BloodWych [Atari ST]
by Shaun Watters

Since the release of Castaway for the GP32 the one game on everybody's 
must play game list is Dungeon Master. It was the first proper 3D 
dungeon game that a whole genre was based on... BloodWych however, 
is a damn sight more fun! 

BloodWych, and the data disk, is yet another 3D European role playing 
game. What you get is an unrealistic story, lots of hack and slay 
levelling up, more and more powerful magic and a lot of tricky 
puzzles. The gameplay is nothing new whatsoever. It's got five 
solidly designed and large dungeons and lots of secrets and items 
to collect. At the time it was released the real hook was that you 
got to do all this with your mate at the SAME TIME! 

Yup, that's right! This was the first ever split screen RPG, and it 
was a blast to play! 

The RPG elements of the game were pretty stocking filler - switches, 
fireballs, swords, armour. etc. It was the need to co-operate with 
the other team of adventurers that opened up the gameplay. Most of 
the time you could be nice to the other team (ie. share out the gold 
and food fairly) or be as much of a git as you liked (ie. lock the 
other player in a room full of monsters and blockade the door so they 
can't get out) but from time to time you just needed the other guy's
help. 

Another new feature that BloodWych, and especially the data disks, 
brought in was the ability to talk to any monsters you meet. You can 
try to persuade them to join your team, ask the about rumours of 
upcoming dungeons and barter for equipment. Although the conversations 
are pretty limited, they added a fair bit of depth to the gameplay and 
with a bit of thought could be pretty damn useful if you happened to 
be running low on food. 

The magic system is simple compared to Dungeon Master, just open your 
spellbook and choose the spell you want, but the variety of spells is 
great. On top of the normal fireballs and the like, you have offensive 
spells to shoot around corners, create your own monsters and lay traps 
for the other player. Put simply, it's got the best magic system I've 
seen. Period. 

Once you've worked your way through the five towers in the original, 
grab hold of the data disks for another five towers and tweaked gameplay. 

Of course, if you're going to play it on your GP32 that pretty much 
knocks the two player element out of the window but it's still a great
RPG and you gotta play it. Especially once you've finished Dungeon Master!