harmless resident of a Florida trailer park, Jack Mower is minding his
own business when he is caught in a magical vortex. Moments later he is
hurtling through the skies of a strange world and falling from a great height
with no parachute. It is only by luck that he is rescued by a
passing blimp; even better, his television comes through the vortex, too,
and he is able to trade it for a ticket down to terra firma.
This is the setup for a long, varied round of dungeon bashing in the
land of Nox, a world under siege by monsters controlled by the
sorceress Hecubah. Players begin by choosing a path for Jack, who can fight
villainy as either a warrior, wizard or conjurer (a wizard who
specializes in summoning and charming creatures). Once a character class
is selected and Jack's look customized to taste, players take the bemused Floridian
into the first of many dungeons, which functions both as tutorial and
as the beginning of the story. The three classes each have a unique storyline,
all of which end in a confrontation with Hecubah, the only person who can
send Jack home.
Viewed from above, Jack is surrounded by whatever dungeon, forest or
village he happens to be in...at least as far as line of sight allows.
Great swaths of black also fill the screen, hiding whatever is directly
behind Jack, concealing what lies behind walls and unexplored corners.
Quickly turning Jack around can generate an effect like a radar
display--a small cone of visibility, rotating as Jack's point of view
spins. His figure is relatively tiny, perhaps 1/10th as high as the
screen, with life and mana bars tucked into the lower right-hand corner, and
weapon information on the left. Between these all-important gauges is a list
of skills or spells assigned to keyboard hot keys.
Monsters, magic, mayhem
People who like their games heavy on combat and low on character
development will love Nox, which offers one dungeon after another and
an endless variety of creatures, enemies, weaponry and spells. The game's big innovations are the true sight system, described above, and the
conjurer class character, which takes Jack off the usual mage-or-warrior
treadmill. It can be enormous fun to charm a spider and then hang back while
it does the dirty work--fighting and dying on Jack's behalf.
Fast-paced, humorous in tone and with two CDs packed with action,
Nox delivers plenty of fun. Its primary weakness is in the narrowness
of its scope--though the content is entertaining, some might
wish Nox offered more player classes and customization options. Part
of the appeal of old-fashioned role-playing games like Champions is
the ability to spend hard-earned experience, endlessly tinkering with
beloved characters. This is a feature that has been successfully imported
into other games, and its lack here is noticeable and disappointing. What's
more, Nox is yet another game that doesn't let players create a
female hero. With Jack's trailer-park background, the potential inherent in
this missing "Jane" option is glaring--a mage with a beehive hairdo could
be delightful.
Nox's graphics are vintage Westwood: small but appealingly
dense, generally pleasing to the eye with a rainforest sensibility and color palette. There are a few exceptions, moments when the
game can actively cause discomfort. Those prone to eyestrain may
have trouble getting past the first dungeon, which, with its falling rocks
and incipient cave-ins, flashes and shakes to create a
head-splitting effect. Additionally, the mouse-controlled character movement
can be fatiguing after even a relatively short period of play.
These are small quibbles, however. On every other front, Nox is
an outstanding game.
