Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Masterpiece Collection

List Price: $29.99 Discount Price: $59.98

Features:

• 6 Full AD&D Games includes:
• Shattered Lands, Strahd's Possession, Menzoberranzan,
• Wake of the Ravager, Stone Prophet & Genie's Curse

Customer Reviews:

A great collection for any old school PC RPG fan. [Posted on 2005-09-06]
At the price that the collection is being offered for on Amazon you really can't go wrong. While the one true gem in the collection in my mind is Shattered Lands the other five games are good examples of classic RPGs as well(though Genie's Curse is pretty mediocre).

Just for a little background info Shattered Lands and Wake of the Ravager (Which is Shattered Lands sequel) tells the story of a group of Gladiators who earn their freedom and end up leading a rebellion of local towns against the growing empire. The games, especially the first have aged incredibly well graphically and have a superb early turn based combat engine which would still stack up today - not bad at all for games released in the early 90's.

Strahd's Possesion, Menzoberranzan and Stone Prophet though are very different games - real time RPGs in the same mold as Morrowind (The gameplay is nearly identical to that of Morrowind) While personally i couldn't get into them as much as Shattered lands all 3 of them are solid games that any fan of morrowind should check out - that is if you possess some computer savy or own an older DOS based computer - they can be a little tricky to get running on a newer system.

Genies curse (which i only vaguely remember) is a pretty mediocre rpg/adventure game - think primitive Sword of Mana with a mediocre plot and mediocre gameplay.

Hope this review helps and do yourself a favor - at the very least check out Shattered Lands.

Addicting and even better than some of today's "CRPG's". [Posted on 2005-12-12]
If you've read any of my other game reviews you'll notice that I'm a big fan of the more "Classic(CRPG's)". With the Exception of the "Dungeon Siege" games and The "Elder Scrolls" series, the new crop of so-called (RPG's) for the PC are lame in the story telling department and require you to own a system that will cost you the equivalent of a down payment on a new car to run them. Buy a new console system (i.e-a PS2,XBOX 360/Elder Scrolls "Oblivion" should be out for this system soon) or save your hard earned cash and invest in the PS3 coming out next year. But in the meantime if you must play rpg's on your PC and you're not made of money to upgrade for today's games, consider checking out some of the classic's, and this collection would be a good start. The only problem is, if you're not familiar with how to install Old (DOS-Based) Games on Window'sXP or you don't own or have access to an older model computer, than you're pretty much out of luck. None of the (4 Discs) have an Auto-Running (Install) program that we're all acustomed to seeing when installing games(or any programs) for that matter, so you have to have some sort of knowledge about DOS and Window's to make these games playable without damaging your PC. Is all this tinkering worth it for These Relic's of day's gone by? The answer is YES!! Anyone who is a true( Adventurer ) will love these gems, if only for nostalgic sake. And newies will get addicted if this is thier first adventure into the "Forgotten Realm's". Just remember what i stated about the compatibility issue with newer systems.

Classic AD&D...gotta love it [Posted on 2007-03-28]
Perhaps I'm showing my age here (30), but I love these classic AD&D games. Any "old-school" gamers will probably appreciate any of these games to some degree - if only the comfort and nostalgia of playing on an old, familiar system. IMHO, the old games far exceed the new ones in the arena of theme/plot: i.e. quests are quests with a purpose rather than the currently all too common, "go kill 2 X monsters for unspecified purpose" approach. It seems like a lot of modern soi-disant rpgs are nothing but a pretty background sans developed/developing storyline...but if you like straight up hack-n-slash, so be it. I gave this product a 5 star cumulative rating based on the fact that I really enjoyed most of these games - but there are qualitative differences. Some info on the individual games (stretching my memory!):

1. Wake of the Ravager and Shattered Lands: these are the best 2 in the pack, IMO. Melee, single turn style combat, creative and well-developed story lines that come to a satisfying conclusion if properly completed, challenging enough to be interesting but not impossible to the point of frustrated quitting.

2. Menzoberranzan: this was my next favorite of the pack. Old school rpg; play up to 4 PCs at a time. Upon starting, player creates 2 characters to his/her specs...and yes, it is possible to max out your stats. Later, player can pick up 2 more characters. Almost all (all? I've forgotten.) NPCs offer or ask to join the party. Player can select one NPC, dismiss him/her and return to pick up same NPC later if such is desired. Warning: not all NPCS are trustworthy; be careful whom you invite to join your party! Story features Drizzt D'ourden, the honorable Drow (dark elf)of Forgotten Realms fame. Well developed story; fair amount of dungeon-crawling.

3. Strahd's Possession: same set up as Menzo, player starts by creating 2 PCs, picks up others later, etc. If I recall correctly, Count Strahd was a particularly nasty vampire who had not only terrorized the commoners but corrupted some local authorities. I remember getting stuck on this game at one point...persist, and success will be yours. Well developed story; fair amount of dungeon-crawling.

4. Stone Prophet and Al-Quadim: Genie's Curse: never finished either of these. I liked Stone Prophet better; just reached a point where I couldn't find a secret door and dropped it; ended up not returning to it. SP is set in the dessert, a sort of Egyptian theme. Al-Quadim I scarcely remember...it impressed me less than the others at the time but I would still not consider it a total loss if only as another example of a classic rpg.

All games are graphically excellent when taken in the context of their original release dates. I played them in 94 or 95 and even next to then graphics "powerhouses" like the original Myst, the graphics did not pale or fail to entertain. I would tend to think that they would stack up relatively well even against modern standards - not so different from your modern strategy/melee game...and remember, graphically there is a huge difference between say, 1989 and 1994. Enjoy.

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