Re: Wraith for the Apple2

["Russ Ross" <rross@infowest.com>]

Here's the review I mentioned from Nibble Magazine.

"More Orcs For Your Bucks"
Shapiro on Games, July 1990, Nibble Magazine
by Neil Shapiro

I had to read the press release that accompanied the 3.5" disk that holds
the Wraith game from Nite Owl Productions over and over a few times to make
sure that I wasn't dreaming.  But, no, here was what purported to be a
full-featured adventure game that was priced at $14.95 with a special, until
1991, price of only $9.95.

My first though, of course, was that Wraith would prove to be as gossamer
and as valueless as if it were a real wraith -- that it would not be a good
game.  So, with some trepidation, I entered into the world of Wraith,
popping the 3.5-inch disk into my Apple IIe's drive.  Later, I would also
play the game on my Apple IIGS.

Well, I have returned -- back from the not-so-peaceful island of Arathia --
to report that while Wraith is certainly not the world's most
state-of-the-art game in either graphics or game design, it gets my vote for
best gaming value to the customer of any game I have seen in the past few
years.  We are talking here about simply a tremendous amount of gaming
pleasure for a rather measly $9.95!

First a word about playing Wraith, then just a but about the people behind
it.

To those who have played the Ultima series of games, Wraith will at first
look very familiar.  The main map, with its mountains and grasses, its
static icons of castles and dungeons and towns, is quite reminiscent of
Ultimas I and II.  And going into a town also gives you a visual "feel" of
Ultima from cobblestone streets to brick walls.

But Wraith is not a copy of Ultima.  Author John Carmack has come up with
some original and very intriguing concepts.

At first, I was disappointed that one can talk only to merchants and not to
the various people and creatures that roam the towns and the outside world.
But then, as I played Wraith, I realized that Carmack was striving for a
very different "feel" than that of an Ultima game.

Ultima is very much involved with puzzles and logical piecing together of
clues.  Wraith is easier.  It is more straight-forward and is a less
"serious" feeling game.

Play balance favors the player.  This is not to say that Wraith is simple.
But I was able to start off a game and to get far into it without being
killed.  There is a lot of gold to be found; combat is tricky but hardly
ever unfair.

I found the combat routines to be extremely intuitive.  When you face
hostile creatures (and they are just about all hostile to some extent) you
can fight or shoot.  (You have both types of weapons from the very beginning
of the game, although, as you get more gold, you can upgrade them.)  When
you choose to fight or shoot, the little creatures attacking you are
suddenly labeled alphabetically.  So if an orc, a goblin, and a zombie are
trying to cook your goose, the orc with wear an A, the goblin a B, the
zombie a C.  Choose to fight or shoot and just indicate whom you are after
by the letter!

You can also "shoot" spells, such as lightning bolts, fireballs, and magic
missiles.  All come complete with onscreen pyrotechnics.

Exploring castles and dungeons is necessary to finish the game (to find the
evil Wraith), and they are certainly big places.  Although they are very
maze-like, the maze layouts are fair, in that while there are dead-ends,
there are not such things as transporters to disorient you (at least, I have
not found any yet).  Thus, the interiors are easy to map.

Yes, I would have liked an automapping feature.  And, yep, the fact that
Wraith comes with a manual on disk rather than one already printed out for
you is not so good.

If this were a game from a large company for $40 or more, I would take it
for task for such faults.  But it is awful hard to beat up on a game that
sells for less than ten dollars because you have to print out your own
manual.

Nite Owl Bob Shofstall told me in a phone interview that the company's main
products are those slide-on batteries for the IIGS, which is why their name
sounded familiar to me!

Bob says you won't see Wraith in stores because what store could sell
software at such a price point?  And, he added, "because most stores are not
into Apple II any more."  I detected a sort of sigh in Bob's voice as he
said that, and he added that he intends to keep putting out Apple II
software "as long as I can."

I've never met Bob, and have only talked to him the one time.  But it seems
to me that here's a guy that is bringing back some of the old excitement to
Apply II software, some of the "we're in it together" atmosphere that's been
lacking a while.

I have not yet gotten much further that the beginning of Wraith and I would
ordinarily wait until I finished it to review it.  But I don't want you to
miss this special offer price.  Thus far into the game, I have never in my
life seen a better way to spend such a modest amount of money.  Let's
support Wraith and see what Bob's next bargain for us may be!