Daily Reviews Team, 2003-02-23 01:10:10

Angband is an ASCII graphic based dungeon crawl with a Tolkien inspired theme. While it won’t win any awards in the graphic and sound department, it is a surprisingly complex and complete game that has the potential to hold many people’s attention for hours on end.

Angband features a 5000 level labyrinth that you must explore with the ultimate goal of destroying a demon at the bottom. There is no plot as the game instead focuses instead on character development. It is a single player romp through a dungeon infested with an elaborate cast of fiendish monsters looking to do your adventurer persona in. You can try to save your game, but even if you do, once you die, if you go to reload your game you only have the option to start over using your same character’s data. Angband is tough to tackle and is built from the ground up to be the ultimate challenge.

The graphics are purely ASCII based but can be changed to a tile-set to make it a bit more appealing to the eyes if you wish. The sound is also sub-standard. The reason you play this game for hours on end is to see how long you can survive in the dungeon, only to make it to the 2453rd level and die, having to start over again from the beginning and see how far you can get next time, trying to improve your score and technique. It is a great workout for your mind if you enjoy playing online MMORPGs. Play until you bring down the demon boss on level 5000 and you will become a PvP force to be reckoned with.

This game is not for those who need the latest graphics and dynamic sound to entertain. If good old fashion game play suits you just the same as all the bells and whistles in today’s games, then give Angband a try today.