Post by wafflerevolution on Sept 8, 2013 21:15:14 GMT
by gakon5
Chaotic Neutral
You might be surprised to know that in a game such as Chaos, the world at large can either be in a state of Law or Chaos, depending on what spells are cast on the board. Will you mount an assault on the back of a Centaur, with the aid of an Elf archer or Bear? Or will you raise up an unstoppable undead army of slow-moving creatures? But let me back up a bit. Chaos is a 1985 strategy game released for the ZX Spectrum. Written by Julian Gollop and published by Games Workshop, Chaos incorporates both turn-based and grid-based gameplay into the exciting, high fantasy world of wizard dueling.
Did World of Warcraft steal the spell Shadow Form from this game?
Placed on a blank, square map, two to eight (but usually four) wizards take turn casting spells and moving themselves and their summoned minions around the map, engaging in all forms of hand-to-hand, claw-to-claw, and ranged combat. Although there is an array of useful self buffs to your wizard's armor and attack power, summoned creatures - especially mounts, which provide you complete and total protection while "mounted" on them - are amongst the most valued. The creatures of Chaos come in a variety of styIe; slow-moving put powerful, quick but weak, flying, not flying, etc... But even better than summoning a bear, or a flying horse, in what other game* can you summon the power of trees?! There are two spells in Chaos that involve producing an assortment of trees around the caster. Magic Wood trees will protect you while you're inside them, and can grant you new spells. Shadow Wood trees may attack units adjacant to them. And because they're all packed in close together, they effectively create a minefield around you.
The Wizard
So, you summon creatures, they fight each other, you have to kill the other wizards, blah.. blah.. BLAH. What's the catch? Is there a catch? Here's the catch: of the 25 spells given to you to use over the course of the game, 24 are selected at complete random. Also, each spell has a cast chance and can only be used once, whether it succeeds or fails. Good spells will have a low cast rate, while the easier spells have higher cast rates (but almost never 100%). This is where Law and Chaos come into play. The more of one type of spell you cast, the easier it will be to cast better spells of that type. The strategy of Chaos revolves around maximizing the use of your spell selection, based on what type of spells they are.
In Chaos, some of the summons are considered undead. Undead creatures can only be attacked by other undead creatures. Believe me, it's annoying.
The length of each game is variable; a four-player game can last five minutes or twenty-five minutes, depending on what you and your AI opponents decide on doing. The longer games are where it gets interesting. Unfortunety, your first experience with Chaos may be a game of the five-minute variety where one of your opponents just comes over and one-shots you with their flying mount. Don't throw your hands up in the air and declare "this is stupid!" The more you play the more you'll get into it.. hopefully. But how does one without access to ghetto computers play Chaos? Not even eBay has a Speccy for sale! Well, there's an excellent free PC clone of Chaos entitled Chaos Funk. It plays just like the original game (at least as far as I know), but replace the goofy, 8-bit sprites with goofy, MS Paint-quality graphics. Because the site I found it on has gone somewhere unknown, you can get a mirror here.
If you try the game and hate it, drop a comment here.
Chaotic Neutral
You might be surprised to know that in a game such as Chaos, the world at large can either be in a state of Law or Chaos, depending on what spells are cast on the board. Will you mount an assault on the back of a Centaur, with the aid of an Elf archer or Bear? Or will you raise up an unstoppable undead army of slow-moving creatures? But let me back up a bit. Chaos is a 1985 strategy game released for the ZX Spectrum. Written by Julian Gollop and published by Games Workshop, Chaos incorporates both turn-based and grid-based gameplay into the exciting, high fantasy world of wizard dueling.
Did World of Warcraft steal the spell Shadow Form from this game?
Placed on a blank, square map, two to eight (but usually four) wizards take turn casting spells and moving themselves and their summoned minions around the map, engaging in all forms of hand-to-hand, claw-to-claw, and ranged combat. Although there is an array of useful self buffs to your wizard's armor and attack power, summoned creatures - especially mounts, which provide you complete and total protection while "mounted" on them - are amongst the most valued. The creatures of Chaos come in a variety of styIe; slow-moving put powerful, quick but weak, flying, not flying, etc... But even better than summoning a bear, or a flying horse, in what other game* can you summon the power of trees?! There are two spells in Chaos that involve producing an assortment of trees around the caster. Magic Wood trees will protect you while you're inside them, and can grant you new spells. Shadow Wood trees may attack units adjacant to them. And because they're all packed in close together, they effectively create a minefield around you.
The Wizard
So, you summon creatures, they fight each other, you have to kill the other wizards, blah.. blah.. BLAH. What's the catch? Is there a catch? Here's the catch: of the 25 spells given to you to use over the course of the game, 24 are selected at complete random. Also, each spell has a cast chance and can only be used once, whether it succeeds or fails. Good spells will have a low cast rate, while the easier spells have higher cast rates (but almost never 100%). This is where Law and Chaos come into play. The more of one type of spell you cast, the easier it will be to cast better spells of that type. The strategy of Chaos revolves around maximizing the use of your spell selection, based on what type of spells they are.
In Chaos, some of the summons are considered undead. Undead creatures can only be attacked by other undead creatures. Believe me, it's annoying.
The length of each game is variable; a four-player game can last five minutes or twenty-five minutes, depending on what you and your AI opponents decide on doing. The longer games are where it gets interesting. Unfortunety, your first experience with Chaos may be a game of the five-minute variety where one of your opponents just comes over and one-shots you with their flying mount. Don't throw your hands up in the air and declare "this is stupid!" The more you play the more you'll get into it.. hopefully. But how does one without access to ghetto computers play Chaos? Not even eBay has a Speccy for sale! Well, there's an excellent free PC clone of Chaos entitled Chaos Funk. It plays just like the original game (at least as far as I know), but replace the goofy, 8-bit sprites with goofy, MS Paint-quality graphics. Because the site I found it on has gone somewhere unknown, you can get a mirror here.
If you try the game and hate it, drop a comment here.
