The Summoning

The Summoning description

War.
The war between good and evil.
Stone fortress on the hill.
The circle of light mages administers an ancient ritual.
The Ritual Call.

You open your eyes and see a group of people in strange clothes, standing in a vast hall. Forward is a woman and is represented as lady Rowena. Short explanation - and the subsequent long months of training... You're humanity's last hope. You have to enter the Fort Weaver of Shadows and find a way to stop it. A sudden attack of the Horde in the fortress breaks plans, and although your training is not finished, Lady Rowena manages to send you away from the fortress... you have a choice – victory or death.

So the game begins The Summoning. The hero finds himself in the maze leading to the citadel, the Weaver of Shadows, with nothing but a weapon, some food and a magical palimpsest-cartographer. Immediately after the appearance of the hero in the labyrinth of available choices, to go to the citadel directly or make a little detour of three introductory levels. These levels allow you to explore the game, learn some useful spells and a good idea to equip himself to continue.

The Summoning was not just an ideal embodiment of the genre Dungeon Crawl, but at the same time is something much bigger. The corridors of the citadel, the Weaver of Shadows is not a safe and not a desert: on the way to his goal, the hero will encounter bloodthirsty enemies and civilians, and most of them absolutely not interested in his mission – they just live and pursue their very own goals. All you can talk, and almost all, with some exceptions, provide useful information, specific items or required to pass items.

A separate line should be allocated riddles and puzzles – a lot of them. No, a LOT. In the beginning of the game they are, of course, is simple – something like "turn the crank, find the key and open the door for them"... But with the approach to the purpose of travel riddles are becoming more and more extensive – for example, which is only to find scattered throughout several levels of the pieces printing. Key and the subject wells, the talking skull, levers, pressure plates (which, by the way, you can pin down the carcass of the killed near the monster), rolling balls, movable walls, operable under the feet of the pits, teleporters with multiple exit points, the rune of teleportation – this is not a complete list of what the hero will have to face during the campaign to its goal.

Abilities represented by six characteristics (strength, dexterity, endurance, accuracy, talent, power) – they directly affect how much weight the hero can carry over the shoulders of how well he dodges blows, how long you can lift weights, his arms, his memory and the power of his spells. Months of training were not in vain for the hero: he can handle four weapons, and has basic skills in the four schools of magic. To raise some of the skills can only be using it: for example, the periodic transformation of enemies into a kind of pin-cushions raises skill shooting (and throwing) weapons. Naturally, with increasing skill increases the accuracy and damage of weapons and spells – the duration and strength of effect.

An integral part of the Dungeon Crawl's – the enemies in the citadel of the Weaver of Shadows is enough to, on the one hand, the hero does not feel lonely, and with another – to constantly drip experience. Experience increases a "level" (or rather, title) character and the number of maximum points of life and magic. How to fight the enemies of the human race, having one sword (or axe), this early in the game, and being dressed in a rag costume? The answer is simple: look for stronger armor, axe and shield Povestea stronger! The scattered things – weapons, armor, and just "Need Items" – will be more than enough given the fact that the character is not Hercules and can raise not so much. On the other hand, if the axe is too weight down a hand and really want to run into the enemy something sort of, in the world there is magic.

The system of magic, it would seem quite usual – the hero has spell points spent on the creation of spells... That's just it - only the tip of the iceberg. Hero gets into the maze, having the result of months of magical training – parchment with a single spell of the chosen school. Having examined the parchment, aware that the spell is invoked, if you make a few hand gestures in a certain sequence, – in the beginning, the hero does not know any of them, but as soon as he sees the parchment with strange gestures, then immediately learns them (a total of twelve gestures, the spell contains from two to eight). To apply the spell, it is necessary to prepare, which is necessary to build from a list of gesture sequence corresponding to the spell. The system works so that you can build any sequence of gestures, but work only those that match the existing set of spells: for example, if a player knows a powerful spell, the hero will be able to use it as soon as it becomes available gestures, without waiting for the finding of the parchment. The number of spells a hero can be remembered simultaneously, separately for each of the four schools and is limited to his skill Talent.

And now, everything seems to be fine, life is amazing, and proudly raising his head to meet the enemy, but everything has an end. In The Summoning weapons can break, armor - come into disrepair, and a magic amulet is to lose strength and disappear. Thus, it is recommended to use the weapons only a sword master can easily stay in the midst of battle with only a spare axe, not even knowing what his side have to beat. Broken weapons disappear from hands, and broken armor gradually loses the armor and replace it (not fix it).

In conclusion, we should say that at first glance the game is not something special. However, the beauty and complexity of The Summoning revealed far not at once – in the game you have to immerse yourself in the world need to travel and to feel his spirit. After all, it's a huge maze, with its inhabitants, mysteries and traps for the study of which it is necessary to spend a lot of hours. I would without a moment's hesitation gave the game the highest rating and characteristics ‘Must have’ – but only for fans of the genre Adventure.

Attention! The teleportation maze in the abode of the Ebony Knight, with whom the hero will sooner or later encounter on the way to their goal, is not a maze in every sense, and part of protecting games from copying for the passage of which in the game is given a link to the page from the manual. If the guidance you have just go through the maze in this order: spoiler.the entrance teleporter, and then South-West, East, North, East, West, West, East, West, East and finally West.

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Source: Archive.org, Mobygames.com