Clie Planet UK Reviews Aldon's Crossing
Aldon's Crossing 1.0.5 by Constant Games
Review by David Eaton
When I started evaluating this game I had just finished evaluating and reviewing Dragonfire, another RPG for the Palm OS.
It was a really great game with wonderful graphics (read it here) but was lacking somewhat in some of the areas of game play.
What Dragonfire lacked, however, Aldon's Gate excelled in.
While it is a lo-res game (160x160), and does not take advantage of Hi-Res+ screens, it more than makes up for that with game features that won't stop. It's no big surprise that this game was just recognized by PDArcade as their 2002 RPG Game of the Year.
It all begins with you creating your own character. You are allowed to choose your own sex (and portrait), between 3 different races, and customize 6 different attributes.
You can then decide between 4 different characters: Mage, Thief, Fighter, or Priest. If those weren't enough options, don't worry - you can always switch characters mid-game.
But wait: there's more! (Sorry if that sounds like a Ginzu Knife commercial from the past....) Once the game has begun you can acquire a pet or hire a companion to help you.
As typical with this genre of game, there are an abundance of weapons, armor, potions, and special items to be found and used in an effort to fight the numerous monsters, beasts, and bad guys throughout the enormous map area.
I am not going to spend a lot of time discussing all these options and their advantages or disadvantages - there is a wonderfully detailed game guide that accompanies this game which will cover all this along with walkthroughs of the major quests.
"But wait: there's more! If you call the 800 number on your screen right now..." (Sorry - I couldn't help myself....) If you register the game you have the option of playing not only the game that was written by the developer but also one of the other modules available on their web page. (The PC based module creator & templates are also available for download and I can't wait to try my hand at it.)
Some of these are "trainers" or "cheats" used to gain experience, gold, or a companion prior to starting the full game. (Yes, you can import your character, your belongings, and your companion into a new game...) One of these add-on modules is included with the trial version and is the only one you can use prior to registration.
The only drawback to this game that I found was the fact that each saved game and all the files for the game have to stay in your internal RAM. This is a small price to pay, however, considering the hundreds of hours of game play available - all stored in less than 1Mb.
If I had any suggestions for the developer it would be to improve the graphics some. If this game had the graphics of Dragonfire, for example, it would rank way up on my list of great RPGs regardless of the platform: Palm OS or PC.
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