Keep of the Mad Wizard is a single-player text-based RPG of the dungeon crawl variety, with randomized elements. It comes in a gamebook-like format, and can be played online or offline.
The game is meant to be replayable. It's a coffeebreak game that can be completed in about 10 minutes once you are familiar with it. But each time you'll get a different challenge, so pay attention to your resources! (See the built-in help for how to play.)
Well... It is not my poison, as I am much more inclined to story telling than procedural games, but here goes my impressions.
It is quite good in terms of visual layou and font choice and color scheme. Simple, but very efficient.
The game itself is about wandering corridors and facing possible dangers, in the classic hack and slash fashion. The trick here is that rooms and pasages are random, so there is not way of telling what comes next. It also means the character has no options about navigating the space. It is more a game of wits (by reading the author's clues), guessing (by taking the right choice) and Luck (by dice rolling).
The game does not explains much of the system itself, but there is a link for the Balance system, what I found extremely too complex for real needs in general Iteractive Fiction, but what the author needed for this type of game. The good part is the computer does all the hard job. However, the game does not explains much of what really matters to the player or, for example, what each spell does.
There is a clever system of counting how many passages you had in order to determine if you explored the whole dungeon and got to the end of the game. A very good idea to solve the ramdominess nature of the whole thing.
So, for those who enjoys absolute lack of story, lack of character, ramdom events and a solid system going on loop, this is a very good and well rounded game. And I know there is a huge market for games like this, as looking through forums there is a lot of poeple trying to create games running by random events and looping systems or yet mimicking simulations.
As long it is your type of poison, the game is pretty good.
The layout and game design are outstanding. It's fun to interact with, and it feels like you're reading a medieval manuscript gamebook. The randomness is okay, but the encounters are well written. A great diversion!
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