Vengeance of Excalibur

Infobox VG|title=Vengeance Of Excalibur


developer=Synergistic Software
publisher=Virgin Games Inc.
designer=Robert Clardy
Alan Clark
engine=
released=1991
genre=Computer role-playing game
modes=Single player
ratings=
platforms= PC (MS-DOS),
Amiga,
Atari ST,
Mac
media=3½-inch floppy disks
requirements=
input=

"Vengeance of Excalibur" is a 1991 RPG style computer game developed by Synergistic Software and distributed by Virgin Games. It acts as a sequel for Synergistic previous title "Spirit of Excalibur", and while it draws its basic background elements from Arthurian lore, "Vengeance of Excalibur" is set in what is actual Spain, in a time period about five centuries later than its predecessor. As an RPG game "Vengeance of Excalibur" puts the player in control of a small team of "Knights of the Round Table" who will seek out in Spain for the stolen items of the treasure of Camelot.

Plot

While "Vengeance of Excalibur" is set around year 1000 a.d. the story seems to start where "Spirit of Excalibur" left off: Britain has been reunited under a unique king, Constantine, who is king Arthur's successor and peacefully rules over the realm. However during one particularly stormy night a lone knight is admitted to Camelot, where he is able to slip past the guards, enter the treasure room and steal all the gold and the precious relics stored there, including Arthur's mythical sword Excalibur and the newly recovered Holy Grail. He is also able to kidnap Nineve, the court's sorceress whose magic is second in power only to Merlin himself. A witness reveals that the knight, who turns out to be the rogue sir Bruse sans pitie, was in the company of a shadowy creature who has cast a spell against king Constantine, turning him into a statue. This otherworldly creature is known as the Shadowmaster, a demon lord that was apparently summoned by Morgan le Fay before she was defeated in "Spirit of Excalibur". Since the treasures of Camelot have been stolen, Britain has been struck by all sort of plagues and the Knights of the Round Table have formed small teams in order to search the land and find a solution to the mystery. A group of such knights is about to leave for the Iberian peninsula from Portsmouth: some evidence points out that sir Breuse may have left for Spain, a country torn by the war between the Christian kingdoms of the north and the Muslim ones of the south, not to mention internal strife between the Christians themselves and plagued as well by groups of bandits and Basques who are hostile to all the strangers. The player will be in control of this above mentioned group of knights and has the task of saving Britain by retrieving the stolen items and defeating the Shadowmaster to undo all its evil magic.

Gameplay

Gameplay in "Vengeance of Excalibur" is very much like that in "Spirit of Excalibur": the game is made up of seven episodes each with a specific goal, usually the retrieval of one of the stolen artifacts, and a number of lesser quests that must be undertaken to complete the episode or to enhance the powers of the player's knights. Unlike "Spirit" where the player had many knights under his control, in "Vengeance of Excalibur" he only has a team of four knights which are later joined by the sorceress Nineve and sparingly by some other characters who temporarily join the player's team. Some of the knights the player can choose from at the beginning are familiar from "Spirit", like sir Lancelot or sir Bors, while the others are new and not all of them appear to be derived from Arthurian mythology. Every character has his strong point, for example Lancelot is the stronger, Bors the most pious and another knight is the richest. The player is also presented with the chance to import four more characters from "Spirit of Excalibur" bringing the total of knights he can choose from to sixteen. During the game the player has access to a "map level" and a "scene level". The first provides a map of all Iberia that the player can use to make his characters travel from one location to another. The second is where the characters are actually seen and where most action, like fighting, talking, trading, etc..., actually takes place. Other than an enhancement of the player control that make simpler performing actions, the "scene level" in "Vengeance of Excalibur" has some important differences that set it apart from that of its predecessor. The first difference relates to individual combat, which is no more limited to a single character fighting one enemy at a time, rather up to three versus three fights can take place simultaneously. This new feature resulted in the removal of the chance for the player to manually control his fighter: there are however three different, automatic, combat styles the player can choose for every controlled character who is fighting. A "reckless" style has the knight attack the enemy with little regard for his safety, hoping to overwhelm the adversary through sheer force alone; the "normal" style is a balanced mix between defence and attack, while the "cautious" style has the knight always stand on the defensive and attack only when he sees a small window of opportunity.
The second difference is in the size of the scenes every location is made of. In "Spirit of Excalibur" every location usually had only a couple of scenes, like the outside and the inside of a castle, from which the characters could move to and from. In "Vengeance" locations have often more than two scenes and the characters can be directed to more than one direction from each scene, effectively creating a larger environment where it is very easy for the player to lose his bearings. Such an effect is used to a good extent to create labyrinths in some locations, thus adding a new layer of difficulty to the game, albeit one that easily frustrates the player.

ee also

* Synergistic related 1990 game "Spirit of Excalibur".