Mageslayer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| MageSlayer | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Developer(s) | Raven Software |
| Publisher(s) | GT Interactive |
| Engine | Vampire |
| Platform(s) | PC |
| Release date | October 1997 |
| Genre(s) | Action |
| Mode(s) | single player, multiplayer |
| Media | CD-ROM |
| System requirements | Pentium 133 with 16 Mb RAM with 4Mb Direct3D compliant accelerator for hardware mode; Pentium 200 with 16Mb RAM for software mode. Windows9x and DirectX 5 (included) |
MageSlayer is a computer game released in 1997. It was based on the Vampire engine, developed by Raven Software, along with Take No Prisoners. The engine provides a top-down view with 2d sprites for the character and monsters in a full 3d environment with dynamic and coloured lighting. The score was composed by Kevin Schilder. MageSlayer marked another Raven Software collaboration with the fantasy artist Brom, who produced the box cover artwork for the title.
Contents |
[edit] Game Introduction
"Death would be too easy for you, MageSlayer. Too quick to satisfy one you betrayed in another millennium. First, you are bound to wander five worlds of atrocity. Stoking your powers. Solving internal mysteries. Gathering magic and arcane knowledge. Fighting your way through fear into madness for one last, desperate struggle against evil himself. Only then will the LoreThane anoint you with the last sacraments of your torment. No... death would be too easy."[1]
[edit] Plot
On a world of fantasy far away, a shower of meteorites called Starfall dominates a time in history. The meteorites lie about everywhere pulsing with radioactive power which the people of the land scramble to exploit. Of the people only three professions had the power to exploit the radioactive stones; Mages, MageSlayers, and LoreThanes. The Mages in their hungry studies of the meteorites gained knowledge of the use of the stones and gained terrible power. Consumed by their lust for the power of the stones they dominated over all.
The five MageSlayer clans were formed to free the people of the lands from the power hungry Mages that had enslaved them. The MageSlayers learned to harvest the power of two very powerful meteors that fell from the sky. The first, the SunOrb, was studied and they learned to control powerful magic, without the megalomaniac side effects that the Mages experienced.
The second, the StarStone, was crafted into five powerful Relics. Using these two forces the MageSlayers drove the Mages into retreat. When the Mages fought back, the Clan of Knowledge was sacrificed in order to save the other clans. The MageSlayers were victorious, but it cost them the five Relics crafted from the StarStone and the Clan of Knowledge was destroyed. Each of the clans passed the knowledge of the SunOrb down through the generations. A single leader of each of the clans was selected to guard the most revered of the Clan secrets.
A millennium has passed since the Clan of Knowledge was destroyed in the Mage War. Lord Thane, Leader of the Guild of Knowledge and descendent of one of the five powerful Mageslayers seeks revenge for what he sees was a betrayal. Now Lord Thane is ready to take revenge on the other four Guilds that refused to help him against the Mages which led to his clan's destruction. He's unearthed the five StarStone relics that won the Mage Wars and placed them under the protection of his minions. The four remaining MageSlayer clans have joined forces and sent their leaders to fight their way through the dominions of the Lord Thane's allies in order to recover the relics. Scribes, named Archivists, have foretold a coming conflict with a powerful and evil undead LoreThane named Wyark, who has been growing in terrible strength with the aim of complete conquest of the world. The archivists have determined that the retrieval of the five special relics will enable the Mageslayer forces of good to defeat the evil Wyark. You take the role of the Mageslayer tasked to retrieve the artifacts and ultimately defeat Wyark.[2]
[edit] The Game
The game is a 3d top down hack and slash dungeon type game, utilising 4 different character classes with differing spells and abilities. The game offers a single-player campaign and different multiplayer options. The player journeys through 30 levels of dungeons, sewers, rivers of death, lava pits, and monster rooms across five realms rooms in order to defeat each realm's ruler and gain its relic; learning and upgrading magic spells, and acquiring artifacts to help the player succeed the quest. Utilizing the same Vampire engine as Take No Prisoners, MageSlayer was Raven's tribute to top-down action games. The main inspirator of Mageslayer was Atari's game "Gauntlet". [3]
[edit] Player Characters
The four character classes are the leaders of each of the Mageslayer clans. They are:
- The Warlock (of the Clan of Chaos)
- The Arch-Demon (of the Clan of Diabolism)
- The Inquisitor (of the Clan of Redemption)
- The EarthLord (of the Clan of Earth)
