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A.P.I Review:	DEATHTRAP DUNGEON
Developer:	EIDOS	OPTIONS:	SCREENSHOTS: No.1   No.2   No.3
Distributor:	EIDOS	1 Player
Game Type:	3rd Person Action / Shooter	Memory Card
Review Date:	March 1998	Standard Joypad

Setting the Scene

Think back, I mean way back, way, way back. Back before the advent of
the text-based computer adventure games and Dungeons and Dragons wasn't
yet seen as the devils work. "Fighting Fantasy"  was a series of books
that were the forerunner to the modern day adventure games. With titles
like 'The Warlock of Firetop Mountain' and 'Deathtrap Dungeon'. These 
books had the reader fooled into thinking that they were playing a
game. You would read a page containing a description of your
surroundings or a battle you had to fight against a fantastic creature,
you then make a decision about what your next move would be, take a dark
corridor to the left on page 45 or shimmy up a slime covered wall on
page 78. This was all good fun, extremely well written and addictive. 

Come back to the present and we're back into it again. Deathtrap Dungeon
comes to the PlayStation, with the help of one of the original Fighting
Fantasy writers, Ian Livingstone. 

In this modern day version of the book you take on the role a highly
trained hero (a female - "Red Lotus", or male - "Chaindog") and take
on the challenge presented annually by one Baron Sukumvit.  This
challenge - to journey through the dungeon, survive its' many perils and
destroy the evil dragon, Melkor, will free the people of Fang from their
terrible fate and make you wealthy beyond your wildest dreams.

If the 50 different evil creatures and monsters don't kill you, the
dungeon itself certainly will, so take your best sword, and all your
wits, training and bravery - you'll need them to survive the journey
ahead of you.

Genre

Deathtrap Dungeon is a 3rd person Action Adventure in much the same
style as Tomb Raider and Broken Helix.

Graphics

There are only a select number of PlayStation games which have introductions
that I have watched through to the end more than once: Soul Blade (of
course, it's a benchmark intro), Oddworld-Abes Oddysee (simply because
it's fun and looks great) and now, Deathtrap Dungeon. Running for about
5 minutes, it tells the story of the Dungeon, using a nice touch of humour 
and awesome presentation. 

The quality continues as you reach the first in-game menu. From the
language selection screen to the main options menu the fantasy theme of
the game is emphasised, even the sound and music configuration screen is
impressive. Where most games resort to boring sliders to select music
and FX levels, here we see some poor soul strapped to a rack and a band
of Orcs holding various instruments. Change the FX levels and the rack
is cranked - the screams of a tortured soul increase of decrease in
volume. Adjust the music and an Orc band starts rocking along and
playing a tune - Brilliant!

FMV and fancy menu systems do not make a game, so the big question is,
what are the actual in-game graphics like? The answer is, nothing short
of stunning. Everything in the game is 3D texture mapped and while Red
Lotus and Chaindog are not as convincing as a certain female in another
similar game, they are smoothly rendered and realistically animated. The
monsters are awesome and the dungeon is filled with all sorts of spooky,
evil and realistic looking rooms complete with treasure chests and wall
murals. Speaking of walls, take a walk around a room, stand facing a
wall and take a good look, the texture is smooth and realistic looking,
the scaling is done very well and is far superior to other 1st and 3rd
person games in the PlayStation.

Another nice feature in this game is the real time lighting effects. 
When you cast a spell up a dark corridor, it actually lights the walls 
as it moves towards the target. 

The graphics are always smooth and fast, there is never any slowdown or
popup. The only graphical element that may cause a problem is minimal
clipping that happens when you stand too close to a wall or door,
however, this is does not effect the playability of the game in any way.

Sounds and Effects

As a general rule, Good in-game music has a theme, and carries that
theme to effect the feel of the game, great in-game music has the
ability to set the scene and feel of the game in a way that not only
complements the setting but adds to the gameplay. Deathtrap Dungeon has
great in-game music. While not thumping techno or guitar rock and not
likely to win a grammy, the musical score is appropriate, effective and
changes as the action in the game moves along.

The sound effects include weapons clashing, monster screaming, grunting
and snorting, doors opening, lifts moving and hundreds of others. Each
of the effects sound realistic and are never overdone.

Playability

Take a busty female warrior or muscle bound male swordsman, throw them
into a dungeon filled with evil and cunning fantasy creatures, fiendish
traps and murderous devices, on a quest to kill an ancient and powerful
Dragon. Now add weapons of all descriptions, from steel swords to
blunderbuss and flame-throwers, scrolls, potions, and spells, throw in a
good measure of running, jumping and climbing. Stir in a whole bunch of
combat - include decapitations, disembowelment, and dismemberment, blood,
guts and gore. Play for 20 or more hours in a dark room with the stereo
turned up and you have the pure pleasure that is - "Deathtrap Dungeon".

Each level in the game is quest based: kill the boss, find the sword,
pull all the levers and while the plot is pretty thin, the execution of
the game is excellent. If you take each level as an independent entity
and ignore the fact that the as a whole all you're really doing is
progressing through a bunch of tunnels towards certain doom, you should
have a lot of fun. The levels are intriguing and very well designed.
Multiple elevators take you from one floor to another, long dark
corridors join together column filled rooms. Each level has a unique
look and feel making it seem like a different game every time you
progress.

As with most games of this type, the playability of Deathtrap Dungeon is
greatly effected by the control of the main character. It would be fair
to say that the controls took a little time to master, but were still 
considerably easier and more intuitive than those used in Tomb Raider.

Armed combat involves using the attack button in combination with a direction
button - in desperation, even unarmed combat is a viable method of self
defence, with punching, kicking and headbutting some of the available moves. 

The only major problem I encountered while playing this game was with the 
floating camera. while effective in most cases, it occasionally became 
difficult to do simple things like looking around corners. 

This game is huge, with a list of features that include:
* Based on Ian Livingstone's multi-million unit selling Fighting Fantasy
gamebooks. 
* Deadly combat with 55 monstrous characters from Orcs and Dragons, to
Mummies and Zombies. 
* Full 3D gameplay with an intuitive 3rd person camera angle system. 
* 10 tortuous levels, each an enormous sweeping map of mazes, corridors,
dungeons, and traps. 
* Frantic close-quarters combat with swords, hammers, spell casting,
muskets, and as a last resort, your bare hands! 
* Deviously designed traps including covered pits, hidden corridors,
false floors, hails of arrows, and moving spikes. 
* Atmospheric dynamic lighting system.
* The ability to switch from 3rd person to 1st person mode for certain
combat functions

It's the small things that make a difference in Deathtrap. The first
thing you will notice is the blood. When you kill the first of many
dungeon dwellers you'll sever an arm, leg, or head. Blood with spill onto
the floor or wall, the head will fly off and hit a wall leaving a lovely
bloodstain. Blood will even drip from the roof in big globs. The
programmers could have been lazy and made all the bloodstains the same,
but they actually have a random element - different styles of killing
produce different patterns! Another nice touch is seen when your character
dies by falling from a great height - Their foot will twitch for a couple 
of seconds before finally falling still. Like I said, it's the small things 
that make a difference.

Loading times in the game are very short, kept to a minimum at the
beginning of levels and at 10-12 seconds are very acceptable for a
PlayStation title of this complexity.

The bottom line about playability in Deathtrap is the fun you'll have.
Without a doubt, playing through the levels, setting and disarming traps
as you go, avoiding conflict where it is possible and fighting bravely
where it's not, is the most fun element of the game. That's really what
it is all about, having fun, forgetting the outside world and entering
another world, Deathtrap is that world - get in there.

Value for Money

While Deathtrap has ample levels and you'll spend days
playing, it also has the ability to totally suck you in and not
let go, to make you forget the time and ignore details like eating,
sleeping and working. There are not too many games that can boast
these qualities.