魔石堡
Stonekeep

Interplay, 1995
MS-DOS

Interplay, 1995
MS-DOS

魔石堡(Stonekeep)总是给我一种 1980 年代冒险电影的感觉,像是《魔幻迷宫(Labyrinth)》和《大魔域(The Neverending Story)》,主要原因是这个游戏非常电影化。年少天真的主角德雷克(Drake)被扔进一个幻想世界中与魔法怪兽战斗,有一些奇怪但忠诚的伙伴与他同行,一起对抗大反派(Big Baddie)并拯救世界。可惜游戏内没有合成器流行音乐(synth-pop)当做配乐,不然一定会成为历史上的经典作品。

Stonekeep always makes me think of the adventure films of the 1980s like Labyrinth and The Neverending Story, mostly due to how filmlike the game is. Drake, the young naive protagonist, is thrust into a fantasy world to battle magical beasts, joined by strange but loyal companions as he strives to confront the Big Baddie and save the day. Shame the game didn't sport a synth-pop soundtrack or it would be an all-time classic.

开发数年的《魔石堡 2:造神者(Stonekeep 2: Godmaker)》在 2001 年被取消。2012 年,该系列以《魔石堡:先祖之骨(Stonekeep: Bones of the Ancestors)》之名登录 Wii,但差评如潮。

Stonekeep 2: Godmaker was in development for years, but got cancelled in 2001. The series was revisited in 2012 with Stonekeep: Bones of the Ancestors for the Wii, but it was terribly reviewed.

游戏采用即时制战斗,可以暂停使用道具,后期加入的同伴可以自动协助战斗。

Combat is realtime, but you can pause to use items. Eventually you'll be joined by companions, who help fight automatically.

虽然看起来很过时,但在当时真人动画(FMV)的大量使用是《魔石堡》的一大卖点,并占用了 500 万美元开发成本中的很大一部分。

Although it aged poorly, the extensive use of FMV was one of Stonekeep's selling points and took a big chunk of its 5 million dollars budget.

开场的真人动画介绍了魔石堡被强大的恶灵攻击,德雷克是唯一的幸存者。多年后他重回魔石堡,想要探寻被攻击的真相,展开了拯救众神的史诗冒险。至此,游戏似乎并无新意,但《魔石堡》中的一切都以营造沉浸感为中心:视频代替了像素画风,语音代替了文字,连游戏的界面都设计成了魔法神器。

提到魔法,游戏中的魔法系统相当巧妙,每种基础符文代表着不同的法术,符文间还能相互组合升级成更加强力的法术,这个系统具有很高的灵活性。相比之下,战斗系统就显得捉襟见肘,大体上就是一路打怪升级,万事 OK。

《魔石堡》的长处并不是画面或游戏设计,而是游戏中遇到的形形色色的人物:肥胖的矮人,懦弱的绿皮[1] ,诡异的不死族和歌唱的精灵,他们只是众多拥有真实个性角色中的一部分。即使你已许久没有打开过游戏了,这些角色形象依然会在脑海中挥之不去(特别是精灵)。即使在今天看来,这些内容都给赋予了《魔石堡》轻松明快的氛围。

如果说游戏有什么缺点的话,那就是在抛开所有的亮点后,它不过是个基于网格的简单地牢探险类游戏,游戏体验束手束脚,和画面素质不太相称。另一个缺点是后期的节奏失衡,游戏内容要么一股脑全塞给玩家,要么零星分布在各处,找起来很费劲,玩家常常陷入“我在哪儿,我要干什么”的疑问。

与那些 1980 年代的冒险电影类似,《魔石堡》并不是里程碑式的作品,然而它的内在魅力和怀旧色彩都值得我们怀恋。

The FMV intro tells of a castle named Stonekeep that is attacked by a great evil. Only Drake survives and, as he returns years later to learn what happened, he is set on an epic quest to save a pantheon of gods from peril. Nothing new there really, except everything in Stonekeep is about immersion. Video replaces pixels, voice acting replaces text and even the game's interface is justified as being magical artefacts.

Speaking of magic, the game's magic system is quite ingenious. Basic rune-like symbols represent different spells, but they can also be mixed with other symbols to get neat upgrades, leading to a remarkably flexible system. By comparison the combat system is just “whack things with it to get better at it”-variety, which gets the job done.

But Stonekeep's strength doesn't lie in its graphics or game design, but in the characters you meet. Stout dwarves, cowardly greenskins, creepy undead and singing fairies are part of a wide cast of characters with actual personalities that stick with you long after you've stopped playing (especially the fairies). All of this gives Stonekeep a somewhat light-humoured atmosphere that still holds up today.

If this game has a flaw, then it is the fact that beneath all that sparkle is just a simple grid-based dungeon crawler, which feels restrictive and out of style with the graphics. Another low point is the uneven flow of the second half of the game, where exposition is either dumped on the player in large amounts, or scattered about so scarcely that it takes effort to even find it, leaving players wondering where they are or what they're supposed to be doing.

Like those child-like adventure films of the 1980s, Stonekeep is no outstanding milestone, but its innate charm and the rosy tint of nostalgia help make it a fondly cherished game nevertheless.

__________

1 译者注:原文用的是 greenskins,应该指的就是兽人。

GameDB 相关游戏: 魔石堡

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