Dragon Wars, the 1989 CRPG from the makers of The Bard’s Tale series and Wasteland, has been rereleased on Steam, letting players return to the land of Dilmun and its turmoil surrounding magic made illegal.
Dilmun was supposed to be a paradise, but King Drake of Phoebus has declared all magic to be illegal, having spellcasters executed or forcing them to run away. The player has the unfortunate luck of being suspected of spellcasting when they pull into Dilmun’s harbor, finding themselves imprisoned in a place called Purgatory. There, players will need to use magic, wits, and the help of their varied party members to survive and eventually escape.
Players will tangle with sixty monsters over the course of the game, as well as plenty of human guards and other people who mean to do them harm. They can fight back with the game’s sixty-five magic spells, tweaking aspects of each spell to play around with ranges, strength, and other aspects in order to win in combat.
Not that fighting is all players will be doing as they explore. They will also be able to follow along in a booklet that offers more in-depth explanations for each area, using that information to make decisions as they progress through the game’s world. Dragon Wars offers some strange situations for players to think their way out of, and some odd ways in which the player’s calls can make things much worse, offering a variety of important choices when not in battle.
The rerelease offers no new content or changes to the game, but rather offers Dragon Wars just as it was almost thirty years ago.
