Next up is Benhem (OK, technically I can’t find a name for it and Benhem is the author, so “Benhem” it is!). Time to fire up the ol’ PuTTY for this one.
I am digging it already.
Benhem is not what I would call a complete game. But it does so a lot of potential. I really enjoy the old-school “gold box” design. The fact that it is played from a terminal is (in my book) a plus. Games that you can take with you anywhere? Just great.
The fact that so much is shown on the screen without any noticeable lag is impressive as well. I am used to playing nethack on alt.org and other servers and there are times when you can definitely tell you are not playing a local game.
I didn’t find any items. But I found lots of doors. And plenty of monsters.
I love the turn-based grid combat. You might say that sort of thing is my bag.
However, it seemed unfair that the monsters could attack me diagonally and I couldn’t attack them. Some terrain would be nice as well, so I could wedge my cleric in the corner while my fighter tanks. The author mentioned he is working on adding abilities and such things. I could easily see there being some fun tactical battles here. Again, no lag, which is nice!
The ASCII art is nicely done as well. It was immediately clear to me which of my dudes was the fighter, thief, cleric, and mage. (The fact that this is so easily done using so little information says something about the artist but also a lot more about our established canon of fantasy game imagery.)
So, not a complete game, but certainly an awesome tech demo. There is lots of promise here. Hopefully the author keeps it up.
You can find a list of all 7DR L2011 finishers on roguebasin or temple of the roguelike.
