You are an apprentice Shaper, a person a notch above all the others. You have the ability to create
creatures who will live, fight, and even die for you. As your final test before becoming a true shaper,
you are sent to the unsuccessful Shaper settlement of Drypeak with an Agent called Shanti to check on it’s
progress. The town in question was made in a desert where shapers tried to make plants and creatures that
could survive and thrive, but failed miserably. As you get there, it becomes apparent that all is not well.
Rouge creations are running wild, people are acting strangely and, before you finish the unregistered
version, Shanti disappears.
The best thing about the plot is that it is extremely flexible. You can fight against the rouges,
or fight for them. You can help revive Drypeak, or crush it under your feet. The choice is all yours.
This has been toned down quite a bit. It has been a long while since I’ve seen a game where the characers move from one square to another.
Gameplay: 7/10
At the beginning, you get a choice of being a Shaper, the class that gives the three their collective name,
who specialize in creating an army of disposable creatures but are physically weak, a Guardian, who are the
best physically armed but terrible at magic, or an Agent, good at magic but the worst at making creatures.
You get the skill groups Combat, Magic, Shaping(creating creatures), and general ,including Leadership
(Diplomacy), Mechanical, and Luck, not forgetting the four general skills, Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity,
and Endurance. Instead of being real-time, the combat is turn-based, giving you time to think.
The conversations are quite open as long as your leadership is reasonable. There are twelve different
creatures you can summon, from the acid-gobbing worm-like Artilia to the great, hulking, humanoid Battle
Alpha, and even better ones I don’t know about yet. And, like I said before, the game is very flexible in
the endings.
Something I think you should know about, is that you can only download this game as far as I know.
I got the unregistered from www.downloads.com for free in about two, three hours, but it cost “$20” to
register and get a code to unlock about 4/5 of the game. I don’t know what kind of dollars they are either.
Total Score: 6/10
(taking into account how long it takes to download and how much to register, but a good game non-the-less)
