Dungeons & Dragons Games Vol. 35: Gold Box - Buck Rogers XXVc: Matrix Cubed (MS-DOS) - Part 2

This week on Super Adventures, I just need to play a few more hours of Matrix Cubed before I can be satisfied that I know how it plays. They could've made any kind of Buck Rogers XXVc game they wanted, they could've made this a platformer or a shoot 'em up and I could've been done with it in 20 minutes, but no, they had to make it a massive RPG and give me all this extra work!

Also, Matrix Cubed is a terrible title in my opinion. The Matrix is a good name for a sci-fi movie, Cube is a good name for an indie sci-fi thriller, but stick them together and it's just meaningless. Worse, it isn't evocative; it doesn't make you imagine the threat you're fighting or the places you'll visit. And that text looks bad.

I'm not claiming I could do any better though. Based on my track record, I'd end up calling it Buck Rogers' Super Sci-Fi Adventure or something. 

This is the second and final part. If you want to check out PART ONE, click the text. If you want SPOILERS, then just keep reading.

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Previously, in Matrix Cubed:

The six heroic NEO agents who stopped the doomsday laser in Countdown to Doomsday have been hard at work stopping another doomsday laser. But now they've been given a new mission: locate and recruit scientists for a project to restore the Earth.

The NEO agents have two locations to search: the Lowlands of Venus and Losangelorg on Earth. Unfortunately there's another faction out there kidnapping scientists, the Terran group PURGE, who are determined to eradicate all the genetically-altered offshoots of humanity. It's only a matter of time before the heroes run into them again, or some other well-armed group who wants to shoot them. Space seems really dangerous!

And now, the continuation:

Okay I was given two destinations to choose from: the Venus Lowlands or Losangelorg on Earth.

But I went to Mercury instead because I want to do some shopping! I got stuck in the first game because I didn't have the weapons I needed and I'm not making the same mistake this time. I found myself fighting a combat robot who was immune to my rocket pistols, in an aerosol grenade cloud that made my laser pistols useless too, so I need to make sure everyone has needle guns as a backup.

The inventory and prices depend on the shop you're visiting, so you have to fly around to find the best deals. Like a Martian monosword and battle armor w/fields.

And I'll be buying grenades too. Lots of grenades.

VENUS LOWLANDS

I decided to head to the Venus Lowlands next and now I've got all this landscape to cross. I'm the dot in the top left and I guess I'm heading to the lights in the bottom right? Man, I wish we had some kind of vehicle to get us over there quicker. Like, I dunno... a spaceship.

Speaking of the ship, the computer, Scot.dos, has some extra intel for me. The Lowlanders are mining something in the southeast, but what they're digging for is a mystery. That should be where we find our guy, though why a human scientist is living with Venusian miners is also a mystery.

We saw some smoke along the way and investigated, finding a Venusian village with all the farmers lying dead, slaughtered by PURGE.

We also found Zane! I have no idea who Zane is, I didn't get far enough in the first game to meet him, but wow I guess it's a small solar system for us to run into him again like this.

I'd joke and say that I'm going to add this literal child to the team, but it wouldn't be a joke. Gold Box Companion doesn't quite know what to do with him, but he is one of my characters now, look:

Zane's just a tiny kid though so he's only got 8 hit points. I guess he didn't level up much in the first game.

You can tell from the map that malevolent Mercurians have started attacking me from two directions, though they're still pretty far away. Seems like a good time for me to try out my Martian rocket rifles. They're not as powerful as the pistols, but are accurate over longer ranges. It's just a shame that swapping weapons is such a pain in the ass.

The enemy's guns don't seem quite as accurate, as they keep shooting at Zane and missing! These guys have to be a special kind of stupid to spend their turns trying to pick off my weakest unit when Alex Munro is standing next to him with a Mercurian needle gun and 3 specialisation points invested in it. Every turn she remains active, they lose another friend. Actually I think I can do better than that... though it does means switching to grenades.

So that's what happens when you fail a planetary survival skill check. I tried to take cover from the storm, but an exploding boulder got us. Now everyone's lost 13 health.

Oh don't worry, Zane is fine. His dad turned up a little earlier to collect him. The dad's theory is that the assassins attacked the town under the mistaken impression that they produced the drug gravitol. Those idiots just massacred a bunch of potato farmers. Now they're all dead too, and I have their stuff.

Damn, I failed my 'befriend animal' skill check and now the giant acid frogs are attacking us too! I checked a guide before I started to make sure I picked the important skills but it never said I'd be able to make friends with a frog.

That picture is awesome though.

Those are some big frogs! Thankfully they're not much of a threat, which actually makes them a big help to me. There are no clinics down here so the only way I can recover health is by finishing a battle without taking much damage.

I appreciate that encounters have gotten a lot more varied out here. I'm not just fighting the same group of PURGE troops or RAM guards, using the same tactics, over and over. The game even gave me the choice to use my 'hide in shadows' skill to spy on a Mercurian patrol, and this time I passed the skill check! Though they just pulled out a scanner and found us anyway.

After all the battles we finally arrived at the primitive Lowlander village where this scientist is supposed to be. It seems deserted though.

Oh, so these demo charges I've been collecting are basically a louder version of lockpicks. Just like LAM mines in Deus Ex. I even got some XP for using one.

This village probably looks primitive enough to fool a visitor, but anyone flying overhead would notice the modern industrial complex hidden behind these doors. Just look at the automap.

Every time I go into a new part of this village it looks more advanced than the last area. I've even found the factories where they fabricate the fake huts and spears.

It's kind of eerie to find somewhere completely empty for once. No random encounters waiting to spring out of nowhere, no scripted battles waiting in the next room. All I've been finding in these buildings is a bit of descriptive text... though one contains an elevator, going down.

I've got nowhere better to be so I might as well see where it goes.

When I arrived in the underground tunnels the Venusian miners immediately turned hostile and I had to fight a whole group of them. I got some nice Venusian weapons from the fight, but this isn't really what I came here for. 

Worse, when I opened a door a bunch of them threw stun grenades, captured us, and took the weapons back again!

Llorok here is such a jerk that he told us that the scientist we're looking for is Venusian, not human, just so he can laugh at our ignorance before he executes the whole team. That's just cold-blooded.

But then there was a convenient earthquake and Llorok stumbled into the open mine shaft that he was about to throw us down. So that's a hilarious reversal of fortunes. It would be even more funny if he didn't have all my gear on him.

Okay, I guess I'm using my climb skill to go down there then.

The lower tunnels are full of ursadders who would be absolutely no threat to a heavily armed team like ours if we were still heavily armed. Seems like we've got to pull a Kyle Katarn and punch them all to death.

I've played Eye of the Beholder II so I know what happens every single time you choose to give an enemy some assistance. But go on then, let's give it a try!

It actually paid off for once, as dragging Llorok back up to the top of the mine shaft convinced the other Lowlanders that we never intended to shoot any of them. That was just an unfortunate consequence of them repeatedly starting fights with us.

Now we've got our gear back and they want us to help them protect their secret labs. They said the entrance is in the north east end of the mines so I actually have directions to follow for once. I don't think the other passages are still open to me anyway.

We're in the secret Lowlander lab complex!

It seems that the earthquake wasn't an incredibly convenient coincidence after all, as it was the result of invaders attacking the complex. They're still here actually, their corpses horribly crushed in unusual ways.

I'm getting the feeling that I've reached the interesting part of the game and it's all downhill from here, but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

Hey it's someone who actually exists as a person in the game world! It's so rare that I actually get to see someone in these games who isn't running up to kill us.

Turns out that Leander here was working on gravity technology, which is why so many people got crushed. He knows that he'll be next if he moves, so he needs us to go around to the controls and turn off the device.

Of course he didn't say what door to go through, so I ended up walking into the gravity field myself and everyone lost 28 health. I've read that it's a good idea to just load your last save if you get hurt too much as you need health to win fights and you need to win fights to get health. But I'm going to stick with it and see how I do.

BUT THEN...

Oh no no no, Okona, you absolute idiot!

I was winning, there's only one PURGE robot left. But I've gotten into a routine of pressing T for Target, N for next enemy, and then A for attack. Every turn I press T, N, A - I didn't remember that Okona had explosive grenades equipped!

He targeted the next enemy and threw one over, but if a grenade touches a cloud of chaff it detonates instantly, so the enemy robot wasn't even harmed and one of my dudes was left comatose. They won't wake up from that until I reach a clinic, which will be hard to do with five units left. Okay now I need to load a save game.

This was clearly my fault, but if they'd made grenades a separate attack, like spells are in the D&D games, then it wouldn't have happened. Even better, I wouldn't have to keep swapping to them manually.

I turned off the gravity machine to save Leander and it turns out that he's the scientist we're looking for! Leander'sss a lisssard that doesss a hisss sssound with every sss, but he's cool. In fact he's actually pulling his weight just fine on the team and his ability scores are great... except for his intelligence, which is only 17.

We can't leave yet though as Leander wants us to help him first. It was quiet over in the wrecked part of the complex, but this section has PURGE squads ransacking his labs and I have to encourage them to stop. Unfortunately every fight here plays out pretty much the same, so it's becoming very routine.

I start by running over and throwing as many explosive grenades as I can before they can drop a chaff grenade. Then I switch every character from grenades to needle guns, except for when I forget and then blow myself up again.

I kill all the enemy humans first, then I turn my full attention to their robot, which dodges two-thirds of what I fire at it. It doesn't like it when Ronon Dex sneaks around and stabs it in the back though. 

Oh damn, Dash took way too much damage here, he's down to just 3 hit points! Next fight, I need to get him behind a wall or something. Anyway I'm hoping that the next floor down is a bit more interesting.

Hey I got a brochure about PURGE from one the bodies.

It turns out that they believe that genetic engineering is a threat to humanity and are dedicated to ridding the world of genetic research. Man, this sounds really familiar somehow, I feel like I've heard this in another sci-fi franchise. Oh that's right, this is what the Federation believes in Star Trek.

PURGE are clearly wrong though. The greatest threat to mankind is actually giant doomsday lasers.

Oh no, this PURGE squad brought combat robots. Plural.

I stopped playing Countdown to Doomsday because I got in a fight with one combat robot and didn't have the weapons I needed to hurt it. Now the game's put me against two of them and... they're not hurting me. These things usually have a devastating plasma launcher attack that hits half the screen but they seem harmless right now. Oh it's because of the chaff in the air! They can't fire their primary weapon without blowing themselves up.

Seems like the tables have turned, and this time I brought a needle gun... which just ran out of ammo. Crap, I thought 250 rounds would be enough for this planet! I've been picking up a bunch of 20-round guns after fights, but they fire 6 shots a turn so I'll only get 3 turns out of each. Why couldn't the ammo have just been separate from the gun? The arrows in the D&D games are separate!

SOON

Oh hey, it's this guy again, the Terran leader I fought on Caloris Station. Man, I was completely wrong earlier - punching him in the face did make him less cross-eyed. Aww, but he lost his PURGE ring! I bet he really misses that, and he probably misses the hand it was attached to as well.

The game gave me the option to hide and wait, and it worked... for a bit. I got to hear them piece together that the Lowlanders aren't really as primitive as they seem. PURGE hires some real geniuses.

When the battle started he fired a missile at me, which was unexpected, though not uncommon for video game characters with metal arms. Fortunately I have the ability to lob six... wait, seven grenades each turn and I've picked up about 20 per character at this point. That stopped him firing rockets real quick.

Uh? I think this journal entry I got is missing something. A map perhaps.

Hang on, I've been using Gold Box Companion's journal feature, but I'll check the actual log book instead.

Alright, this is a map of the floor I'm on, with the Xs being enemies waiting to ambush me.

Fortunately I now have control of the hydraulic doors (marked in black), so I can open them up and sneak around the Xs using the side tunnels. It's not the most challenging puzzle I've seen in an RPG, but I appreciate the game giving me a bit of variety.

I mean I could just fight all the enemies, but I'd rather not. I want the level to be over already. I'm almost out of ammo and I'm tired now. I just want to hike back to the ship, go home to Salvation Station and level up.

SOON, ON THE TOP FLOOR, NEXT TO THE BASE'S EXIT

Man, my heart just sank. The Mercurians were waiting to ambush me with 10 COMBAT ROBOTS!

We need to throw some chaff grenades right now as just one of these things could obliterate the whole squad with their plasma thrower. And then I'll just sit here and panic for a while.

Okay okay, this is basically a puzzle; I have all the tools, I just need to work it out. There are 10 very powerful robot tanks and a bunch of Mercurians with us inside this room, and there's one narrow exit on the bottom right. If we try to leave, the robots will follow and shoot us with explosive plasma.

So step 1 is throw the chaff grenades, then step 2 is kill the Mercurians. They're easy, so I'll wipe them out and simplify the situation. Next will be step 3: set up an ambush at the bottleneck.

Damn, this was going really well until I fired a rocket launcher at the chaff cloud and blew up my own dudes. Fortunately most are still over half health and I was able to send someone over to stabilise Okona in time before he died on the floor.

The plan is basically working though. The combat robots won't move any further while we're standing here and they won't fire their main weapon while they're in the chaff. Their secondary weapon is a rocket rifle, which is also jammed by chaff, so they're entirely harmless.

I'm just hoping I'm carrying enough grenades to repeat the process on the other eight robots in the room. My failure in the first game taught me to bring needle guns and explosives, and right now I'm learning that I should've brought more.

I actually did it! I just want to lie down now, but I did it, first try.

Man, how is my medic not ready to level up after that? She just healed 140 hit points and got Okona back on his feet, I think that's worth some XP. Though she couldn't help Dash, so now I have to make it back across the Lowlands with one of my units in a coma.

I don't want to fight random encounters anyway right now, I'm actually exhausted. If I see any more Mercurians or PURGE soldiers out there I'm just going to tell them to piss off, we're not doing this any more today.

Dinosaurs? Seriously?

Okay, I'm going to restart the game, then I'm going to type in the copy protection code, and then I'm going to load my last save, and I don't want to see any battles against dinosaurs this time. We're not doing random encounters, I am not in the mood! I just want to go home for tea and level ups.

LATER, AT LOSANGELORG

Man, I got so much experience from that mission I practically levelled up twice. In fact my rocket jock and engineer probably would have done if the game didn't cap your XP right at the threshold until you visit a trainer.

I should quit here, but all I have to do is pop into a fight, beat a few monsters, then their names will turn pink again and I can fly off back to Salvation Station to grab another level up.

Alright game, what have you got for me at Losangelorg?

A sewer level?

Actually, I've changed my mind, I think I'll quit here. If I wanted to explore an underground network of dank monster-infested tunnels underneath the ruins of a post-apocalyptic metropolis, I'd play... actually why would I ever want to do that?


CONCLUSION

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You can look at Matrix Cubed from different sides. From one perspective it's the closest thing to the Wing Commander RPG we never got. It's got nothing to tie it to that universe specifically, the theme just reminded me of it, but then there's nothing to tie it to anything else either. Including people's pop culture knowledge of Buck Rogers.

Then from another perspective it's the closest thing to the Countdown to Doomsday expansion we never got. All the Gold Box RPGs are pretty close in design and appearance, as if the designers were working with a Gold Box Construction Kit and couldn't work on the actual code, but they did make small improvements to the UI and technology over time. In fact the first Buck Rogers was a big upgrade over previous games. Not this time though, this is more of the same, which is a problem as that game really needed some changes made to its interface. I believe art can thrive within restrictions, but this is blatantly being held back by its frustrations.

For one thing the game's from 1992 and it still looks like The Bard's Tale from 1985. You've got the same tiny 3D window showing empty room after empty room, so you're completely reliant on the text to know what anything is. Maybe I'm just spoiled by how Eye of the Beholder II decorated some of its rooms with some actual furniture, but this game looks old by comparison.

Fortunately the lack of music is one problem I didn't have to worry about, as I used Gold Box Companion to add a suitably sci-fi soundtrack. Plus I couldn't have gotten anywhere without the tool's automap. Unfortunately it couldn't fix the biggest problem I have with the game, an absolute dealbreaker of an annoyance that I could barely tolerate a moment longer...

You see, the Gold Box engine was designed for magic-based tactical combat, so the Dungeons & Dragons games have a 'Cast' command that brings up a list of spells. You press it, you pick a spell, you use it. But Buck Rogers' combat is different, as there's no magic or sci-fi equivalent. Instead your tactics involve choosing the right guns or grenades that'll get you through enemy defences and deny them the ability to attack you.

Basically the gameplay is built around switching weapons. But there's no quick way to do this, not that I'm aware of at least.

If you want to switch from a rocket pistol to a needle gun or a chaff grenade, you first have to press 'View' to bring up the unit's character sheet. This is good information to have when it's useful, but it's not useful to know any of this when you're just grabbing a rifle.

Alright once the screen is up you now have the option of 'Gear' or 'Skills', so you choose 'Gear' to get into the inventory.

Next you have to un-ready the weapon you're currently holding. The character's inventory is completely unsorted so you have to find it first (it's in the middle).

After doing this you are now able to ready the weapon you want, once you're able to find it. And that's it, one character has swapped weapons. Then it's the next character's turn.

It's not a big deal doing this once, or twice, or three times, or twenty times. But I am NOT DOING IT AGAIN.

It's a shame really, because I was getting into the story. I mean, it's nothing special, there's just enough of a plot to justify travelling to different worlds and getting into people's business. But it does have a plot, events keep happening as you explore a dungeon, and you'll have no idea what the game will throw at you next. Sometimes it'll be a maze full of repetitive identical encounters and sometimes you'll try to make friends with a frog.

Granted this can be a bit of a problem, as you can hit a dead end by investing in the wrong skills. But failing a skill check usually works as it should, giving you a different outcome to deal with. Maybe you'll miss out on a few extra lines of dialogue or get hit by an exploding rock. The game even let me carry on when I let the Sun King die, which is cool... though the complete lack of long term consequences either way isn't so great.

I can't judge the game on things that happened after I quit, but from what I've read it really drops the ball on a lot of things later on. Players really aren't keen on all the times it stripped their weapons away and they had to lower the difficulty to stand any chance. Plus it ends with characters shouting "Hip-hip-hooray!" at you before abruptly dropping you back at the DOS prompt, which isn't ideal when you're building a device that should have an interesting impact on the setting.

Is this the best of the Buck Rogers games? Honestly, it might not even be the best Matrix game where you get to play as NEO. But if you can put up with it, there's a lot to like here. So it's a bit of a shame that I couldn't put up with it.

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Alright that's it, the last Buck Rogers XXVc game. Another series down. It wasn't the last Gold Box RPG though...

Next time it's something completely unrelated to Gold Box games, Dungeons & Dragons, SSI, Buck Rogers and RPGs in general. Its setting may be a bit familiar to anyone who's spent some time in Losangelorg recently, but that's just a coincidence.

You can tell me what you think it is in the comments, or even tell me what you think of Matrix Cubed.