Way back in about 1986, a hitherto unknown company called FTL released a game for the Commodore Amiga. Called Dungeon Master (how they managed that without getting sued by TSR is anybody's guess), it implemented a revolutionary mouse-driven interface. Objects on-screen were actually *objects on-screen*, which you could pick up, move around, and place into your inventory using the mouse. (Hard to believe this is such a radical idea, seeing as it's all but standard these days, but it was.)
Flash forward. Almost ten years later, Interplay releases the sequel to Dungeon Master, The Legend of Skullkeep. (An earlier sequel, Chaos Strikes Back, was released on the Amiga, but the designers disavow all responsibility for that one.) The game bears a striking resemblance to the original, with very few obvious changes to the interface. The big changes include outdoor locations (which are not that exciting; they look just like indoor locations, except you can get rained on), 256-color graphics (which do nothing to improve visibility, due to the extremely dark color palette and aforementioned rain), and shops where you can buy and sell equipment. You still have to crush endless hordes of monsters. You still retrieve booty from their stinking corpses (and, in some cases, the stinking corpses themselves; dragons is good eatin'). And you still have to solve puzzles involving keys, pressure plates, and annoying trapdoors that chase you around the dungeon and open beneath your feet.
Let's get one thing out of the way: Skullkeep is fun and entertaining. If you're a fan of hack 'n' slash games, or if you played the original and were hooked, you'll likely get drawn into the sequel as well. There's something appealing about seeing your characters go from puny 1st-level misfits to godlike brutes that can topple mountains with their off-hand. Likewise, Skullkeep retains that "gotta-solve-one-more-puzzle-before-I-go-to-bed" quality that was Dungeon Master's strong point. On the other hand, this is no Betrayal at Krondor. The characters have names, but that's only because it's easier to remember names than "artisan wizard/journeyman fighter/neophyte ninja." There are no characters you can talk to, and what interaction there is in the game is extremely limited. (The shopkeepers you haggle with are apparently deaf-mutes; all they do is shake their heads, point and grunt.) If it moves, kill it. As long as you don't have a problem with that, you'll do fine.
Skullkeep also gets high marks for its easy-to-use interface ... although, unfortunately, they're the exact same marks we would've given DM ten years ago. Yes, the game is very object-oriented; you can pick up objects, throw them, look at them, even put them inside other objects. Unfortunately, there are a number of innovations that might have made Skullkeep even better than it is. We've seen them in other games, so why not here? Why click the mouse to pick up an object and click to put it down, when you could simply click and drag? Why not devise a means to "lasso" and drag several objects at once? Why not allow a right-click to bring up the properties of an object, rather than having to open a character view, grab the object and click it on the character's eye icon? Why, why, why, why, why? After using Windows 95 for a couple of months, playing this game is like going back to 3.1 - it gets the job done, but you can easily think of half a dozen shortcuts, time-savers, and ways to do things *better*.
The superb magic system has also come through intact. To cast spells, you construct them from four sets of runes. The first set dictates the power of the spell, the second the element it effects, the third the form (e.g. a potion or a flying bolt), and the last the spell's alignment. By combining different runes into formulae, you create specific spells. You learn the recipes for different spells from items you find through the game, although if you're an old-time DM player (like me, heh heh heh), you might remember a few spells, or even have some old notes stashed away . . .
The coolest additions to the game are its shops. Here, you can exchange some of that ill-booten gotty for better armor, better weapons, or food (if ever food should get hard to come by ... not likely, once you get to the point where everyone in your group can throw a max-strength fireball). You can also sell stuff outright at a reduced price. The best part of shopping is haggling. You pick out what you want from a display, which shows you what the shopkeeper will sell it to you for. You can then put a bunch of money on his table, which will prompt him to do one of three things. If you've offered enough, he'll grunt positively and make the exchange (giving you back change if you gave him too much). If it's not enough, he grunts negatively. If it's close, he gets pensive and grunts "Hmm" (apparently shopkeeperese for "situation unclear - try again later"). A word of warning: do *not* attack the shopkeeper. As in other dungeon crawl games (even going as far back as Dungeon Hack), this is a certain death sentence. Each store has a nasty, reptilian-looking ninja-dude guarding it who will kick the ever-loving crap out of you should you flick the teensiest fireball in the shopkeeper's direction. If, by some strange chance, you should beat this guy (I don't think it's possible, but maybe . . . ), the fireball-launchers liberally strewn about the shop will toast you before you can beat a hasty retreat.
There are plenty of things to harp on in Dungeon Master II: The Legend of Skullkeep. Despite this, there are plenty of GOOD things to balance them out. If you're looking for an in-depth plot and lots of character development, don't look in this direction. If, on the other hand, hacking and slashing is your cup of tea, Skullkeep is a fun couple of days' worth of mindless diversion with decent graphics and interface, entertaining puzzles, and lots of vicious monsters to reduce to steak tartar.
