Swords and Sorcery - Underworld Gold Demo

Dungeon crawlers akin to the Wizardry series have all but disappeared in the last few years, mostly because the formula is not very friendly with the modern technological trends. As such, watching the action unfold one step at a time in a small window in the corner of the screen is not particularly attractive nowadays, not when games like The Witcher III are setting the standard in the genre.

Swords and Sorcery - Underworld Gold tries to bring back the old days anyway, and it tries to cram as much nostalgia as possible into the experience. As such, starting from the classic interface and gameplay mechanics, all the way to the story and the characters that are part of it, everything seems to be reminiscent of a long-forgotten age in video games.

The plot starts with a pack of adventurers meeting in an inn, only to quickly come to the conclusion that they need to join forces and try to find the root of the evil that plagues the realm. Hence, it’s business as usual in the RPG universe, with dragons, undead lords, and ancient demons rising after centuries of hibernation. Your job is to lead this party of heroes and help them overcome the challenges lying ahead.

As with every great adventure undertaken by warriors, a battle happens every other few minutes, so it’s important for this aspect to work properly as well. In this case, the combat takes place in turns, which means that each character/creature gets a chance to make a move when its turn comes. Whether you want to perform a melee attack, cast a spell, or simply heal a wounded companion, you must choose wisely and sometimes hope for the best.

Visually, the game might as well have been released twenty years ago, because it looks exactly like something you would play on an Amiga. This intentional, on the other hand, in order to induce a bit of nostalgia into the players who toyed with the original games from that era. However, the artwork is excellent and you can see that quite a bit of effort went into providing the players with a suitable experience every step of the way.

While Swords and Sorcery - Underworld Gold may not stand a chance in front of modern role-playing games, because no one who’s used to shiny 3D models would voluntarily give that up for a sketchy drawing of an elf, the title should find a fair share of supporters amongst the old timers of the genre. Hence, if you miss exploring indigo dungeons for hours at end, this comes as close to the real thing as possible.