The Collection Chamber: ABANDONED PLACES: A TIME FOR HEROES

Frozen for centuries deep within the mountains of Kalynthia, twelve adventurers have lain waiting for the return of Bronagh, Arch Magi, Prince of Evil.

That time has now come. They must travel throughout Kalynthia, re-uniting the people against the forces of darkness. With their powers weakened by the passage of time, you alone control their destinies as the heroes fight to overcome the evil that is Bronagh.
Fantasy Role Playing in a world full of adventure, evil and mystery.
Undertake heroic quests in the many dungeons and explore the beautiful outer world that it is your destiny to save.
Easy to use point and click commands.
3D viewpoint.
See your wizard cast many spells to destroy your adversaries.
Awesome evil monsters attempt to thwart your every move.
Many hours of original atmospheric music.
Uniquely designed to appeal to all levels of role players from the beginner to te most hardened veteran.
Abandoned Places is the new standard in Role Playing...

~ from the back of the box

It must be tough being a hero in a fantasy RPG. Not only do you face danger and death upon every turn and encounter some terrifying beasts on the regular, but in the case of the 1992 game Abandoned Places: A Time for Heroes, in times of peace you'll be set in stone while you wait for the world to get dangerous again. That's the rather flimsy premise of this first-person adventure from German developers ArtGame, but at least the game itself is rather decent.

Upon release the game was often compared to Dungeon Master, a classic computer RPG that I must get around to playing someday. You control a band of four heroes as you travel through a series of maze-like dungeons via a series of static screens awkwardly fighting off creatively designed enemies while managing your health, hunger and other numeric statistics. And not once will the game hold your hand, even if one of them is clasping the manual tightly. This is evident before you even begin the game at the character select screen. You must choose two warriors from a selection of six, one priest and one wizard from three a piece. What you don't know is that each of them have vastly different statistics that, if chosen wrongly, could determine whether you will survive the opening dungeon or not.

Open treasure chests to find gold, weapons and... food? Do we trust that chest cheese? (left).
The overworld. Change mode of transport to Ship where the boat docks to travel the seas (right).

Warriors are your front line attackers, but they will also take on the most blows too. Best to find one with high strength and defense, 'cos their magic and intelligence ain't gonna mean much. Priests and wizards are a little trickier. It's not really about their magic level, but what spells they bring with them. All priests can use Minor Cure (a literal life saver), but do you choose Felius who can create hunger-quenching food out of thin air? Or perhaps Dariel who can cast Walk on Fire letting you do just that without harm? A few casts of Delphia's Paralyze spell will tell you it's pretty useless, but she is the only female theologian. As for the Wizards, all will have Light which will let you see in darkened caves and Mage Bolt to aid in battle, but with the useful Spider Web, Shield and Terror spells divvied up amongst the three, it's anyone's pick. After much trial and error, I found Lianon , Tothom, Dariel and Pomphis to be the best all-round.

Once inside an actual dungeon, the age of the game really shows. While the level layouts themselves are neatly designed with decent puzzles and obstacles that hint at multiple solutions depending on who's in you crew, they can be dauntingly large. Mapping out as you go is a must. Performing any action within them is more than a little clumsy. It was designed entirely with the mouse in mind, meaning that movement is made by clicking on arrows, attacking by right clicking on hand icons and items are dragged and dropped from one place to another. It makes sense once you know what's what, but it's not wholly intuitive (to a modern gamer at least), requiring precise and accurate use of the mouse. It's all too easy to accidently miss an attack and instead initiate a change in character order. Keyboard hotkeys for each one wouldn't have gone amiss. They did think about using the arrow keys or number pad for movement, and the otherwise inferior DOS port has a multitude of convoluted hotkeys for swapping over items, but not one for actually activating them.

Battling monsters on the overworld is a good strategy to earn experience and raise your stats (left).
Fights take place in small areas. Surprisingly, these bats are trickier than the fire demons I faced earlier (right).

Even so, the game is designed around this slower form of control, as frustrating as it often is. Dungeons favour navigation, observation and puzzle solving over constant combat, and despite the lengthy grind it can take to kill them, monsters are usually only there to drop keys or useful weapons. Unless they're literally blocking you're path you can avoid them easily enough if you don't mind sacrificing any experience gains. Perhaps because of the lengthy nature of these dungeons, I found the beasts that dwelled there to be easier to defeat than those that would ambush you on the overworld. I died in the rays of the sun and moon way more often than in the darkness of the catacombs six feet under.

When you do reach the surface, gameplay shifts dramatically. The camera shifts to an overhead view of the world map where a day and night cycle indicates the passing of time, though it's done with a brief text prompt than any graphical changes. To begin with, you might wonder why you can't move. That's because certain settings have to be set. Entering the winged horse submenu will let you choose your mode of travel, which are context sensitive - have a horse, choose horse; next to a docked ship, choose boat. If it's night or you're tired, the tent icon lets you decide if anyone will stand guard while you sleep. The hand and eye icon defines character behaviour; either by scouting to avoid dangers ahead, or searching to hunt for hidden dungeon entrances (though only when on foot in the daytime). Most important is the compass. This defines pathfinding and nothing will be selected initially. I mainly stuck to Direct Route, which means the party will travel to your click-point as the crow flies, occasionally getting stuck at rivers or towns. Wise Route supposedly puts your wizard in charge of pathfinding, seeking out the "safest route" to your click-point. All it proves is how wise they aren't. Lastly, selecting the Hand Route gives you direct control by using the compass on the bottom right of the screen.

Some typical villages. Free ones will host church or inn services while paid ones
could offer a jewellers, armoury or house of lore where you trade EXP to gain levels.

The over world favourably reminds me of that classic strategy game Heroes of Might and Magic. Towns and cities host shops and citizens which will aid you on your journey (for a price). A monastery can heal your party, while a tavern will give you room and board for the night. The best towns require payment to enter, but to begin with, I wondered why my character's purses were empty. I did find two stashes of gold in the opening dungeon after all. The reason is rather lame; it wasn't in their purse because it was their inventory! You must drag if over there if in dungeon mode or, if you forgot, select "Pool Money" from the monastery. This gives you enough cash to explore different places for a bit, but the story won't continue until you've chosen one of three paths; train your wizard at the city of Twilight, cross the seas to fight angry dwarves at Vo Marris or prove your priestly credentials at the nearby Soul Abbey. Each host a dungeon, of which there are 28 in total (some of which are huge!). Needless to say it's not a short game, but this walkthrough helps if you're stuck on where to go next. The game will not even give you a single hint.

Ultimately, Abandoned Places: A Time for Heroes is a game stuck in the past. It's control methods are tedious and unintuitive and gameplay repetitive. Yet, like many of such games, it still manages to charm with its inviting pixel art and engaging level design. If you're into old school dungeon crawlers, this is one of the best of its era. With better sound and visuals, the Amiga version trumps the DOS port by having a significantly better presentation, even if the many of the keyboard shortcuts are missing. No matter which one you play, I would say it just about ekes into hidden gem status.

To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses the DOSBox-X build of DOSBox to bring the PC version to modern systems and FS-UAE with WHDload to emulate the Amiga version. Manuals, Reference Card, Short Story and Map included. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

File Size: 134 Mb. Install Size: 282 Mb. Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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