Odyssey: The Compleat Apventure is the third title from Robert Clardy and Synergistic Software. The first two games were Dungeon Campaign and Wilderness Campaign and Odyssey is a conglomeration of the two and more. I continue to be extremely impressed with Robert Clardy’s work. You can see his growth and development as a programmer as you move from one title to the next.
The plot of Odyssey: The Compleat Apventure is as follows:
The Hyborian Age existed thousands of years ago, long before the dawn of true recorded history. Remnants of earlier races than man still wandered the earth, making it a dangerous place where only the most powerful wizards and warriors could live without fear. The vampires, werewolves, ores, sea serpents, and dragons of our legends were the fearsome races that fought with mankind
for dominance of the world.
A mighty magician and heroic warrior rose to power in this deadly time. His many exploits and command of the magical arts earned him the title of ‘The High One’. His greatest endeavor began with the creation of a jewel encrusted orb imbued with much of his magical powers. From his fortress on the Isle of Lapour, the High One used his orb to seal off a protected realm. The Sargalo Sea and its islands were separated from all contact with the rest of the world. It was the High One’s intent to exterminate the many enemies of man within his kingdom and help mankind grow to power without constant threat of extinction by other races. When this goal was achieved. the High One intended to lead his people back to tame the rest of the world.
Unfortunately, the High One’s work was only partially completed when tragedy struck. The orb was stolen and hidden somewhere in the realm. With the loss of much of his power, the High One was killed in battle against a united army of mankind’s remaining foes. Fortunately for the human inhabitants of the realm
the army quickly broke into small bickering bands that wandered off to become bandits and predators on weak or unwary travelers.
Years have passed. The kingdom is returning to savagery where monsters wander freely and all fear the night. Villages, temples and castles stand ruined and abandoned as mankind congregates at only tile n1ost secure of cities. Travel is safely accomplished only by armed bands. The Caliph of Lapour, a usurper to
the throne. has seized the High One’s fortress and jealously guards its secrets and powers from anyone who might try to use them. for the good of the kingdom.
Your mission should you decide to accept it, is to recover the High One’s orb and return it to his fortress. There, with the help of the orb and the secrets of the High One’s powers, you can continue his work and. perhaps, insure the survival of the human race.
Odyssey: The Compleat Apventure is a turn-based role-playing game. The game features four major sections and places the player in charge of an army who sets out to defeat an evil wizard. A bit of a cliche but the background story is well written and the manual presents itself well. The unique thing about the game is that you control a small army as opposed to a single character. This was also the case in Clardy’s two previous games: Dungeon Campaign & Wilderness Campaign.
The first section of the game is also the largest and it involves the outdoor exploration of the island. The primary purpose of this section is to build your army and supply yourself with equipment that you’re going to need to solve the myriad number of puzzles in the game. There are swamps, quicksand, sheer cliffs, falling trees and avalanches to deal with. It is up to you to discover what pieces of equipment you need to deal with each of these obstacles. There are also ruined temples and dark dungeons to explore.
This first section much like Clardy’s previous Wilderness Campaign involves strategy and becomes a juggling act. You need a big enough army to not only man and operate a large sailing vessel but to storm a fortress as well. The more men you have in your army the more mouths you have to feed. Overland exploration of the temples, tombs, and dungeons becomes necessary in order to find enough treasure to not only buy equipment but to fund your army. You need to pay the men a salary as well as feed them. Adding to the stress on your funds is the need to save enough gold in order to buy a boat to sail off of the island.
Once you deem you have a big enough army and you have enough gold to purchase a ship you can then travel to the northernmost port on the island and set sail. You want to make sure that you purchase an extra set of sails before you embark from the island. It is very likely the original sails on your ship will eventually rot. If you do not have a spare set of sails this leaves you stranded and basically “softlocks” the game. You will not be able to proceed any further and will have to start over. This section of the game is a first for home computer role-playing games. There has been no other game to date where you have to navigate the sea, worry about wind currents, deal with sea serpents, pirates, ship to ship combat, scurvy, whirlpools, fog, storms and exploration of neighboring islands. I rather enjoyed this section once you get the hang of dealing with wind currents. It was so unique for this era that it resonated with me. This is the section of the game where you have to find a magical Orb.
There are a couple of ways in which you can retrieve the Orb in this part of the game. One way is that a God appears and you then sacrifice a magic item over the side of the ship and he’ll give you coordinates for the Orb at the bottom of the sea. The other way to retrieve the Orb is to search each of the islands until you come across some dungeon ruins. The dungeon route is the path that I took to obtain the orb. This will initiate what I call the third section of the game.
The catacombs are actually quite extensive and there are a number of levels and calamities which might befall you. Cave ins, creature encounters pockets of gas are a few of the obstacles you’ll encounter. Eventually you will make your way down to an altar which contains the Orb. Once the Orb is in your possession you then need to make your way out. These dungeon levels are wrought with danger and you’ll find your small army diminishes in size quite rapidly. Once you make your way out of the catacombs with the Orb you again board your ship and now you’re on the hunt for the hidden fortress and your final confrontation.
The fourth section of the game is the endgame and it begins as soon as you find the hidden fortress on one of the islands.
Once you land on the island you’ll have to make it through three different encounters/puzzles where having the right equipment can make the difference between winning and losing. Once you successfully navigate the three encounters and reach the fortress you’ll find that the caliph’s men surrender to you with the Orb in your possession. You then become the new High One.
I have enjoyed all three of Robert Clardy’s games thus far as I journey through time and look at the history of these games. I feel that Robert Clardy’s early contributions to the genre and medium have been understated compared to others’ work. Two books which you might enjoy on the subject are:
We are not done with Robert Clardy as I see he has another game available in the 1982 offerings should I be fortunate enough to make my way there. I enjoyed this game and once again I marvel at the tremendous differences in the different computer role-playing games that were published in 1980 as the medium continues to take it’s first steps in the pioneer field of home computing. I urge you to give this game a try and you’ll see what Clardy was trying to do in an attempt to create a complete campaign.