Do you think old video games are boring? Play Red Crystal: The Seven Secrets of Life, it is a Top-down perspective game developed by QQP and released on DOS in 1993. You will then know that you were wrong.
An RPG with strategy elements, is now almost completely forgotten, but in due time became in a very short time a unique game because it had multiplayer for two players on one computer for passing a joint. The plot for the role-playing games of the time is quite traditional. The action takes place in a fantasy world blackmur, which is ruled by an evil ruler Leksor.
The player assumes the role of a hero, whose ultimate goal is the overthrow of this tyrant, but as the game progresses he is more concerned about various other things – walking through dungeons, battle with monsters and so on. All you need is to increase his fame and glory in the world that can help (how is another question) him defeat the villain. Rich background to the game, but first, explained in detail in the manual (surprisingly, the manual of the game is simply gorgeous), and second mandatory for the study is not, because it has little to do with what we have to do here.
Before the game, you need to choose the gender (male or female) and a character class – there are five of them (barbarian, knight, wizard and so on); features are also available, seven of them (strength, endurance, intelligence and so on); finally, still have to choose a kind of "clan", which will be owned by the character (this depends, for example, what skills he can acquire in the game and what kind of relationship he can develop with the NPC).
The game screen is divided into two parts: in the left bottom – the portrait of the hero and statistical information on top – actually the game world in isometric perspective; right in the absence of the second player is empty. The gameplay itself could not be described as something particularly notable (the main emphasis is on battle monsters and gain experience), if not one "but": when meeting with any enemy it is possible to try to bribe (!) existing gold. The fights are pretty complex and include both melee and using spells. Naturally, the game is the ability to find and use different items and is quite a rich "zoo" of opponents, among which there are dwarves, giant spiders and other interesting and perhaps unusual creation.
Above it was mentioned about "elements of strategy" - and here they really are and are completely unexpected thing – it is possible to buy an entire city (!!!) and then have a steady income from competent management and the collection of taxes!
Graphically, the game looks amazing for any fan of old RPGs is the "soft" isometry and a pretty accurate portrayal of all game objects (even given their small size). After its release, the game received a lot of negative reviews (even though the objective mentioned innovations) – in the first place for their "imperfection of the world." Maybe that's true, but it is impossible not to admit that the Red Crystal is more than the original, and very interesting RPG, the obscurity of which is just one more reason for every connoisseur of the genre to get acquainted with this unusual piece.
PS: the Manual to the game – just really great, contains a detailed description of absolutely all gaming experiences and highly recommended study.
Play your favorite childhood game Red Crystal: The Seven Secrets of Life online in your browser for free here.
Source: Archive.org, Mobygames.com
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