, what equipment (if any) they come with, and decide for yourself if they'd be better as a magic user or front line warrior. In truth this means traipsing round the cavern with no guidance (the top left screenshot is how the game greets you), looking at everyone and then trying to remember where the ones you want are. It's not even straight forward to find your way out of the cavern. By all means provide me with hundreds of puzzles, just not in the first two minutes please. Once you find the ladder don't do what I did and move forward onto it - cue my front two party members walking blindly into the wall and losing one HP each. The battles are an odd semi-real-time affair. Whilst any character can only perform an attack once every few seconds, movement continues as normal, and enemies will move around the side of your party to attack members at the rear, or back out of range of an incoming blow - which of course you can too. Actually attacking anything is also a slow process - select the party member's weapon from the right hand panel, then the type of blow (slash, stab etc.) and repeat for each attack. But then there's always magic, right? Oh dear… Magic use is an integral part of any RPG or adventure, and everyone knows the importance of a wizard/mage/priest to the party for both attack and defense spells. Unfortunately the casting sequence in Dungeon Master II is so cumbersome you'd wish you hadn't bothered. Now pay attention, because here comes the science bit. To cast a spell you must select symbols, and the process of doing this costs mana, is even you select the wrong one and delete it. These symbols represent power, element, form and class/alignment, and there are 6 symbols for each. As you select them the symbols are lined up in the chant frame, and when all that's done hit A again to cast the spell. Make a chant that the game doesn't recognise and the spell fizzles out, taking your mana with it. Plus by this time the beast has ripped off your arms and is using them to play your ribcage like a xylophone. There is a very deep, and above all very good game buried in here. The graphics won't set the screen alight but do the job well enough, spot effects are also nothing special, and there's no music accompanying your adventure. Dungeon Master II is a good game with a lot to offer, and over time you do adjust to knowing how to best use the menus. If you can overcome the picky, clunky interface there's a lasting challenge to be enjoyed. www.sega-mega-cd-library.co.uk