Developer: Strategic Simulations, Inc.
Publisher: Strategic Simulations, Inc.
Released: 1993
Completed: April 15, 2020
As someone who grew up entrenched in D&D campaigns and fantasy novels, I bought pretty much anything with the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons logo on it. This included SSI's legendary Goldbox games such as Pool of Radiance and Champions of Krynn, as well as the lesser-known but equally awesome Buck Rogers titles, and even the incredibly buggy but entertaining SpellJammer: Pirates of Realmspace.
After many years of faithful service, the venerable Goldbox engine was retired and SSI developed a new one to replace it. The first game to use that new engine was Dark Sun: Shattered Lands, the first foray into the incredibly unique and criminally overlooked campaign setting of the same name.
Taking place in a harsh desert wasteland, Dark Sun: Shattered Lands captivated me immediately upon seeing the first screen shots and previews various in computer gaming magazines. It looked unlike anything out there, especially traditional AD&D worlds or the licensed computer and video games that had come before it.
Shattered Lands was eventually purchased as a would-be birthday gift for me, but I had other plans. Having been there when it was bought, I asked my mother if I could "read the manual," knowing full well this would give me access to the game disks when my parents weren't around. She obliged, and the first chance I got, I installed the game.
Unfortunately, at the time my grades were slipping - a result of spending entirely too much time gaming, and not enough time doing homework. As punishment, my parents banned me from the computer by instituting a password, and I could only get on when they were around. This posed a problem for playing my newly-installed game - a problem that was remedied when I discovered an index card on my brother's desk with the new password written on it.
I played Shattered Lands in secret for several weeks leading up to my birthday, until the day I lost track of time and my brother came home to find me sitting in front of the computer. Oops.
Shattered Lands isn't a complete reinvention of the Goldbox engine, but a modernized interpretation of it. Combat is similarly a turn-based affair, and adheres pretty faithfully to the rules of the pen-and-paper game it's based on. Instead of switching to first-person when exploring, however, the game stays in the same bird's eye view all throughout, eliminating much of the confusion of the Goldbox engine games and their maze-like locations.
You begin the game by creating your party of up to four characters. Unlike other AD&D campaigns at the time, Dark Sun allowed for higher statistics and unique races such as half-giants, Muls (half-human, half-dwarf hybrids), and the insectoid Thri-Kreen. Most of the standard D&D character classes remain the same, but Dark Sun also adds the Psionicist, who uses mental attacks to cause damage, heal, buff, and debuff in combat - very similar to magic.
The world of Dark Sun is wildly different from any D&D world before, and probably since. Creatures are generally much tougher, not to mention hideous. Equipment is mostly leather, bone, or the coveted obsidian, as metals are a rarity in the wastes. Water is in short supply, although this was unfortunately left out of the game engine, I suppose for fear of bogging it down with resource management, and most of the areas are little more than giant sand dunes or dank sewers.
Danger lurks around every corner in Shattered Lands, but the game's combat engine is up to the task. The addition of psionics, which all characters have limited access to no matter their class, adds new layers of strategy to the battles, and buff/debuff spells are far more useful than in most previous AD&D games, especially when engaged in one of the many large-scale battles. The problem of the game actively seeming to be working against you still rears its ugly head though, just as it always has in AD&D games, when dice rolls never seem to go your way but always work out in the enemy's favor.
The engine's biggest problem, however, is that it's very buggy. Most of the glitches aren't game-breaking, but they can be obnoxious and frequent, and once in a while you'll experience an all-out crash. It's advised to save frequently, which shouldn't be unfamiliar to any Goldbox veterans who are used to the Battle-then-Save rhythm of the games.
It may not be perfect, but the Dark Sun engine sure did look good for its time. Both the PCs and monsters are far more detailed than the old static icons of the Goldbox titles, and feature more than two frames of animation (attacking or not-attacking). The game's color palette is somewhat limited by its setting, but it looks appropriately good in that respect with desolate expanses of rolling sand and dingy, grimy backgrounds.
Sound is also notably improved from the very simplistic beeps and grating effects from the Goldbox engine. Some spells feature fantastic booming samples, monsters snarl when attacking, and sounds are generally pretty crisp, though there isn't much in the way of ambient sound. The soundtrack is pleasant enough, particularly the main menu music, though most of it is looped for the duration of your stay in each new area.
One of the biggest draws is the ability to truly roleplay, and there's plenty of opportunities to do so. For the first time, you can be about as heroic or as dastardly as you please, electing not to help many friendly NPCs, or starting fights with no real penalty (other than missing out on some quests). The game doesn't force you down the path of good, and though the outcome of the story is ultimately unaffected regardless of your actions, it's nice to have the option to play a truly evil character.
Buggy or not, Shattered Lands was every bit the game I hoped it would be when I ran across the first advertisements and previews back in the day. No AD&D-based game made a greater impression on me, and it's a shame the campaign setting was abandoned by TSR relatively hastily. It's equally unfortunate that SSI didn't stick with the Dark Sun engine and improve it for future games in their AD&D line. Thankfully, Shattered Lands hasn't lost its appeal to me, and I regularly find myself returning to the violent world of Athas for some fun in the sun.
Dark Sun: Shattered Lands was completed via DOSbox.
Comments