Shannara

Moby ID: 3208

Description official descriptions

The game is based on the Shannara fantasy novels by Terry Brooks.

The protagonist of the game is Jak Ohmsford, whose father, Shea, is a legendary hero who once defeated the evil warlock Brona. The druid Allanon tells Jak that Brona has returned, and the only way to defeat him - beside wielding the legendary sword of Shannara - is to travel to the lands of different races populating the world, and convince them to put their differences aside and join forces to defeat Brona. On his long journey, Jak will meet many characters from different races, and embrace his heroic destiny by making the toughest decisions of his life.

Shannara is an adventure game with the same interface as Death Gate, derived from earlier interactive fiction games by Legend Entertainment. The game is viewed from first-person perspective, and the navigation (beside traveling on the world map) is done by "jumping" from screen to screen, rather than by physically moving the protagonist. The game has inventory-based puzzles and extended conversation trees with many dialogue options.

The game has some elements taken from RPGs, such as top-down world-map traveling and occasional turn-based battles. However, there is no real role-playing system in the game (statistics, experience points, levels, etc.). The battles serve to emphasize the danger of traveling the wilderness, or appear as story-related events; sometimes, they are treated like puzzles, with specific actions leading to victory.

Although the main playable character is Jak Ohmsford, other characters travel with the hero, forming a "party". These characters have their own inventory and abilities, which must be used sometimes to solve the game's puzzles.

Spellings

  • 沙拉那之剑 - Chinese spelling (Simplified)

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Credits (DOS version)

97 People (96 developers, 1 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 74% (based on 16 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 33 ratings with 1 reviews)

A game of two halves

The Good
Legend designed some excellent adventures. Unlike LucasArts and Sierra games, they were all (I think) written in the first person - so you don't see the character you are playing. Shannara, like the others, is a story well-told, with sound and graphics played from a CDROM. Its easier and more accessible than many adventure games, and a good introduction to the genre.

The Bad
The adventure-game component of this game, which makes up most of the game-play, can't be faulted. Unfortunately it is punctuated by top-down map travelling, which is badly implemented, and combat sequences that are even worse. The rest of the game is so good, that these bits are an unwelcome distraction. They prove that trying to mix genres in the same game is a risky design strategy (like mixing musical genres - folk-rock anyone?)

The Bottom Line
Not Legend's best, but then they did set very high standards. Despite its flaws, therefore, its still worth trying to get hold of.

DOS · by Claire White (2) · 2004

Discussion

Subject By Date
The Sword of Shannara book sabreman (4) Aug 20, 2007

Trivia

The cover art for the box of Shannara was done by the famous fantasy artist, Boris Vallejo.

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  • MobyGames ID: 3208
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Istari.

Additional contributors: Roger Wilco, Jeanne, CaesarZX.

Game added February 7, 2001. Last modified February 20, 2024.