Demon's Winter

Demon's Winter

Cover art
Developer(s) Strategic Simulations, Inc.
Publisher(s) Strategic Simulations, Inc.
Designer(s) Craig Roth, David Stark
Platform(s) Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS
Release date(s) January 1988
Genre(s) Role-playing video game
Mode(s) Single-player

Demon's Winter is a role-playing video game by Strategic Simulations, Inc., released in 1988. It is a sequel to SSI's 1987 Shard of Spring, set two hundred years after the events of the original, and featuring a game world 32 times the size of the previous one.

Plot

The evil sorceress Siriadne was slain, the Shard of Spring was recovered, and peace and prosperity returned to the fantasy island of Ymros. Two centuries later, however, great numbers of aggressive monsters have suddenly appeared, devastating the region and its inhabitants. A party of five adventurers must band together in order to combat this threat, starting only with meager skills and supplies after a kobold attack on the now-ruined village of Ildryn. Ultimately, they must uncover the source of the beasts, as well as the unnatural cold that plagues the land, and ultimately put an end to both.

Reception

The Computer Gaming World review of Demon's Winter described it as a general improvement over Shard of Spring, although not without its own flaws. Combat was described as "uneven", with opponents either being trivial or quite difficult to defeat, while mapping was noted as being quite difficult in some areas. On the other hand, the addition of new classes and changes to the skill system were received favorably.[1] The review in ST/Amiga Format felt that the game took several steps forward to enhance the genre, but not without suffering in presentation. The reviewer concluded, "Unfortunately so much has been done to make the game play well that the appearance has fallen by the wayside, it looks and sounds awful which is a terrible shame, because Demon’s Winter is one of the best computer role-playing games to date." This earned the title an overall grade of 68%.[2] Compute! agreed, calling the game "unsatisfactory" because of graphics and gameplay.[3]

References

  1. Scorpia (November 1988), "Winter Thunderland", Computer Gaming World 53: 36–38
  2. Barrett, Gary (July 1989), "Demon's Winter", ST/Amiga Format 13: 88
  3. Randall, Neil (September 1989). "Game Overload". Compute!. p. 75. Retrieved 11 November 2013.

External links