Dungeons & Dragons Games Vol. 6: Silver Box - Heroes of the Lance (MS-DOS)

Developer:

U.S. Gold

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Release Date:

1988

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Systems:

Atari ST, Amiga, DOS, C64, ZX Spectrum, CPC, MSX, PC-88, PC-98, Sharp X1, FM Towns, Master System, NES

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm still in 1988 playing Dungeons & Dragons video games. In fact I've barely moved, as this apparently came out almost simultaneously with the first Gold Box game, Pool of Radiance. This time though I'm playing the first of the Silver Box line... it's Heroes of the Lance, by British developer U.S. Gold!

I didn't even know that U.S. Gold made any games themselves, I only know them as a publisher. It turns out that they released hundreds of titles (not all of them gold from the US), but only ever developed eight of them themselves, including this and its two Silver Box sequels. Hang on, I need to turn the volume down, as its beepy PC Speaker music just scared the crap out of me. It sounds better on the Atari ST, which was apparently the lead system this time. In fact it sounds better on a lot of computers, as I believe this had the most ports of any of the D&D games.

Heroes of the Lance was released on 13 systems over 4 years, beating Pool of Radiance and Dragons of Flame, which each only made it onto 9 of them. It didn't matter if you were a European with a Speccy or Amiga, a Japanese gamer with a PC-88, or if you preferred Sega or Nintendo consoles instead, there was a version of Heroes of the Lance for you. Except for Americans with Apple IIs who were somehow left out! The system was getting on in years, but it had been the lead RPG platform throughout the '80s, so I don't know what publisher SSI were thinking there

A lot of big name publishers had competed to win the Dungeons & Dragons licence, but it was Strategic Simulations, Inc. that had been victorious, thanks in part to their ambitious plans. They had three product lines in mind: role-playing games based on AD&D rules (Gold Box), action-adventure titles (Silver Box), and software to help a Dungeon Master run a tabletop D&D game. That last idea didn't catch on, but there are 10 Gold Box RPGs and this Silver Box Classics bundle I just picked up on Steam has a decent number of games in it too, so two out of three isn't bad.

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These days the game is being looked after by publisher SNEG, who won me over the first time I loaded up Pool of Radiance and saw this beautiful launcher. Though I was curious about the company's name, so I investigated and found out it means 'snow'. Anyone who knows me is extremely aware of how envious I am of people who get snow in winter, and it turns out it was a snowless winter that inspired the name. The company is giving people the snow they've been missing, and that's so perfect to me.

Though something's a bit off this time. I'm sure that Heroes of the Lance is the first Silver Box game, so why has it been placed third in the list on the left?

Also the Gold Box games have all kinds of extra documents included, in addition to the fan-made Gold Box Companion app that adds quality of life features. Where's Heroes of the Lance's manual and cluebook and ref. card? Where's the Silver Box Companion checkbox?

Either Heroes of the Lance is so intuitive and has such good tutorials that it doesn't even need a manual, or the Silver Box games are so bad the publisher half-assed their launcher and no one actually cared.

Okay, I clicked the button and it's starting up DOSBox.

Wow, they've got DOSBox set to only 900 cycles! I've never seen it so low before. This is not a demanding video game.

The EGA palette isn't kind to digitised artwork, but they did their best with this art.

After the human Cleric Goldmoon, there's Storm Brightblade who considers ranged weapons to be cowardly. He must get on really well with the archers in the party. Next there's Fighter Caramon Majere and Magic-User Raistlin Majere... hey, same last name. Hang on, why is the game showing me a slideshow of characters? Do I not get to make my own team?

I suppose that would make sense, as this isn't a Forgotten Realm games like Pool of Radiance, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights etc. Heroes of the Lance takes place in the Dragonlance campaign setting, which did things a little differently.

I've managed to avoid learning a damn thing about Dragonlance my whole life, despite it having a very successful novel series, but my research tells me that it's different to Forgotten Realms in two main ways. First, it has a lot more dragons in it. Second, it has an ongoing story, with protagonists.

Heroes of the Lance is based on the first tabletop module, Dragons of Despair, and even there players choose one of these characters to role play instead of creating their own. I suppose that makes this game closer to a movie or novel adaptation in a way, where they have to include the big set pieces and fit all the characters into gameplay somehow.

 

FOUR PICTURES LATER

Atari ST

The slideshow's still going! Hey didn't I meet a Tanis in Dragon Age 2? No, hang on, that was Tallis.

This shot is from the original Atari ST version of the game and it's nice to see what the graphics are supposed to look like. It shows how the ST was a fairly high-end gaming computer at this point. The Amiga port is basically identical, no shock there, and the PC-98 version's art is practically indistinguishable too. 

FM Towns

And then there's the FM Towns release, which came out two years later in 1990 and looks incredible by comparison. This is because the FM Towns was basically a gaming PC with a 386 CPU, CD drive and custom graphics hardware. It was a machine from another era and it continued getting new D&D games longer than any of the other systems that Heroes of the Lance was released on. Well, except PC obviously.

I could keep going with these, but there are too many characters and too many ports so I'm just going to assume that this is as good as the game gets visually.

It can definitely get worse though.
 

ZX Spectrum

Here's the ZX Spectrum version if you were curious about how bad these pictures can get. It's not anyone's fault, this is just what Speccy games look like. If you're lucky.

Is it nearly done with showing off heroes now? I was only allowed to make a party of six in Pool of Radiance and this is up to eight now. I've already forgotten the first seven of them!

Oh awesome, it's finally finished listing characters! Funny thing is, all the other images waited for me to press a button, while this screen disappeared so fast I didn't have a chance to catch what it said at the top.

The doors open by themselves and the heroes enter Xak Tsaroth on a mission to... actually the game didn't get around to mentioning that part. It spent all that time introducing each of the eight characters individually and didn't bother to tell me where they're going or why. I would've read the manual, but they didn't give me one!

Actually it is giving me a bit of text before the heroes enter the dungeon... showing me the current high scores. Pool of Radiance didn't have a high score table, neither did Baldur's Gate for that matter. I guess they're doing something different with this one.

Well the music's stopped, thankfully. Time to see what's waiting for us in the... whatever this place is.

Oh, so that's a pit! I thought it was a wall... which is also a stupid thing to walk into, now that I think about it.

I'm just testing the controls, seeing what I can do. I thought the movement keys weren't working at first, but it turns out that the character just moves really slow. They did hit the bottom pretty fast though, so there's that. In fact I think this may actually be one of my top 10 all-time quickest deaths, right up there with Kareteka.

And it does seem like they're thoroughly dead at this point. Their icon is now a gravestone with 'RIP' on it, which is pretty final even in a world with resurrection magic. The game cycled to the next character, so it's like I have eight lives.

Atari ST

Here's the original Atari ST version for comparison. It definitely looks better, though the portraits are still a bit scruffy and this dungeon I'm in is just as grey. They really wanted characters to stand out from the background I guess. Hang on, I'm playing as Goldmoon the Cleric! I couldn't recognise her in the DOS version, I thought I was controlling some balding guy with a grey mask on.

I can't find a button to jump and the pit's too wide for a person to leap across anyway, so I suppose I have to leave this screen using the door in the background. I saw the N and S on the compass light up when I walked past, implying I have two possible exits. With any luck one of them is the way I came in, and then I can just go back home.

Oh no, rocks fell and everyone got hurt. Well, a couple of them did at least. This isn't like Cloudy Mountain where the others in the party wait outside the dungeon until the current character dies and needs a replacement, they are all in here at once. Presumably standing side-by-side in a line.

Hang on, the compass directions changed when I went through the door. Oh no, this is going to be a maze of interconnected screens like in Barbarian II isn't it? The game's going to make me draw a map.

My beautiful hand-drawn Barbarian II map

Okay fine, I've got a notepad handy, I'll start drawing another map.

First I just need to go back to the starting room to check whether I left by going through the N door in the background or the hidden S door in the fourth wall. I'm not actually sure.

Uh... what the hell? Both exits lead to the same place! It doesn't matter if I go north or south I always end up in the room with the falling ceiling. This is not helping me do my cartography.

Here's another question: how do I use this sword?

I'm using the numeric keypad to move, like in Pool of Radiance, but I can't find a button to make him attack. I don't know if blocking or parrying is an option, but I can't do that either.

I know what I can do though: I'm running back to the starting room where it's safe. And then I'll learn if enemies can chase you through doors. Also, I'll try to find a manual so I can look up how to fight back.

Oh, there's actually a PDF file in the game folder after all! I don't know why they didn't link to this in the launcher, as it seems pretty essential to mastering the basics.

Uh? Is my browser displaying it wrong, or is that just too small to be readable. It's making my eyes go blurry just looking at it.

Okay, so I guess now I know why the launcher didn't have a button for it. I will have to find my controls information elsewhere. And maybe a map as well.

A FEW MINUTES LATER

There you go! I found high-quality PDFs of the missing documentation and then edited the launcher to add buttons for the manual and cluebook.

Now I can look up what to do. In the manual I mean, I'll leave the cluebook alone for now.

Damn, man! After reading the manual I'm now so good at fencing that I can make a man literally explode. I usually have to cast fireball before that happens.

The trick to fighting is to hold down the numpad enter key, and then hold towards, diagonal up, or diagonal down to start the hero hacking away in that direction. It's not ideal for left-handed players like me, but on the plus side there's no button tapping necessary.

Next I held diagonal left + up to sprint, and dashed right underneath another bit of falling ceiling. No need to cast the 'Find Traps' spell, I can just run through all the hidden threats! Well, I could with this one at least.

I do actually have magic spells, though I haven't had reason to try any of them yet. I opened the menu here because I walked next to a scroll on the floor and I want to pick it up.

Turns out that the item's name is just "Scroll", which isn't all that informative. I'll give it to my Magic-User to hold onto for now. Incidentally, they've given the characters authentic AD&D 1st Edition classes with appropriate stats, so my poor Magic-User only has 8 HP while others have 40 HP. Well, only 7 now, after those rocks fell on him.

I tried using clerical spells to heal the wounded, but it told me that I need the blue Crystal Staff... the one that Goldmoon was holding. So I can't ever use healing magic now because the game made the Cleric the first character and I accidentally dropped her down a hole, great.

But I continued onwards though the various doors and I found a gem just lying on the floor! I also found a couple more dudes who needed killing, but they weren't much trouble. I'm doing well!

Damn, why is this guy so tough all of a sudden? It's like my sword isn't even connecting with him.

It's pretty scary how quickly your characters get killed. Some can hang in there for a little bit, but then the mage is the next character and they're dead before you had a chance to react. It doesn't help that they're all getting damaged a little during the fight, not just the active one.

Okay I'm just going to make a run for it, as I don't know what else to do here. Magic is definitely not an option as he just killed my only Magic-User! The team you get is basically Cleric, Fighter, Fighter, Mage, Fighter, Fighter, Fighter, Fighter and maybe one of them's a Thief, I don't know. They've technically covered all the bases, but it's not the party I would've made.

I kept trying to back away to make some room, but that just took me closer to the pit. I got him in the end though! Turns out that the trick to hitting him was to bring out the dwarf. Shame he was the last character in the list and not the third.

All my characters' stuff is lying around where they fell and I can pick it up. I can't carry it all though and it probably wouldn't do me much good to do that anyway. Flint Fireforge is a master metalsmith and few care to face his battleaxe, but I doubt he even knows which way up a magic staff is supposed to be held. 

What's frustrating is that most of the portraits are just greyed out, no gravestones, but there's nothing I can do to get them back on their feet.

Oh, I left the room and now everyone's properly dead. Seems that being able to heal downed party members is a limited time offer.

Though right now it doesn't seem like I even need the others as Flint is a badass and this green enemy can't even aim his spells low enough to hit him! Incidentally, casting infinite magic like this is very un-AD&D. Maybe it's a special Dragonlance thing, I don't know. I'll go over and chop him down at the ankles, that'll get him to stop.

Actually I won't, as I just discovered that there is a tiny little bit of a chance that one of his sparkly shots will eventually connect, and poor Flint had very little health left to begin with.

I failed in my quest for the Disks of Mishakal, which I now know are a thing. To be fair, the manual does mention them, saying that they'll restore worship of the old gods and that this is apparently a good thing that we want to happen.

Nobody got any experience points during the expedition, though that doesn't matter much as the game doesn't have level ups! It's an action-adventure, not an RPG. Still, at least I did well enough to get on the high score table. And it let me type in my whole name!

Okay, I'm going to give it another try and see how well I do when I don't drop my healer down a hole at the start of the game.

… what?

The game can't even start a new game by itself, it needs me to reboot the computer first! I played a bunch of '80s DOS RPGs a couple of weeks ago and I'm trying to remember if any of them gave me this message. Right now I'm thinking 'no'. This doesn't seem normal at all.

Alright, the first thing I'm going to do when I get back to the dungeon is rearrange my heroes so that a Fighter with low AC and high HP like Tanis is in the lead. Going into the menu and selecting the two heroes I want to swap is a bit of a pain, but I should only need to do it whenever a shorter enemy is being unkillable and it's Flint's time to shine.

The game's not Lost Vikings or Trine where you need to use everyone's abilities, most of the characters really are just extra lives. Plus magic can be cast from the menu regardless of who's in the lead, so there's no need to swap to the Cleric or Mage.

The game's practically real-time-with-pause when you're using magic, as the action freezes while you're in the menu, so you have all the time you want to pick the right spell, and it fires off the instant you un-pause. 

I've got a few spells here, but I've found that Web disables the magic-firing dragon people in one hit. Now I just have to go over there and hack the webbed-up enemy to death before he breaks out of it.

The game doesn't actually use the standard D&D Vancian magic system, where you can only cast a few spells and then you need to rest to get them back. In this a character casts magic from their staff and they can do it as often as they want. The catch is they have a limited number of charges that have to last for the entire game, and it's not going to tell you how many you have left. It's a secret.

PC-98

The PC-98 version at least gives you a bar, so you can see how much magic you've used up.

Cheap spells like Magic Missile cost 1 charge and you start with 100, so I'm going to avoid firing off spells unless I have to.

I've been trying to map the place out as I go, as I don't have a good enough memory to recall where all the doorways lead.

It's not actually that hard to get around in this level, provided that you've got a map and you save in front of every doorway before going in. I've been webbing up the dragon-men, using my dwarf to slay the enemy dwarves, and I reload if I get too overwhelmed or lose too many characters.

Though I did have to look up what the exit was, because that brown circular mess looks like the remains of an old sculpture that's been claimed by spiders. Even after learning that it's the way out I still can't figure out what it's meant to be.

Also, it turns out that the trick to actually understanding Heroes of the Lance is that the doorways aren't openings that you enter, they're opportunities to rotate the camera. That's why you end up in the same place whether you go N or S; you haven't actually moved at all.

I couldn't get the walls to line up exactly, but this is basically what level 1 looks like. It's a three-dimensional maze that's only ever seen from side view, and it's far more straightforward than it appears to be in game.

The pit I fell into right at the start is up at the top left and the exit is down on the bottom right, so if that bit of floor hadn't been missing I could've walked down that first hallway all the way to the end of the level.

Now I really wish that the game had an automap, as it would've given away what was going on immediately. Plus a map would let me know if I'm entering a brand new hallway or just finding a new way into somewhere I've already been.

Damn, I actually did it, I finished the first level! I genuinely didn't think I was going to make it this far.

A message flashes up saying "You hear the sound of distant alarm bells". Hey I think it said that in Pool of Radiance too, right before I got attacked by a bunch of enemies. 

STAGE TWO

Every now and then I'll come across one gem or one scroll lying around, but this room is full of the things! I don't know what the different coloured potions do, but I'll take them. I'll also grab the shield hidden off-screen on the left, as I could really do with increasing my armour. Or decreasing it, however it works in this game. I know that the rings increase evasion if you can find any of them.

Oh, I looked it up and it turns out that the shields are just a useless treasure item like the gold bars. And the gems too; there's no special ending here for getting all the Chaos Emeralds. I'm still going to pick them up though, even though it means I have to distribute them to my other characters' inventories to make sure my main guy has room.

Alright, what's through the next doorway?

Oh damn, that looks awesome. Look at that beautiful colour-cycling. It's weird seeing any colour at all down here.

The waterfall isn't just here to be pretty, it's also given all my characters back their health. It doesn't resurrect them though, I checked. There's a handy pit outside the waterfall room that you can throw a character down for testing purposes.

Though I didn't actually try to miss the jump. In fact, I very clearly made it! Fine, I'll restore my save and kill the enemy on the other side first before making the leap.

When you're standing far enough from an enemy your attacks automatically become ranged, so on my next attempt I tried throwing my spear at him. It's so weird to be doing this on purpose for a change instead of accidentally lobbing it two screens away and then having to go look for it.

But it turns out he needs more than one spear to kill, so I switched to the dwarf and threw his axe. That didn't kill him either!

Finally I tried using one of my archers and... nothing happened. Turns out that I had to equip their arrows first, which is also how it works in Pool of Radiance, to be fair. You can find extra quivers along the way and they presumably contain special arrows you might want to switch to.

Well this room sucks! There was a dragon waiting to spray acid on me and when I heroically ran away to put a bit of space between us I ended up getting trapped by a troll (the jump was an accident, as you have to hold down that button to attack).

What I should have done is hit the menu button to pause. I could've cast "Deflect Dragon Breath" to give me some defence against the dragon, and then "Web" to tangle up the troll. Then I could've hacked away at the dragon, using "Cure Critical Wounds" spells to recover health as required. They're expensive spells and I don't like using up all my Cleric charges, but it's obvious I'm not getting out of this situation without some kind of miracle.

Fortunately I already cast the most powerful magic of all: I saved the game before entering the room.

I did find one reason to switch to the Magic-User: he can fly over pits! In theory. I'm not very good with getting over these gaps, but I'm trying.

Oh, you can see the characters' RPG stats flash up for a second when I change character. They reveal that my Fighters are have high Strength and my Magic-User is a wimp that can't even hover over a hole properly. Shockingly.
 
The game doesn't have difficulty modes but if you want a challenge, try putting Raistlin in the lead and then see if you can make it through the first fight without him dying.

Flame jets, wonderful. I don't even know what the game wants me to do to get past this. Though the first thing I'm going to do is save.

Next I'm going to go to the game folder and back up that save, because I don't want to accidentally get myself in an unwinnable situation, save, and lose all my progress. I'm sure that the designers intended players to lose characters, run out of charges, fall down pits and then start over again to do better on their next run, but I've already seen enough of stage 1.

Stage 2's a bit more interesting to look at though, with its ruined underground city vibe. It's reminding me of Undertale for some reason.

Oh suddenly the jumps are easy! Every other time I've had to cross a pit It's punished me for landing anywhere but the white tiles, but now it's apparently okay to stand anywhere that's not pure black. Wait, why am I complaining about this? I made it across!

What I should be complaining about is that they forgot to draw an exit at the end. If you're not paying attention to the compass this looks like a dead end. 

Hold on, I just beat stage 2. What the hell is even happening here, why am I actually making progress in this game? I never get anywhere in games like this. Awkward mediocre games I mean.

STAGE THREE

Oh no, am I in the sewers now? See, this is what happens when you get somewhere in games like this! Different genre, but it reminds me of one of the last areas I played through in Universe, when I somehow stuck with that until the end.

One weird quirk of this game is that when you load a save sometimes the enemies are different. It's not something you can abuse too much though; you can't just keep hitting the 'restore' option until they're gone. Though sometimes it'll put an enemy in a room that's usually empty, as a treat!

I've been relying on maps a lot just to make sure I'm still heading in the right direction and I'm not wasting resources on enemies I've already beaten once in rooms I've already been through. Though at this point the game's gotten a lot more linear. There are still some side paths, but it's mostly a single winding tunnel straight to the end.

BUT THEN, AT THE END

I've finally found the dragon in this Dragonlance game and I really don't think I like this guy. He's just melting everyone one after the other! I put my Deflect Dragon Breath spell on in time, you can see it sparkling, but it doesn't seem to matter. The title screen promised me that their shields would protect them!

Also, I thought the graphics have been reasonable enough so far for such an ancient DOS game, but that dragon looks terrible. You can see hint of how good it probably looked in the original Atari ST game, but here it's just a big red blob.

Oh, never mind, I just checked and it looks just as bad on other systems.

Okay, this strategy is obviously not working out, so I'm going restore my last save game now instead of waiting for everyone to die, and then I'm going to try... something.

Are you kidding me?

They didn't just disable saving in the dragon's lair they disabled loading. And I already know that starting again requires resetting the computer. The game keeps finding new ways to be awkward and I'm not even sure why.

Well, I could figure out what the game wants me to do here through trial and error, restarting the game every time I fail, but I think I'm just going to find a walkthrough.

Oh, I just attack with Goldmoon. That's it. No need to dodge attacks or memorise patterns here, you just need to know that Goldmoon's blue Crystal Staff will take the dragon down in one hit.

Then I ran over to the stack of disks (avoiding the falling debris) and that was the end of the game! Why are they called disks instead of discs anyway?

Okay, I've done the research and it turns out that disc and disk began to take on more distinct meanings as compact discs and floppy disks became a thing. The music industry always leaned toward using 'disc' and with computers using diskettes, the two spellings became associated with those things. But in the medieval-themed realm of Dragonlance, either spelling would be appropriate.

Hang on, did I just finish the game?

Oh crap, I just beat Heroes of the Lance! This isn't how I expected this to go. Uh, I suppose I'll turn it off now then.


CONCLUSION

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I think I'm starting to understand why people talk about the Gold Box games a lot more than they do about the Silver Box games.

Though I didn't hate Heroes of the Lance. I didn't exactly love it either, but the more I understood it, the more its frustrations became manageable. Plus being able to save anywhere really helped to take the sting out of getting ambushed the moment I entered a room, or missing a jump I blatantly didn't miss. A better game couldn't gotten away with making a player earn their next save point, but this is not a better game.

A better game would've let me know that it's impossible to beat the last boss without Goldmoon's staff, and that dropping her down a pit had made it unwinnable. I realise you're supposed to master it over multiple runs, getting a little further and a little more treasure each time, but c'mon! Also a better game would've had a top-view automap, because manually mapping out a dungeon you can only see from the side is kind of awkward.

Though on the plus side, there's no time limit. Perhaps they didn't want to make it too obvious that you can beat the whole thing in around 40 minutes. That doesn't look so great next to the 1500 minutes it apparently takes to finish Pool of Radiance. Though to be fair, Pool of Radiance's playtime is padded out by tactical battles and text, two things you don't get much of here.

Heroes of the Lance is an adaptation of both a tabletop RPG module and a novel, but there's basically no story in it, no dialogue, no role-playing whatsoever. Most tie-in games at least give you a couple of cutscenes for context, but in this all you get are the character descriptions at the start. They've made an effort to include all the heroes and spells, even the floors seem to be based on the maps in the original module, but this mostly just overcomplicates things. There's nothing wrong with a game being all-action, unfortunately the action in this sucks and it doesn't have a lot else going for it.

But if you had to play one version, which is the one to go for? Which port is the best? Visually there's one blatantly obvious winner...

FM Towns

... it's the FM Towns version. Well, it's got the best title screen and the most impressive slideshow at the start at least. Unfortunately its gameplay is not so beautiful to look at. After that there's the other 16-bit versions like the Atari ST and Amiga ports, and they probably looked pretty decent in 1988.

Personally though I don't regret sticking with the DOS version that came in the Steam Silver Box compilation, because it runs as well as any of them and the combat is functional. I mean I wasn't doing anything more than holding buttons, but the enemies didn't get too close for me to hit them, like they did in some ports. There's no version of this that turns it into a good game, so you may as well go with the most convenient mediocrity.

I wouldn't recommend Heroes of the Lance exactly, there's got to be something better you can play. But if you're exploring early D&D games yourself then this may not be as bad as you're dreading. It's manageable as long as you have a map, you know how to play it and you're not getting stressed. It's not necessarily going to be a fun challenge, but it can be a bearable experience.

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