Akalabeth: World of Doom

Akalabeth is a fairly intriguing game to look at. Here you can see Richard Garriott's baby steps, his first attempt at creating a living breathing world in the RPG format, something he would become known for, and would eventually evolve into the gold standard for RPG worldbuilding (Ultima VII). But really, that's all there is. Akalabeth plays as a somehow even more primitive version of Ultima I and II, with an overworld view that goes into first person when you enter dungeons. Like his later games, Akalabeth has you managing a supply of food along with your health and items, but nothing here is very compelling. You beat on monsters, get gold, get items, go further down, repeat ad naseum. With all that being said, there's absolutely no reason to play this game in a modern context, there are a lot of reviews pretending that this is somehow still worth playing, but I'm not going to give a game 5 stars because I want to pretend that I'm somehow some kind of computer gaming connoisseur and posture on GOG. This is not worth playing now, go look up videos of it on YouTube if you're curious, clutz around with a little bit if you feel like it, but don't feel compelled to actually play the damn thing for longer than 5 minutes, it's a fossil, and even as a kid who adored Ultima I, II, III, I couldn't stomach the entire game back when I was young. It's piss hard and simply not fun. Put it down as a footnote in your head when you're joining discussions about the origins of the RPG genre, recognize its significance, but there's nothing here for you to enjoy.

This game may look horrendous by today's graphical standards, but it was a gift from heaven to someone who came from text adventures or tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons or Tunnels & Trolls. It's still mildly addictive even now. This also happens to be a good nostalgic fix for those who played Dungeons of Daggorath (a game that was evidently "inspired" by Akalabeth) on the TRS-80 Color Computer. Even though Dungeons of Daggorath lacked the RPG elements, but added a clever "heartbeat" mechanism and was real time instead of turn based, the two games play almost identically and are visually twins. Thanks, GOG, for this nice little Christmas present!

First, the default port of Akalabeth that GOG installs is bugged and unbeatable. You can't progress through the quests you are given. There is, however, in the Goodies download section the 1998 version of Akalabeth, and this version is beatable. It feels a bit silly to review Akalabeth, as it's literally a high school student's project from the late 1970's. There are better games from around that time, such as Colossal Cave Adventure, or the Atari 2600 game Adventure, or a much better dungeon crawl, Rogue. Still, Akalabeth is interesting as a historical artifact, as the student that made this game, Richard Garriott, would build off its design to create the first Ultima game. A prominent aspect of Akalabeth's design, the mixture of a top-down overworld with first-person dungeon exploring, would persist in the series until Ultima 5. As a game, Akalabeth can be very frustrating. The map generation is very random and repetitive. Everything looks the same very quickly. You progress through the game by completing a series of quests given from a castle, but these quests are all 'kill the monster' type. Not very interesting on their own. There are two character classes, and a variety of monsters, which can make things a little more interesting. The thief can steal your weapons! The gremlin can steal half of your food each turn! If you don't watch out, you'll starve to death! I would recommend playing as a mage, so you can use magic amulets to go up and down levels quickly. The monsters will also flee when their HP is low, something a lot of modern RPGs don't even bother to implement. Still, the better parts of Akalabeth will be found in Ultima 1, with a more fleshed out world. So just play that instead.

Basic, simple game that just isn't designed well. Doesn't age well at all. Why there is an overworld and tons of towns/dungeons is just odd -- considering EVERY dungeon is the same layout. zero reason to explore the overworld besides to find the castle. First, just play the 1998 version of the game, not the default one in GOG. The 1998 version adds music, sounds and lets you SAVE the game (which lets you repeat things) Second, the game is just random .. frustratingly so .. and it is possible to get permanently trapped. So I guess it is "rogue-like" in that way. I am sure it was an amazing piece of software for the time (1979) written by a high schooler. Because of it he went on to develop some of the most memorable games of the 80s and 90s, but that's it. It's not "Zork" .. it's not "King's Quest" .. that despite their age are replayable today ... it's a teenager's coding experiment that can be billed as "Ultima 0" because of what came after.

Akalabeth is a milestone in gaming history. It was one of the earliest RPGs (limited release in 1979) and precursor to the Ultima series. Akalabeth was inspired by Garriot’s weekly D&D sessions. The goal of the game is to kill the Balrog. This is done by receiving kill quests from Lord British followed by copious amounts of dungeon delving. Mechanically Akalabeth is pretty solid although it feels a bit dated. The most frustrating thing about it is the amount of dying, usually from starvation. And that’s the worst part of Akalabeth, each death felt cheap. Cheap deaths piled into frustration and quickly fermented into the bitter wine of rage quits. Altogether, I’ve probably only spent 45 minutes playing this game, and I’m unlikely to play it again. It’s an interesting piece of game history, but it hasn’t aged well. Of course, if you like this kind of thing, go for it. Verdict: Buy it on sale, maybe. If you’re interested in gaming history or just really like old-school games, give this a try. Otherwise, spend your money elsewhere.