King of Dragon Pass

So, King of Dragon Pass on GOG. The game was originally released in 1999 but if anything that just makes it better; the graphics aren't very important, you see, since the game's meat is all in the text. You run a tribe of people in a fantasy world with cultural and social elements strongly inspired by those of pre-Christian Germanic peoples. All your economic, religious, social, political aspects are completely under your control, as is warfare. Sounds pretty simple and straightforward, but with the myriad of events you have to deal with in the game, from a runaway bride asking to take refuge within your clan to discovering an intelligent and destructive wyrm on your land - and sending it to torment one of your enemies - the roleplaying aspect of the game skyrockets. You leave behind your modern morality and have to start really thinking about what would be best for your clan, and no one else - but still feel a little bad when you have to leave hostages to be killed in an enemy camp. The heroquests are icing on the cake, and rather delicious icing. They're something you would never see in a modern game: in order to do them well, you actually have to know the lore of the game, read the myths that you're attempting to emulate. So essentially, you are forced to be immersed. It's awesome. It's also neat to note just how close the game is to what we know about tribal European societies. War happened all the time; you couldn't escape it, and just because someone came in and stole some of your stuff or killed some of your men didn't mean he hated you, it was just how things worked. Even in full-scale battles, you didn't have any more than two hundred people fighting on either side, and maybe an eighth of them would be killed. Most of your combatants aren't professional warriors, but farmers looking out for their clan and for a little loot on the side. And they fight with spears. Wealth is even measured in cattle. The game also is quite long, can be quite difficult, and has immense replay value with all the factors that go into building your clan as well as the random elements at startup. So, if you love a game that can suck you right in without all the flash, something where you can really rule the way you want to, in your idiomatic fashion where there may not be a single right choice (there may even not be a single good choice), or if you're just a heathen looking for some legit tribal fun, the game's just $6 and comes highly recommended.

Removed certain features that added depth to the game. Removed the ability to meaningfully change the types of food you grow. Or how to micromanage your lands. You basically don't get to interact with the game the same way you used to. They supposedly fixed certain issues, and along fixed it so well, I actually don't notice certain blessings from the shrines working at all.

The game really draws you in, and I'm honestly surprised there was no sequel. Word of warning for strategy types: this game had to run on 1999 hardware. That means there's no underlying simulation, but just a bunch of dice. If you keep loading a save and trying something with different inputs, you'll find that the outcome will generally be random. From a technical point of view, this game does a marvelous job of concealing the fact that you're mostly just taking a random walk. But if you're a powergamey type, you're going to have a very hard time mustering the suspension of disbelief required to finish the game.

King of Dragon Pass is first and foremost a very unique game. In over 20 years of gaming I've not seen anything quite like it and that's a fact. Basically you're descendant from a people who once walked alongside the hero-gods known as the lightbringers who stood at the cradle of your civilization. After a long line of ancestors your people of today have made a choice: Rather than stay in Heortland and be thralls to a nasty piece of work called the Pharaoh they decide to up and leave for the Dragon Pass. How their history was shaped is determined by choices made by the player in the intro. Insignificant though they may seem at the time, these choices have profound effects upon the way you can play the game. If say you start taking thralls or made peace with beastmen whilst your ancestors abhorred such practices then you'll have at the least quite a bit of misfortune. The game consists of guiding your clan from then on and making decisions during events as they are brought to your clan ring. The ring initially consists of a mixed match of people, who may or may not be suited for this task. Primarily they will give you advice and be held responsible for decisions you make. You can replace one or all of them with folks held in reserve, all will grow older and eventually die only to be replaced by young'uns. These pop up at random, so you may go ages without a new healer ready for council or be stuck with hundreds of cattle-cods at once. As mentioned before, all age and their appearance changes as they do. (A merry trickster with a head full of hair may turn into a wizened eagle with a demonic gaptooth smile.) Life in the clan is not easy, with the struggle to survive depending on the amount of farmed/wild lands in the tula, cattle and trade agreements. You even need to weigh how much you wish to raid into that balance and how well you treat your neighbors. Events occurring have longlasting effects, if you kindly hil most peculiar lizardman you may find some eggs that hatch into dinosaurs. They may make good aid on the farm or in battle, but may also be more trouble than they're worth. Supporting a false prophetess may bring shame or glory. The sheer number of events and consequences is mindboggling. In short, this game could be described as a combination of a civilization, text adventure, D&D and Art game though that description fails to encompass the whole gamut of it. Better to say is that King of Dragon Pass is amazingly addictive and infinitely replayable, though juggling all concerns can cause a whopper of a headache.

There is nothing I can compare this game to. It has features from many genres and single games, yet it defies all tradition (so to speak), and delivers something that is almost mythically rare in the video-game industry: uniquity. And it is also a damn fine game, delivering an entire fictional culture with it's traditions with it's fate yours to decide. It is unforgiving, but also surprisingly light (for a management-heavy game) -- You just need to do the important decisions, nothing more, nothing less. This game is leadership without the bad parts. And by Orlanth how I love the music, even though several tracks repeat quite often. My review may be glorified by the fact that I know the Orlanthi people and the land of Glorantha from my tabletop roleplaying, but I have no doubt I'd give this game a really positive rating even if I knew nothing of it's background. I seriously advise trying this one out.