Akalabeth: World of Doom

The game hasn't aged well, it gets repetitive and it probably won't be enjoyable to people that didn't play it back in the day.

An extremely primitive and rudimentary RPG from the late 1970s. It has its place in history as one of the earliest computer role playing games, and as the progenitor of the Ultima series, but as a game itself Akalabeth is really not worth more than about twenty minutes of curiously playing around with its systems and mechanics nowadays. You go to the castle, get a quest to kill a specified creature type in one of the dungeons, and then come back for your reward. Which I suppose is the majority of RPGs when you really boil them down to their essence; questing and dungeon raiding and the like. But there is no real interesting narrative, character, or world building here to keep the player interested. Once you complete ten quests for Lord British, the game ends. You can also spend some time grinding and/or exploiting the magic amulet in order to cheese the game and make it ridiculously easy. Watch out and make sure that you keep well stocked on some food too, because you will get a "game over" if you are not careful and run out. It's free on GOG to check out and I suggest doing so, if for only a short period of time before the novelty and curiosity wears off.

Honestly once you get a handle on the controls it's pretty fun to just dungeon crawl and complete the basic kill quests. The biggest thing to get you head around is the vector dugeon visuals, expecially the invisible walls since it can be easy to get lost. I highly recommend picking Mage. The ability to pick you spells with the Magic Amulet and use Ladder Up and Ladder Down is very critical to not getting stuck in a loop of falling into pits and struggling to find a Ladder. Also BUY FOOD, as much as you can, easiest way to die early on is running out of food.

Modern CRPG gaming would not be where it is without Richard Garriott's pioneering work, and this is the place that started it all. Unfortunately, Alkalbeleth: World of Doom is not a particularly fun game unless you are masochistic or just absolutely NEED to play every CRPG ever made. The graphics are so primitive it makes BRogue look like an Unreal Engine Four game, and the interface is highly unintuitive. I am OK with bad graphics and I am OK with difficult games, but this game is so bare-bones that it's not worth playing. Still, I'm impressed by Lord British's achievement, and glad that he kept going and improving. I give this three stars: one star for gameplay, five stars for historical value.

Back in my 20s, I was on a quest to find the most raw and primitive rpg games out there - Akalabeth delivered just what I was looking for and I had a lot of fun playing it. Today, I'm replaying this old gem and it still feels unique and special to me. The premise is very simple: roll stats, pick class, start as a weakling, go dungeon crawling, earn money, back to surface (ladder spells help A LOT), get better gear, raise hit points, go back to dungeon crawling, rinse and repeat until you make it to the final boss. It is pretty simple compared to today's standards, but it can get challenging. You'll find yourself dead sooner than expected if you low your guard. Even after beating the game, you can keep descending the dungeon and fight the harder monsters. Considering its age, Akalabeth is a hell of a ride and I encourage every rpg lover to give it a try.