血巫
Bloodwych

Mirrorsoft, 1989
Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, MS-DOS, 等

Mirrorsoft, 1989
Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, MS-DOS, etc

1980 年代 CRPG 的一个有趣的方面是:他们敢于尝试新的想法,既要成为更好的游戏,又要适应新的技术。有时他们会成功,也有时不成功。《血巫(Bloodwych)》是后者的一个很好的例子,这个游戏充满了很酷的想法,但几乎没有任何赞誉和认可,尤其是在现今。那么发生了什么呢?

截图显示了最大的想法:分屏。游戏中两个玩家可以尝试一起拯救世界。

One interesting aspect of 1980s CRPGs was how they dared try out new ideas, both to be better games and adapt new technology. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not. Bloodwych is a great example of the latter, a game full of cool ideas but barely any praise and recognition for them, especially today. So what happened?

The screenshots show the biggest idea: split-screen. Now two players can try to save the world together.

《血巫》之后发布的是《赫克斯:巫师的异端(Hexx: Heresy of the Wizard, 1994)》,是早期的 3D 地牢游戏,与《血巫》具有相同的英雄,但移除了多人游戏。

Bloodwych was followed by Hexx: Heresy of the Wizard. Released in 1994, it was an early 3D dungeon crawler featuring the same heroes, but no multiplayer.

一名玩家正在与一只巨型螃蟹战斗,而另一个则试图贿赂两个幽灵战士。

One player battles a giant crab, while the other tries to bribe his way through a pair of ghost warriors.

第一个玩家试图打开一个紧锁的门,而第二个玩家从魔法仙女那里买了一个咒语,当英雄们睡觉的时候,魔法仙女会去拜访他们。

The first player tries to figure out a locked door, while the second buys a spell from the magic fairy, which visits heroes when they sleep.

在创建角色的过程中会有更多的想法冒出来。从 16 个预先生成的角色中挑选一个,按颜色和牌型分类,以便确定他们的角色等级和魔法流派。黑桃是战士,红心是吟游诗人,梅花是魔法师,方块是盗贼。做好选择,玩家就可以在开始的地牢里走动,使用领先时代多年的基于关键字的多功能对话系统寻找和招募另外三个队友。

双人游戏模式的最大问题在这里暴露出来:无论朋友是否跟过来加入,游戏的资源数量都是一样的,这意味着玩家必须为队员、XP、食物和装备而竞争。由于没有任何东西可以阻止玩家互相攻击,友好的游戏可以在瞬间变得很糟糕。

地牢关卡的设计非常基础:例如寻找钥匙、可破坏的假墙、压力板和转盘,然而第二个玩家的概念并没有在关卡设计中发挥作用。事实上,游戏的另一个很酷的想法是:队伍可以拆分,这启发了许多新的游戏可能性,但实际上并没有什么用。游戏中任何时候都不需要多个分队来完成任务。

玩家还可以停下来,(尝试)与他们遇到的 NPC 交谈,但除了交易提议或使用商店外,几乎不太需要。这么多很酷的想法,真正用到的却很少,显得华而不实。8 位版本的《血巫》甚至直接删去了许多这些很酷的想法。

这一点在游戏的扩展包《扩展关卡(The Extended Levels)》中得到了一定程度的解决,其中的怪物更加健谈,提供有价值的交易,甚至可以被招募入党。但遗憾的是,这次的地牢关卡设计并没有更好的改进。因此,《血巫》就像一个充满了未使用的想法的房子,被历史所忽视,因为紧接着有更多有着更大想法的游戏从它面前经过,成为众所周知的经典之作。

More ideas pop up in the character creation process: Pick one of 16 pre-generated champions, sorted by colours and card suits to determine their character class and school of magic. Spades are fighters, Hearts are bards, Clubs are wizards and Diamonds are rogues. With this one champion the player walks about the starting dungeon to find and recruit three more champions using a versatile keyword-based dialogue system that was years ahead of its time. The biggest problem with the two-player mode reveals itself here: the game has the same amount of resources regardless of whether a friend tags along or not, meaning that players have to compete for champions, XP, food and gear. As there's nothing stopping players from attacking each other, a friendly game can turn nasty in a heartbeat.

The dungeons themselves are basic fare; key hunts, fake walls, pressure plates and spinners, and yet the concept of a second player doesn't play into the level design. In fact, another of the game's cool ideas is that the party can be split up, which opens up many new gameplay options but they are never used. At no time are multiple parties required to complete the game.

Players can also stop and (try to) talk to monsters they encounter, but short of trade offers or using shops there's little reason to bother. So many cool ideas, so little done with them. The 8-bit versions of Bloodwych even cut out many of these cool ideas.

This was somewhat addressed in the game's expansion pack, The Extended Levels, where monsters are more chatty, offer valuable trades and can even be recruited into the party. Sadly the dungeons are no better designed this time around. As a result Bloodwych stands as a house full of unused ideas, ignored by history as bigger games with bigger ideas strode past it to become known classics.

GameDB 相关游戏: 血巫 血巫:数据碟 第一卷

《电脑 RPG 游戏史(The CRPG Book Project)》原书信息

英文原版主编:Felipe Pepe
原项目网址:https://crpgbook.wordpress.com/
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这本书历时四年,由 119 名志愿者共同完成。

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