Slayer: review by Larry J. Brackney

Well, after sitting down and leading my fighter, Ash, through my dungeon of choice: Evil_Dead w/ traps and heavy monsters. I can say I DEFINITELY like Slayer. Once I picked up the Scrying Crystal, I was home free! :) Some of the other monsters I faced were quite neat. The blood worms, Hags, and Ettins were all pretty cool w/ terrific sound effects to accompany them. (You KNOW when there are Ettins or Hags around! :) )

A couple observations:

• You CAN slow the pad response down for finer control of the character! Simply hold down the left shift key while moving the pad, and minor allignment adjustments are a snap. I don't think this was documented, but it DOES make a noticeable improvement in control during combat. Left shift + C pops up the big map. (That IS documented.)
• Looking up and down seems to make a difference in combat. I found that I hit smaller enemies (cockatrice and slimes) much more often when I was looking down at them. Likewise, I hit ceiling-based foes most easily when looking up. (Not to mention the REALLY tall balrog/demon I had to fight at the end.) I've not found any use for crawling yet, but I hope to find some small doorways some time. :)
• I suspect that the end game is different depending on the level of your character. The demon I faced was NOT the same one as in the opening animation. This fellow was HUGE and wielded a scimitar as his weapon of choice - only occasionally tossing a fireball. Since he was so tall, I was able to hide in a small arched corridor to heal and prep for the next skirmish. I doubt I could have survived w/out that advantage. I'll expect that when I play again w/ my (now 9th level) character, things will be quite a bit rougher with respect to the regular monsters and the final enemy too.
• PLAY WITH TRAPS! Some of the traps are really clever. I won't say anymore, since its fun to be surprised by them. Fortunately, there are usually ways around them. They add a lot of spice to the game though.

- larry

michel.buffa@cmu.edu