RING: THE LEGEND OF THE NIBELUNGEN

THE LEGEND OF THE NIBELUNGEN COMES TO LIFE IN THIS IMMERSIVE MASTERPIECE!

Destroyed long ago by an alien species from distant space, what was once home to the human race has been reduced to rubble. It's the 40th century AD and you find yourself wandering the ruins of Earth. Play up to 4 characters in this spectacular 3D adventure game that will immerse you in an epic conflict based on the heroes and gods of the Nibelungen legend.

Ring is based upon Richard Wagner's greatest epic opera, The Ring Cycle, and features a non-linear storyline, stunning 3D worlds and Wagner's mesmerizing soundtrack. With sights and sounds that stagger the senses, your every step in this adventure is fraught with intrigue.

Play characters such as: a lone Valkyrie warrior, the Loge (the fire spirit), Siegmund (half man/half wolf) or Alberich (the dwarf tyrant). Employ powers unique to each in preparing the opera for its final performance and the end to tyranny and madness.

• Full-screen gameplay in CINvision™ immersion graphics, featuring the freedom of a 360° point of view.
• Multi-path, non-linear storyline - with multiple endings possible.
• 6 original 3D immersive environments and 22 compelling characters.
• 1 hour of full-screen animation.
• Soundtrack performed by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.

THE SOLTI SOUNDTRACK

This game features excerpts from the legendary performance of Wagner's Ring of the Nibelungen Cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Sir Georg Solti, recorded between 1958 and 1965 and recently digitally remastered.

3D UNIVERSE BY DRUILLET

Award-winning illustrator Druillet created the sets and costumes for an actual opera production, only to have them come to life in this 3D adventure.

~ from the back of the box

Richard Wagner's operatic re-telling of the ancient Norse myth was an epic tale long before he raised his baton to compose the 15-hour musical masterpiece that is Der Ring des Nibelungen. It's a fable of magical golden rings, power-hungry dwarves, incestuous love affairs and broken building contracts in the realm of gods and legend. Needless to say, there's a hell of a lot going on. The convoluted plotting is hard enough to follow in the lengthy opera, but perhaps an interactive adventure game would make it more palatable? 

Released in 1998, Ring: The Legend of the Nibelungen was the second game developed by Slovenian games developers Arxel Tribe, but for me at least it fits firmly in the oeuvre of its French publisher Cryo Interactive. It makes copious use of slightly dodgy CGI that still somehow manages to impress visually, with a somewhat flippant game and puzzle design surrounding a perplexingly told story. Somehow, that story told here is more incomprehensible than the German-language opera it takes inspiration from. This is not a direct retelling of the classic myth and despite featuring Wagner's memorable music as its score, the opera neither. This is not a fantasy fable, but a science-fiction space opera.

Select a chapter in the central hall (left).

Despite having 5 sections, there are only 4 chapters. It's best to start with Alberich (right).

We begin on a space ship floating through the cosmos where a blue-faced being named ISH is being told the history of the Nibelung via an omnipotent voice-over calling herself Erda (voiced by famed English actress Charlotte Rampling). Despite the hue of his skin, ISH is apparently one of the last surviving humans, though you'd have to dedicate time to decipher Rampling's poetic ramblings to come to that conclusion. She's preparing him to become a god after the previous one, Wotan, failed as his hubris took over during the creation of Valhalla. To prepare him for this role, she places him in the body of four characters; Alberich the tyrannical dwarf king, Loge the fire god, Sigmund the son of Wotan, and Brünnhilde of the Valkyries. Each of their tales can be played through in any order, and if you get stuck, you can leave a try another one at any time. Doing so, however, will make the already hard-to-follow story even more confusing but I would argue that the appeal of Ring isn't in its storytelling, but in its vibe.

Much of that vibe is thanks to the incredible artwork by famed French comic-book artists Philippe Druillet. His striking and detailed designs add to the surrealist tone that often leave you in awe, and I imagine even more so should you have played back in 1998. The locations at least still hold up beautifully to this day, though the character themselves are distractingly janky. With models that feature smooth, primary-coloured pre-rendered skin, stiff animation barely synced to the voicework during the frequently long cutscenes, and large blush-inducing bulges, they give off a bizarre uncanny essence. And when you hear some of them speak, it can truly test your patience. You can tell that it suffered some large budget cuts during development. Characters often travel on a floating device, which must've been easier than yet another walking animation, and one 5-minute sequence plays out using concept art cut out and pasted on in-engine location backgrounds. There are also five segments on the story selection wheel when only four are playable (the fifth one repeats Loge's story). That being said, there's still something eminently enthralling about the flawed final product.

For Ring, this sliding puzzle is atypical in its typicality (left).

Building a Golem... that's more like it! (right).

Alberich's tale, which should be the first one you play through, is perhaps the most involved chapter of the four. He's on a mission to restore the mining society of the Nibelungen by claiming the gold of the lusty Rhinemaidens; mermaid-like creatures that live in the river Rhine. The puzzles vary from single-screen machinery manipulations that fit into this off-kilter sci-fi setting to truly bizarre leaps of logic. One section has you enter in a code by piecing together the correct order of a story, which even when solved through trial and error I couldn't get. Another requires the giving and taking of a medallion multiple times that makes no sense, even if the fish-like Rhinemaidens try to give one. In the end, it just sounds like the intro spiel to a hippy-like love cult. 

Loge comes next, and he's tasked to destroy the mines, turn Alberich into a frog (?) and steal his golden ring for Wotan. Like each of the other characters, he has a special ability; fire. He'll use it with abandon too, scorching an annoyingly talkative (yet helpful) prisoner in a dungeon or burning down a puzzle instead of solving it like you previously did as Alberich. When it comes to the actual puzzle solving, these individual abilities do go a little underused no matter who you play as. Alberich's intimidating brutality skill is only required in a couple of sequences, but it could've been used in entertaining fashion at many other moments.

Siegmund comes next, and while I thought his story was the most memorable gameplay wise, it is the most pointless in terms of plot. The aim is to discover his long lost sister (and sometimes lover) Sieglinde. She's behind the door to the cabin near where you begin the chapter, but it is arbitrarily locked until after you've climbed trees and pyramids, performed a Viking funeral and done a bit of fishing (among others). His special ability is Wolf Vision, which, in the game at least, isn't really explained. In the action legend it's something of a long story, but in short he stole a cursed wolf skin cloak that gave him lycanthropy. The power allows him to see objects otherwise hidden, like poison berries and worms (though why you can't see them otherwise is anyone's guess). The best use of it is as a form of night vision during a particularly dark location.

Each character has a special power. Siegmund's is called 'Wolf Instinct' (left).

It allows you to see things you otherwise wouldn't, like these poisonous berries (right).

Brünnhilde is last, and her story features the most famous leitmotif of the Ring Cycle on loop; Rise of the Valkyries. She ascends a tower visiting rooms that take on four biomes; desert, mountains, frozen tundra, and a forest. Her special ability is the Magic Lance, which basically acts the same as Loge's Fire power. While the story takes even more of a back seat, the puzzles are entertaining here, even if a little nonsensical. By now, you'd likely realise that's par the course.

With its colourful art style and bizarre landscapes, Ring is as trippy as a game can get. It's not exactly a hard game to solve, but it's incredibly tough to comprehend. So incomprehensible, a full walkthrough is included in the manual, though you will miss some of the strange asides should you follow it verbatim. You won't flirt with a dolphin girl, or incinerate a rebellious slave and even though you can die (save often!), you may want to put yourself in danger just to wilfully witness them all.

Ring: The Legend of the Nibelungen got lambasted upon its original release, despite selling in impressive numbers for the time (a sequel arrived three years later). It's perhaps a little deserving of those low scores, though I'm left a little mixed. While I wouldn't go as far as IGN in thinking the gameplay is a "complete travesty", it is far from perfect. Regardless, my playthrough was visually arresting enough to keep me invested 'til the end. A very flawed game, but a very fascinating piece of art.

To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses the DOSBox-X build of DOSBox 0.74 running Windows '98. Manual included. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

IMPORTANT - Remember to shut down the emulated version of Windows before exiting DOSBox. This could potentially result in errors, lost saves and corrupt data. The program will automatically shut down when you exit the game.

File Size: 1.99 Gb.  Install Size: 2.78 Gb.  Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

Download


Ring: The Legend of the Nibelungen is © Cryo Interactive, Arxel Tribe & Carrière Multimédia
Review, Cover Design and Installer created by me

Like this? Try These...