Chaos Strikes Back
Chaos Strikes Back was the sequel to Dungeon Master, the first 3D real-time action computer role-playing game. Chaos Strikes Back was released in 1989 and is also available on several platforms (including Atari ST, Amiga, X68000, PC-98 and FM Towns, but not PC). It uses the same engine as Dungeon Master, with new graphics and creatures.
Whereas the first game saw the player following a fairly linear path through the adventure, Chaos Strikes Back features a choice of paths and a far more convoluted set of puzzles. It is pitched at a much higher difficulty level than its predecessor. The player can choose from a selection of moderately high-level characters or can import characters from a Dungeon Master saved game. In an indication of the game's uncompromising toughness, the player's very first task is to get out of a sealed room filled with ferocious man-eating purple worms. The game is made a little easier by the inclusion of a separate program which dispenses cryptic hints based on the player's current saved game.
The player's task is to collect four pieces of corbum, a magical material from which the eponymous Lord Chaos draws his power. This requires the traversing of four separate paths each leading to a piece of corbamite and each themed around one of the disciplines open to characters in the game. These disciplines are fighter, wizard, priest and ninja (as with many role-playing computer games of this period, a great though unacknowledged debt was owed to Dungeons and Dragons, of which Chaos Strikes Back has plenty of both).
See also