Overall 8.5 Graphics 6 Sound 7 Addictive 8 Depth 8 Difficulty 6
8.5
Treasure of Tarmin: Underappreciated classic game 9SeaWasp
This game is a classic but one with which most people, even serious gamers, aren't familiar. That is not surprising, given that this is an Intellivision game from the eighties. It is one of the earliest first-person perspective games I can recall and an early version of the dungeon and quest games that became popular mainly on PCs. Games like this were a new idea for me in those days: a game that would have an actual goal and ending. The Minotaur that guards the titular treasure is a progenitor of so many final bosses in more modern games.
I confess to having an affection for this game, having played it back when it was new on an Intellivision II console, and having been exposed to the real AD&D in my younger days. So it is tricky to look at it objectively, particularly through the haze of nostalgia. Obviously the graphics and sound are nothing compared to what you can achieve these days; my ratings for those two are a combination of this understanding along with an attempt to rate them in comparison with what one could do at the time. There is no real story here; you just keep going down levels, gathering treasure, weapons, and items and fighting monsters as you do, until you face the Minotaur and get the treasure, or until you die, which can happen easily here. There are four difficulty levels, and it can get hairy on the toughest level (you have the least starting strength and the most levels to get through before Minotaur time). Still, the game is not all that tough; the pace is pretty slow so you have plenty of time to think and plan, and monsters stand in one place so they can be avoided easily.
A few things that I really love about the game: the variety of monsters present; the "possessed" doors that you have to fight and which contain a goody for you if you win; the various potions and what they can do; the special book that allows you to change all treasure and war weapons into platinum (best quality); the way you can get a monster to stop attacking you by throwing a container at it; the really tough monsters (dragons, ghouls, wraiths); the tension every time you open a door or a container, not knowing what is there; the ability to glance around corners to see if there is a lurking monster; the sense of accomplishment when you get very powerful and have really great items and weapons.
A few things I really do not love about the game: bombs in the containers; how you lose everything in your pack (and some of your war/spiritual strength) when you get resurrected; the repetitive nature of the dungeons (with particular room motifs that pop up again and again); green and blue gates that teleport you across to a new dungeon but screw up your war/spiritual strengths in the process; when a reusable weapon breaks.
If you like the dungeon exploration genre and old school games, this is the perfect combination. More intellectual than most fare available on consoles at the time, it provides a few hours of fun (or longer, since there are 255 levels) at a relaxed pace. Modern FPS lovers may yawn, but this grandfather of dungeon games can still enchant those with more perspective. It is a classic in the right sense.
Graphics 6 Sound 7 Addictive 8 Depth 8 Difficulty 6
Review Rating: 4.7/5
Submitted: 12-24-14
Review Replies: 2
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