Maze Master was the first game written by Michael Cranford who would later go on to give us The Bard’s Tale in 1985. It is obvious that Mr. Cranford was heavily influenced by the Wizardry series. The gameplay and wireframe dungeons even had me feeling as if I were playing a Wizardry “lite” scenario.
Maze Master definitely feels confined by the technical limitations of the cartridge that it came on. While the game is very good it is definitely a “watered down” version of Wizardry. There are only three characters instead of six, two different classes to choose from rather than eight, four attributes rather than six, and only 18 spells to choose from rather than 50. Your equipment choices are also very limited. Instead of 10 different dungeon levels like you find in Wizardry we have 5 and there are no chests to open nor treasure to find. There is a bit of text on each level in the form of clues which you find; which is more than we’ve found in most wireframe dungeons to date. Both Oubliette and The Standing Stones come to mind and thus Wizardry still holds the crown for providing descriptive dungeon text throughout its levels.
You do not find magic or treasure in the dungeon but you can purchase four different magic items. Below is the entire list of items available for your three characters to purchase:
The staff of light, much like the Light spell, reveals the location of all secret doors found throughout the dungeon. A Ring of Accuracy makes it 25% more likely that you’ll hit your target. The Amulet of Healing regenerates 1 CND point per turn which represent your hit points. The Hawk Blazon lowers your armor class to -10 which is 1 factor better than the Mithril Coat combined with Deflector can provide.
The screen above is the equivalent of the Castle screen in Wizardry. When you leave the dungeon and find yourself presented with this screen all of your wounds are healed. I actually appreciated this mechanic rather than taking the time to spend gold on resting and healing. It allows the dungeon exploration to remain the focus and you can quickly just dive right back in.
The premise of the game is rather simple. The characters are on a journey to find and slay the Balrog, a villainous creature bent on the destruction of the liege and his realm. The Balrog lurks in the nether regions of the dungeon which in gameplay equates to Level 5. The Balrog is protected by many different dungeon denizens and his lair on the 5th level is also protected by a magical aura. The players must solve a riddle in order to break through the magical aura.
Scattered throughout dungeon levels 2 through 4 are three different clues placed to help you solve the riddle on the 5th dungeon level. Four of the dungeon levels also work to spell a letter found in the answer when you carefully look at the dungeon configuration. I found this out AFTER I had completed the game and looking back at my maps the letters are hard to discern.
I really appreciated the fact that there was limited text found on each dungeon level as it made the mapping of each dungeon level much more enjoyable as I searched every nook and cranny looking for my next clue.
The clue on dungeon level 2 is: “I am destiny personified”
The clue on dungeon level 3 is: “Toward the NE ware the stop else magic tries to make you drop”
The clue on dungeon level 4 is: “My name is in the lower 4 maps” (I never understood this clue until afterwards however I was still able to solve the riddle – Michael Cranford seems to have an affinity for certain words as evidenced in his later Bard’s Tale games – big hint there).
There is quite a variety of dungeon denizens that you encounter and the encounters get much more difficult as you progress through the lower dungeon levels. There are fixed combat squares within the dungeon and there are random encounters as well. You can press P on your keyboard to pause the game which I suggest that you utilize because if you stop moving throughout the dungeon (to perhaps work on your hand drawn dungeon map) you will certainly invite a random encounter. On each of my hand drawn dungeon maps I also included a list of the different dungeon denizens that I encountered on each level. The asterisk next to the name indicates that they are the toughest encounter on that particular level.
So combat, much like Wizardry, is turn-based and then exploration of the dungeon and random encounters are in real-time.
I have included pictures of my hand drawn maps for dungeon levels 1 through 3. You’re on your own for the 4th and 5th dungeon level.
The first dungeon level I found to be very deadly. Compared to Wizardry, I found survival to be much harder. It is imperative that if you survive ANY encounter you get out of the dungeon quickly and save your character’s progress.
We need to address the elephant in the room – and that is that there seems to be a horrible glitch in the game that makes it very difficult to complete. This was very disappointing to encounter on the heels of having had to deal with similar issues with my last game. What happens is that when you go to leave the dungeon, instead of the message: Stairs going up – do you take them? Y/N the game instead suddenly begins to cycle through several encounters – one after the other – an unlimited number of encounters – resulting ultimately in your party’s demise. This glitch occurred randomly but seemed more likely to occur the more time you spend in the dungeon. I spent a few hours trying to work around this but as I went deeper into the 2nd level I could not escape this glitch.
Luckily I found a page on the internet with instructions on how you can create a “super character”. I didn’t quite take it that far – I reduced my experience to 10,000 but I did give my characters a rune-mace, chain mail, and the deflector shield. Surprisingly, I found that after I did this and then saved my game, I never encountered that stairway glitch again. I was able to then play the game as it was meant to be played and I then proceeded to map out each of the dungeon levels and grind my way higher. When I was able to amass enough gold I eventually upgraded my armor to a Mithril Coat for each character as well as a Wraithblade. Without using this character editor, it is impossible to finish the game as even the 2nd level stairway completely disappeared on me with the glitch in play. I am not sure what causes it – but as I said – once I used the character editor I never encountered another game error again.
HES never did publish another role-playing game after 1983 however Mchael Cranford would go on to do great things. He is credited with The Bard’s Tale in 1985, Bards Tale II in 1986, Centauri Alliance in 1990, and Dark Seed in 1992.
Once I was able to find a solution to dispel the game’s terrible glitch, I went on to really enjoy this offering. If you like dungeon exploration and mapping dungeons by hand you’ll really enjoy the experience. I liked the way that the game handles combat as well and there was enough creature variety and spell variety to keep it interesting. I did not have to worry about spinners or teleporters in the dungeon – only secret doors and one way secret doors so mapping everything out was an enjoyable and even relaxing experience.
Next up on the docket is Lord of the Balrogs as we continue to run with a Balrog theme.
Until next time…