Wraith: Devil's Demise

Wraith is a single player Ultima style RPG/Action game. It is played from a map view perspective similar to Ultima 1. Wraith uses hires-graphics and very basic sound. Wraith may actually be more interesting as a game now than it was when it was released in 1990. The reason is of course because it was created by John Carmack and showcases a clear step on his evolution to the game programming master that he is today.

Wraith takes place on the island continent of Araithia. It seems an evil creature has opened a portal from his world to Araithia and this creature called Wraith is now bent on the total domination of the world. You play one of the last protector’s of the temple of Metiria in a town called Tarot. From these humble beginnings you will explore the town and then venture out into the world.

As the hero, you begin by collecting gold and experience points by defeating monsters and/or killing and pillaging townspeople who are weaker than you. It is this second aspect that makes Wraith somewhat unique. You see in Araithia gold is worshiped and to get anything from anybody it will cost you. If you prefer you can just kill the people and take what you want by force. Force, in this case, can be a melee weapon such as a steel sword or a long range weapon such as a short bow. More powerful items can be purchased in various shops while the most powerful items can only be purchased from hidden merchants or demons deep within dungeons. Of course all the good items like the incredibly powerful Demon Cleaver are well hidden. This is another area where Wraith excels, it is chock full of secret rooms which can be identified by using a magic amulet or by closely examining each wall and looking for an anomaly.

As a protector of Metiria you are skilled in armed combat and magic. The magic in Wraith is very simple - if you have a spell you can cast it. Spells come in five flavors; magic missile, scare, lightning bolt, fireball, and recall. Spells can be bought for gold from various merchants in the towns. Two notable spells are lightning bolt and fireball. Lightning bolt is very similar to the Quake lightening gun where a bolt of lightning shoots out and will damage every creature in its path to the targeted creature. Fireball is similar to a standard rocket. It shoots a ball of flame that explodes once it hits a creature. This explosion does radius damage to all creatures standing nearby including the player! One of the coolest aspects of the game is coming across a room full of powerful creatures and annihilating them all with a few well placed fireball spells.

The creatures in Wraith are rather unique in the fact that most of them will not attack you on site. This is a rather interesting concept, as it is possible to go through almost an entire dungeon without fighting if you are careful enough. This makes dungeon exploration much more enjoyable as you are not always required to fight every monster you see.

Some other notable aspects of the game are; it auto saves your position every time you leave or enter a town or dungeon, as well as every time you use a recall spell, the game has a very simple keyboard interface that only takes a few minutes to master. These are features that many of today’s wiz bang graphical masterpieces are sorely lacking.

Overall I would recommend Wraith to any fan of John Carmack or anyone who is interested in a great classic RPG/Action game.

Tony W. - # 2003-04-20 22:42:14

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