Spells of Gold

RPG 2002 Windows Buka Entertainment Isometric Fantasy

No magic here

On paper, this was pitched as a mix of Elite-style trading and Zelda-style RPG adventuring and which sounded like an enthralling combination. However, in reality, it all went terribly wrong and this ended up as being an almost complete failure that is only really worth a look for its sheer ineptitude. The game throws you in the fantasy-style world of Vayon and sets you on an unknown path through this hostile world. You'll have to explore the many towns which litter its highways, trading for goods, paying or avoiding taxes, racking up the cash and abilities while trying to stay out of trouble but always in profit. This is a pretty open ended game, and you can choose to follow the story or just pick up the occasional quest, slay some monsters and try to figure out what trends are going to be big this season so you can make a mint. You've got three classes in which to advance your skills, while there are literally hundreds of towns and items to visit and trade. The whole thing is presented via an isometric view and as this is perhaps the first issue to be seen, let's start here. The visuals are very poor indeed, with awful animation and ugly design work, while the sound is equally unappealing. It gets worse though, as everything else is just so utterly tedious. Travelling is simply a matter of following the dots, while combat is predictable and very easy, thanks partly to the complete lack of balance in the weapons. We could go on, but ultimately this just fails on every level and really should be missed unless you truly love awful games.

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